“Absolutely, sir,” the perky woman assured me. “Just give us a call when you’re in your room and ready and we’ll send up the drinks.”
Feeling a renewed sense of excitement about the evening, I shot off a quick text to Gracie.Room 927. Whenever you’re able to get away.
She had responded by the time the elevator reached my floor.Andy has a conference call in twenty minutes. I’ll be up in a few.
“Take that, fuck-face,” I muttered to myself, then looked up as a scandalized woman with a toddler passed me, glaring.
“I’m so sorry,” I called after her, but it was hard to feel much remorse when I knew I was finally going to get to spend some real time with Gracie.
I let myself into my room. It had taken some finagling to get the travel department to let me have it. I was sure it was nothing like the suite Andy had reserved—and the girls had apparently commandeered—but it had a separate bedroom and living space—and enough room for us to have a full meal. I was pleased tofind the hotel had set things up exactly as I asked. Now I just had to make sure I didn’t mess anything up while I waited.
Her knock came sooner than I’d expected, and I rushed to the door. As soon as I opened it, she kind of collapsed into my arms and a swelling of something like relief rose up in me. It struck me, then, how very much I wanted her to be as affected by this relationship as I was. I was falling head-over-heels for this woman, and I wanted her to feel the same way, wanted it so bad it felt like a constant ache in my chest.
“I missed you,” she whispered against my shirt, and I tightened my arms, lifting her up a little so I could back into the suite, bringing her with me. I let the door slam shut and then my lips were on hers, hot and insistent and very impatient.
“Missed you too,” I mumbled against her mouth. “So much.”
When her hands slipped to my lower back, edging up against my belt—God, she was close to my ass and I wanted her hands on me—I made myself pull away. If I didn’t get a handle on myself, I was going to have her naked and under me within minutes. And there were things I needed to take care of first.
“Come on,” I said, tugging on her hand and pulling her away from the entryway and into the living area. She stopped short, staring around. “What is this?”
I rubbed my hand over my neck, feeling suddenly nervous. What if she thought it was too much?
“I, uh, wanted to plan something special for you.”
She finally stepped forward into the room itself, gazing around with wide eyes and a slightly parted mouth. “Liam. This is…” she trailed off, shaking her head.
“Overkill?” I offered.
She spun around to face me, eyes flashing. “What? No! Of course not.” She shook her head again. “I was going to say…amazing. This is beautiful and amazing and I can’t believe you did this for me.”
Everything in me relaxed. “I wish we could have done real candles, but the hotel insisted on these LED things.” I gestured at the fake candles covering just about every hard surface in the room, casting the space with soft yellow light. “Apparently real candles are like a fire hazard or something?”
She grinned. “An open flame is a fire hazard. Who would have guessed?”
I grinned. “Right? Anyhow. We had to settle for these. But they’re pretty cool, I guess. I mean, at least there’s no wax to worry about.” I was kind of babbling but it didn’t matter because the next thing I knew Gracie had launched herself back into my arms.
“This is beautiful,” she breathed against my shoulder. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do anything. Just being with you would have been enough.”
I pulled back enough to be able to look down at her face. The prettiest face I’d ever seen. “I’ve been wanting to take you out on a real date for weeks, Gracie,” I told her. Hell, I’d been wanting to take her out on a date for more than a decade. But I hurried to continue when guilt flashed over her face. “And I understand why you’re skittish about that. I really do. I just thought that since we have this night together and this room all to ourselves, maybe I could show you what a date with me would be like.”
“Well, starting a date with dozens of candles is pretty impressive.”
I traced her full bottom lip with my thumb, loving the way it curved up when she smiled. “This is only the beginning, sweetheart.”
“There’s more?”
I grinned. “So much more.”
As if on cue, there was another knock on the door. Gracie went stiff in my arms, probably worried that her brotherhad somehow followed her. “Relax,” I told her, releasing her reluctantly so I could let the server in.
The man pushed a shiny metal bar cart into the room. “Where would you like your drinks prepared, sir?”
“Balcony,” I said, waiting until he was outside before taking Grace’s hand.
“So, here’s the thing. When you told me you were coming to New York, I started thinking about all of the things I would want to do with you in the city if I had the chance.” I grinned. “My list got a little long, so we’re definitely going to need to come back someday. But for now, I narrowed it down to some favorites.”
“Liam—”
