“Who knew?”
“Everyone in England?”
“You’re hilarious. Have you thought about taking your act on tour?”
He made me laugh aloud. Only a very few people could make me laugh like that. “You’ve guessed my secret. I’m a closet stand-up comedian.”
“Come on, crazy. Let’s get you back to the city.”
I opened the front door and went to grab my suitcase, but Ethan beat me to it. He took his bag and my case out to the car.
As Rory pulled out and I clicked on my seatbelt, I turned to him. “Thank you for a lovely weekend.”
He looked at me, as if he was trying to uncover more meaning behind what I was saying. “Thank you. You’re great to hang out with.” He pulled my legs to his lap and stroked up and down as he watched me, watching him.
“Are we going to go out tonight?” I asked him.
He shook his head. I grinned. I guessed he’d want to make the most of the time we had left by keeping me naked.
“Are you going to be busy this week at work?” I asked. We never talked about his work. I liked that about him. So many of the people I hung out with in London spent their free time talking about their jobs. I didn’t really ever notice it until I spent time with Ethan. We had everything else to talk about.
“I’ll make sure I’m busy. I’ll need a distraction with you gone.”
I knew how he felt. I was pleased that I was leaving the city, where reminders of him would be all around me. It would make it easier.
I squeezed his hand.
“Hey, sleepyhead.”I felt Ethan brushing my cheek and my eyes opened. How long had I slept? I had my head on his lap. I didn’t remember dozing off.
“Hey, are we back?”
“Almost,” he said. I looked out the window but didn’t recognize where we were. We turned and went into an underground parking lot. Rory pulled up and I heard the trunk pop. “We’re home. Come on.”
I clambered out of the car, still a bit dazed from my nap.Why hadn’t he dropped us at the entrance? I said goodbye to Rory and caught up with Ethan, who was holding the door open for me. Through the door was a small elevator lobby.
“I’m sleepy,” I said.
“You can sleep when we get upstairs, beautiful.”
“No, I need to wake up. I want to enjoy our last night together.”
We stepped into the elevator when it arrived. It didn’t feel as if we’d gone many floors up when the doors opened and Ethan gestured for me to step out. This didn’t feel like the hotel.
“Where are we?”
“Home,” he said setting our bags down in the entrance lobby.
“Home?”
He nodded. “Come on, I’ll show you around.”
“Yourhome?”
“Come on.” He took my hand in his as he opened the door into a huge white living space with dark wood floors. Two walls were just complete glass and you could hardly tell what belonged inside and what belonged outside.
“This is where you live?” I asked. Mandy had told me that he didn’t bring women back to his place. Maybe he’d rented it.
“Yes, crazyhead. I don’t live in the hotel.”
