She kicked her shoes off like she always did. He didn’t know why she wore heels if she couldn’t wait to get them off and curl and stretch her toes.
Unless they made her feel powerful. His mother was one to always say appearance equated to power. His father the same.
Him? Give him comfortable worn jeans, socks and a soft cotton T-shirt and he was in heaven.
“You cleaned,” she said. “Or housekeeping came back later.”
“I did it,” he said. “They’d been here before you earlier. Though I get it, it didn’t appear that way.”
Normally he would have let it all go until the next day, but it wasn’t that big of a deal to put his empty bottles on the sink and wrappers in the trash. Everything else was piled on the table, his shoes tossed in one corner, his dirty clothes sent down to be laundered.
“Did you want to go out to eat?”
“I’d rather stay in,” he said. “Unless you don’t want to. We both need to come down from our day. Did you get your answers?”
She sighed and moved to his couch. “No. Grace is going to check her schedule and question people. Hunter will send out a memo that will scare staff. We may never know who did it, but it will frighten anyone from doing it in the future.”
“Whatever,” he said. “I’ve got no complaints about my stay here. Sorry I somehow got involved in this.”
“We’ll put it from our minds.”
“Good. Because my mind is on seducing you.”
She laughed. “I don’t need to be seduced.”
“I think you do,” he said, his voice lower, his hands going for her bare foot. She gave it over easily. He hoped it was because she craved his touch rather than relief from pointy shoes. “I think though we’ve seen each other naked twice you’re stillreserved enough that you don’t want to remove your clothing here. Even though you’re off the clock.”
A soft moan escaped her lips as his thumb dug into the arch of her foot.
Her eyes were closed, her body letting him control it.
“I’m not sure how I feel about that.”
“I know how I feel,” he said. He was bending her toes forward and back, her sigh fueling his body to give her something far more indulgent than a foot rub.
He switched feet and went to work on the other one. “Are you still frustrated from earlier?” she asked.
“Not enough to need a foot massage. You can massage another part of me.”
She opened her eyes, a smile filled her face. “Are you one of those people who can get agitated in the moment and then snap your fingers and it’s gone?”
“Depends what is working me up,” he said. He had no timelines. No reporting to others. No investors breathing down his neck.
Not anymore.
What he worked on was for his enjoyment. His pleasure.
It had to be that way now.
He couldn’t fall into his old habits.
The fact he’d slipped and commented on making himself sick before, the concern and questioning in her eyes, told him he had to be more aware.
That was his past. His future was sitting on the couch and letting him show her how much he needed her in his life.
He only could hope she felt the same way about him.
“I can turn it off,” she said. “If I let every conversation or interaction with people work me up or linger I’d have multiple holes bleeding in my stomach.”
