“I don’t see what’s so funny. Your behavior wasn’t much better. In fact, you started it.”
“You are absolutely right, but there is no way on earth I’m going to apologize for kissing you. In fact, I have every intention of kissing you again, all night, if you’ll let me.”
“But—”
“Meg, I don’t think badly of you at all. You will simply have to trust me when I say that in my line of work, I’ve met plenty of easy women and you could not be more different from them. That’s one of the reasons I’m attracted to you beyond all reason.”
“You are?” Meg was exceedingly pleased with his comment. “I mean, I’m attracted to you too. Very much so.”
“Stay with me this weekend.”
“What?”
“It’s a weekend for romance. We’ve established we both desire each other. Why not give ourselves the weekend off from our responsibilities and explore it a bit? Take a break from our real lives, our real personalities.”
“Be who we want to be?” she asked. “Break out of our normal mold?”
“Exactly. Just be ourselves without worrying about the outside world or other people’s expectations of us.”
Rob’s proposal appealed to her more than she cared to admit. She’d spent a lifetime caring for others and the idea of taking a weekend for herself, giving herself the chance to do anything she wanted without fear of recrimination was tempting.
“I really want to sleep with you.”
“Thank God.” Rob pulled her into another deep, passionate kiss.
A knock at the door soon interrupted them.
“That’ll be dinner,” he said. “Why don’t you grab a quick shower while I set it up?”
“Okay.” Her clothes felt as if they were stuck to her and she couldn’t wait to feel clean again. “I’m looking forward to getting out of these clothes.”
“Tease.” He pulled her against him, letting her feel his hard cock against her stomach.
She laughed and pushed him away. “Food—now. I’m starving. I won’t be a minute. Promise.”
Four
Twenty minutes later, Meg walked into the living room area of the suite, feeling like a new woman. The steaming hot shower had relaxed every stiff, cold muscle in her body. Rob’s clothing hung loose on her hourglass frame and made her feel tiny for once in her life. Although she wasn’t what anyone would call fat, she wasn’t pencil-thin either. Grandma used to tell her she was a healthy girl with meat on her bones and she should thank the Lord she wasn’t one of those emaciated-looking women that television seemed to consider beautiful. Meg had long ago gotten used to the fact that she was never going to wear single-digit sized clothing.
“Well, don’t you look cute.”
“Ugh,” Meg groaned. “Cute is for puppies and babies.”
Rob ruffled his hand through her freshly combed curls. “Sorry, Meg, but you look very cute right now.”
She smacked his hand away. “Stop messing up my hair. The only time I can get a comb through these damn curls is when they’re wet.”
“I love your curls.” He wrapped one around his finger as if to prove it. “Part of what makes you so cute.”
“Oh, you’re a regular comedian.”
Grinning, Rob gestured toward the table by the big windows. Outside the rain was still falling, although it seemed to be weakening in intensity. Of course, that was probably just wishful thinking on her part.
“Still hungry?”
“Ravenous.” She looked at the huge array of food. “My God, you’ve ordered enough for an army.”
“I figured you’d need a little help keeping those sweatpants up. Tiny as you are.”
“Ha ha. If I eat all this, I’ll never fit into the new clothes in my suitcase I starved myself for months to buy.”
“I hope you’re joking about that. You’re perfect the way you are.”
Meg dismissed his compliment with a wave of her hand. “Oh right, I’m a veritable goddess. Actually, I think I missed my time. Clearly this figure was meant for the Renaissance, not the twenty-first century. What is that?” She gestured to a small bowl on the table.
“Beluga caviar.”
Meg wrinkled her nose. “Fish eggs?”
“Have you ever tried it?”
“No, they don’t usually serve that in the school cafeteria.”
“Well, you shouldn’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” Rob said. “It really is exquisite.”
“I don’t suppose you’d let me take your word for it?”
“Absolutely not.” Picking up a cracker, he placed a healthy sized dollop on top. “This is my favorite treat. Here.” He presented the cracker to her. Meg started to reach for it, but he shook his head, placing it at her lips, determined to feed it to her. “Open up.”
Meg opened her mouth, accepting the cracker. Chewing slowly, she decided the taste wasn’t as bad as she might have expected.
“Well?”
“It’s pretty good,” she admitted, “although I don’t think it’s going to knock barbeque potato chips off the list as my favorite snack.”
“At a hundred and fifty dollars an ounce, you’re probably wise to stick with the chips.”