“Strike that,” said Alex. “You don’t need taming. You just need sweetness.”
He’d discovered my secrets. In spite of his city coat and his city shoes, and the silver spoon he’d obliviously been born with, he’d figured out that I could be HAD, body and soul, with a few kisses and kind touches. And, like an alleycat that knows it can trust, I fell asleep so hard, I didn’t remember that I nuzzled into his neck and fell asleep instantly.
CHAPTER 6
If the night before had been a dream, the morning came like a magic show.
Alex was gone from the bed. He’d opened the window to let in the fresh air and sunshine that now glinted on the white drifts of snow.
I was distracted from this by the fact that he marched into the bedroom fully dressed and smelling oh-so-good. He carried a tray that he placed on the nightstand, shoving the clock and odd glass figurine aside.
“Sit up,” he said, helping me arrange all the pillows behind me.
When I was ready, he handed me a mug of coffee, freshly brewed, sweet with sugar, white with half-and-half. Another way to my heart: coffee in bed. I guess I’d not realized it until that moment.
It was even better when Alex took the other mug and sat on the edge of the bed, watching me over the rim of that mug, his eyes dancing and pleased.
Maybe he was happy I was naked and he was not. Or maybe he was glad that the sun had come out, because that surelymeant the roads would be cleared in time for us to drive the rest of the way to Steamboat before they iced up again and it got dark.
“There’s breakfast in the restaurant,” he said. “I called. Used your phone. They said it’s like a buffet. It goes on till 9:30.”
One thing I didn’t like was keeping to someone else’s timetable, but it was obvious to me that Alex was an early morning riser kind of guy. And for that smile, and the smoothness of his face from where he shaved, the waft of amazing cologne, and the way he looked at me, I guessed I could get up and go with him.
“And it stopped snowing,” I said helpfully. Mr. Helpful, that’s me. “Any report on the roads?”
“Again, I used your phone,” he said, but I shrugged and drank some more coffee. I had secrets, but they weren’t on that phone. “CDOT report says we can head out around three or so.”
“Sounds good,” I said, though it really didn’t. I would rather stay with Alex in this little cabin on a mountain hillside than head into Steamboat, with all its Christmas hustle and bustle. Maybe my face said that, because he patted my knee beneath the blanket.
“It’ll be fine, promise,” he said.
He didn’t say anything about the fact that he wouldn’t sleep with me again, but I kind of saw it in his face. I was a rebound guy, worth sleeping with one night at best.
He was soon going to be with his family on Christmas Eve, and meanwhile, I’d be in the hot tub for my one scheduled hour, drinking a G&T while the stars shone brightly in the icy cold sky overhead. Would I even be able to see stars amidst the bright lights of Steamboat?
We lingered a good long while until we’d drunk our coffee and my stomach had decided it needed to be fed. Alex laughed as my stomach growled, and he patted my stomach much the way he’d patted my leg. Good natured and not flirting.
“Get dressed,” he said. “Let’s go eat.”
I got dressed in my black t-shirt, and ripped black jeans, tying up the laces on my Doc Martens with quick fingers. As I pulled on my blue fleece jacket, I could see that Alex was struggling with his crumpled woolen socks and his thin city shoes that had dried into stiff husks. There was nothing for it, so he put those on, and dragged on his thin coat and together we stepped into the icy cold air of morning and made our way back to the main lodge.
There, we found a clump of people standing in the doorway waiting to get in who’d all done the same as we had. Lingered until the last minute. It was quarter to nine, and I worried that we wouldn’t get a place and that we wouldn’t have enough time to eat a decent meal.
But I worried for no reason. Somehow, a lady, Barb, a manager, by her nameplate, knew Alex and ushered the two of us past the line and to a cozy table near the coffee urns.
“Thanks, Barb,” he said in a jovial way.
“Give my regards to your dad,” she said. She made sure we had two sets of silverware rolled into napkins and empty white china mugs, ready for coffee. “Help yourself to anything. It’s on the house.”
“No, it’s not on the house, Barb,” he said sternly, but she was already walking away, busy with other customers, not lingering to be scolded by Alex.
“Who the fuck are you?” I asked.
“Just someone who knows the hotel business,” he said, looking away. Then he stood up, distracted by the buffet, and the good smells coming our way amidst the bustle of that little restaurant. “Let’s eat.”
We ate. I can be obedient when I want to, it’s true. Breakfast was hurried, but I got another cup of coffee out of it, and a sticky bun, which left a great deal of caramel lines on my fleece jacket. But that’s what washing machines were for.
After breakfast (Who paid? Wasn’t me.), we trundled back to Cabin 7 to pack, and for Alex to call his family. This time he called each one in turn (were they in their own rooms at some hotel?), and I tried to give him his privacy while he sat on the edge of the bed in the bedroom, while I lingered in the living room. I poked at the ashes in the fireplace, wishing it were last night all over again, and did my best not to listen.
