Chapter 4
Chapter Four
A s Meg entered the bedroom, she could help but wonder what sort of company kept a penthouse like this available for their employees. Apparently she made a wrong turn in college choosing education over a business degree. She had no idea people lived like this. Studying the room, she felt overwhelmed once again by the decadence of it all. The room was elegance personified. The large king sized bed was on a raised platform on one side of the room, complete with an honest-to-God canopy. She’d always wanted a canopy bed as a child, but there was never the money for such frivolous things.
While her small family hadn’t lived in poverty, it may have been stretching things to say they were lower middle class. Her mother, Joanne, had gotten pregnant with her while still in high school. Needless to say, her father, a teenager himself, refused to accept responsibility for her. Although Meg knew his name, she never made any attempt to contact him. He’d gone off to college, married, and now lived happily ever after with his legitimate family.
Meg’s grandfather died two months before she was born, so Meg grew up in a house full of women who had never worked a day in their lives prior to her arrival. Meg’s Grandma Linda was the glue that kept their little family of three together. She got a job as a secretary in an accounting firm right after her husband’s death. When her mother graduated from high school, she went to work for the same firm as Grandma. Together, the two of them scrimped and saved every penny they made so that when Meg graduated she would be able to attend college.
Meg silently wished they were here to see this room. Grandma would have laughed to see her living, even for just one night, like a princess in a palace. Mom would have been trying to guess what every piece of furniture cost. Cancer claimed them both—Grandma during Meg’s first year of college and her mother two weeks after her college graduation and not a day went by when she didn’t miss them dearly.
A soft knock on the door at her back jarred Meg from her recollections.
“Yes,” she called through the panel.
“I found some clothes that may fit,” Rob returned.
Taking a calming breath, Meg opened the door. The longer she spent in Rob’s presence the more she wanted him. She’d never felt such an immediate or overwhelming attraction to a man.
Rob stood in the doorway with his easy-going, friendly grin. “You’re still dressed,” he said. Reaching for the clothing he offered, Meg silently cursed her trembling hand. Why couldn’t she, just once, be suave and sophisticated, instead of acting like such a hick? Lord only knew what Rob must think of her.
“Meg,” he said lightly, obviously mistaking her distress, “I know it doesn’t help to simply hear the words, but you can trust me. I won’t hurt you.”
“Oh no, Rob,” she answered staring at his totally kissable lips before catching herself, “I trust you. Really I do. I-I’m just tired. That’s all.” God, what would he do if she leaned forward and kissed him? Shaking the thought from her head, Meg felt her sensible, boring side taking control again.
The slight grin on his face seemed to indicate Rob suddenly understood what her trembling was about.
“Meg,” he whispered, leaning closer to her.
She knew she should take a step back, but she felt as if her feet were sunk in concrete.
“Yes?” she asked softly.
“I’m going to kiss you,” Rob said his mouth inches from hers. Meg could only assume he paused to give her a chance to refuse him if she wanted.
“Thank God,” she murmured, rising up the last two inches until her lips brushed his. She was stunned by the softness of his kiss. She anticipated a rushed, more frantic kiss, which certainly described how she felt, but Rob clearly had other plans. His lips studied hers as if they had the rest of their lives to figure out how to do it right.
“You know,” he whispered against her cheek, placing soft kisses everywhere he touched. “Part of the festivities tomorrow include a kissing contest.”
Breathlessly, Meg replied, “No need to bother. You win.”
Chuckling lightly, Rob tugged at her earlobe with his teeth before whispering, “Last year, the winning couple kissed for three and a half hours.”
“Mmmm,” Meg hummed, struggling to comprehend his comments.
“Perhaps we could try to beat that time,” Rob continued whispering, his lips following the curve of her neck before placing soft kisses there. “Of course, it would require some practice.”
“Practice,” Meg repeated, aware she must sound like a mindless droid, before running her hands through his soft brown hair, pulling his lips back to hers. He was talking far too much.
He kissed her again, much more deeply this time, his tongue enticing and teasing hers. His arms were holding her so closely she wasn’t sure where she ended and he began. His hands drifted down her back, but the dampness of her clothing seemed to rouse him from their impetuous actions.
Pulling away, he looked down. “You are going to catch a cold if you don’t get out of those wet clothes soon.”
His words caused her face to flush with embarrassment. Despite her desires, she felt her ‘good girl’ upbringing bubbling back to the forefront. Reaching up to hide her blushing cheeks, she whispered, “Oh Rob. What you must think of me?”
Taken aback, he asked, “What?”
“I’m not easy,” she blurted out, her cursed honesty flying out of her mouth before she could hold it back. “I mean, I swear to you, I’ve never gone to a hotel room with a stranger and then started making out with him. Good lord, my mother would kill me. I mean if she were still alive. I’m not that kind of girl.”
For several seconds after her rambling speech, Rob just stared at her and she felt her blushes deepen. No doubt she was blood red by now. Finally, she watched his shoulders begin to shake as he attempted to restrain laughter. When his effort to control his humor failed, he gave into it and his laughs were long and loud.
Angry at being laughed at, Meg narrowed her eyes, “I don’t see what is so funny. Your behavior wasn’t much better. In fact, you were the one who initiated the kiss.”
Appearing contrite for hurting her feelings, Rob quickly added, “You are absolutely right, but Meg, there is no way on earth I will apologize for kissing you. You are far too adorable. In fact, I have every intention of kissing you again, all night if you will let me.”
“But,” she started, but Rob continued, “Meg, I don’t think badly of you at all. You will simply have to trust me when I say in my line of work, I’ve met plenty ‘easy’ women and you could not be more different from them, my dear. I think that is one of the reasons why I’m attracted to you beyond all reason.”
“You are?” Meg asked, exceedingly pleased with his comment. “I mean I’m attracted to you too. Very much so.”
“Meg,” Rob continued, “Stay with me this weekend.”
“What?” she asked.
“It’s a weekend for romance. I think 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,” he answered. “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, her mother and grandmother as they were consumed with cancer, the students in her classroom, even her needy ex-fiancé seemed to want her mothering, which made sense now that she realized some other woman was providing the sex. The idea of taking a weekend for herself, giving herself the chance to do anything she wanted without fear of recrimination was tempting, to say the least.
“Rob,” she said finally, “I really want to sleep with you.”
“Thank God,” Rob murmured, pulling her to him in a deep, passionate kiss.