Chapter 14
HOLDEN
Iwoke before she did, aware of her presence even before I opened my eyes. She wasn’t draped over me anymore, but she was close enough that I could feel the heat of her under the covers and hear the soft sounds of her breathing.
The room was so warm and peaceful that I was almost afraid to even crack open an eye, not wanting to disturb her or shatter the strange sense of morning-after peace. I did it anyway, slowly blinking my eyes open.
Immediately, I was struck by the sight of her in bed with me—and how comfortable I felt about it.
Ever since the divorce, I’d never been one to stick around. I rarely fell asleep straight after, and even on the occasions when I had, I usually left before I was even fully conscious the next morning.
With her though, I didn’t feel that pull to disappear. To take off like it’d never happened. Oddly, I was perfectly content right here, watching her sleep with one arm thrown over her head and her red hair spilling across the pillow.
Behind her, early morning light crept across the room, the soft rays creating a hazy glow that almost made it feel like I was dreaming.
Last night had not gone the way I’d planned, which contributed to the sensation that my brain had cooked up everything that had happened.
The showdown with Shannon, the dancing, and most of all, the intense chemistry I’d felt with Ellora.
Yet here she was, her chest rising and falling evenly beneath the crisp white sheet. Her lips were slightly parted, still bee-stung from the ferocity of our kisses, and the sweet scent of her clung to me like my skin had been infused with it.
Looking at her completely soft and vulnerable in her sleep, I found myself wanting to stay in bed with a woman for the first time in a long time. Not only for a few more minutes or hours but for the rest of the day. Potentially even the rest of the weekend.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d wanted to drag out the time we had together to eat breakfast, talk, and just be lazy.
I also wanted a few repeat performances of last night, but for now, I was going to do my best to make the other stuff happen, despite the fact that my cock couldn’t care less about breakfast.
While I would’ve loved to wake her up with an orgasm, she was sleeping so soundly that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. But I would make sure there was food by the time she woke up. I refused to give in to any urge that would involve disrupting this peaceful quiet.
Carefully slipping out of bed, I pulled on my underwear and padded over to the bathroom, using the complimentary toiletries to brush my teeth and wash my face.
I hoped the mundane of the routine would help my dick realize it wasn’t in control, and it worked enough that I left the bathroom to order room service without having to worry about the state I would be in before it arrived.
Opening the hotel app on my phone, I ordered pancakes, omelets, fruit, bacon, croissants, and coffee. I didn’t know what she liked to eat, so I figured I’d get the works. Something in that spread had to appeal to her.
Ellora finally started stirring after I’d brought the room service cart inside.
She blinked awake, bolted into a sitting position with the sheet held to her chest, and looked around with her eyes wide, like she didn’t immediately remember where she was.
When her gaze finally landed on mine, she frowned adorably.
“Did you rob the kitchen?” she asked, her voice still raspy with sleep. She suppressed a yawn, the fact that she was all sleepy and naked not helping my situation at all, but I focused on her face instead of her body. “Seriously, how many people are you expecting for breakfast?”
“I believe in abundance,” I said, pulling on my shirt. “Besides, we worked up an appetite and I didn’t know what you liked.”
She tossed a pillow at me, but it only sailed to the foot of the bed before it dropped. “You’re ridiculous.”
“Hungry ridiculous.” I lifted the silver dome off a plate of pancakes. “Come on, sleepyhead. This is the breakfast of champions right here. I’d say we earned it.”
She groaned but finally slung her legs off the side of the bed.
I saw the moment she fully realized she was still naked, her cheeks flushing slightly as she paused.
After a beat, during which I was proud of not reminding her that I’d seen it all anyway, she hugged the sheet closer to her body and pulled it off the bed with her.
I handed over a hotel robe from the closet and she slipped it on, tying the belt loosely around her waist. Even with her fiery hair mussed and tumbling past her shoulders and last night’s mascara smudged lightly under her eyes, she still stole the air out of the room.
I stared much too hard but blinked myself out of it when she sat down. This wasn’t really the time to freak her out. If she caught me looking at her like that, she might even drop out of the darn course.
Sleeping together was one thing, but looking at her like I wanted to crawl into her and stay there might just be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Especially since I couldn’t explain why I was feeling so many mixed emotions this morning.
Thankfully, she was too busy inspecting the spread to notice my staring. She grabbed a strawberry and pointed it at me. “Do you eat like this every morning?”
I shook my head and lowered myself into the chair across from her. “Most days, my breakfast consists of coffee and a granola bar if I’m lucky enough to have one in my car.”
She laughed, the husky sound filling every hollow place inside that I hadn’t even realized was empty. I was still grappling with that knowledge when she looked up at me, her plate now filled with a bit of everything from the table.
“This might make me sound like I’m not used to much, but a chocolate statue of the bride and groom? Is that normal?”
“Not normal,” I said. “Honestly, that was a first for me too. It’s not about you not being used to too much. I thought I’d seen everything until I saw that.”
She chuckled, dabbing at the corners of her mouth after taking a bite of her syrup-slathered pancake. “Well, it was certainly memorable.”
“As was the fact that the groom cried more than the bride during the speeches.”
“Don’t pretend you didn’t get misty-eyed too,” she teased, cutting into her omelet. “I saw you, tough guy.”
“I had something in my eye.”
“Yeah,” she said with a grin. “It’s called emotion.”
I laughed. “Right. So that’s what it was. No wonder I didn’t recognize it.”
“I thought you might not,” she returned without skipping a beat, humor shimmering in her eyes as she picked up a piece of bacon. “Don’t worry about it, though. It’s perfectly normal to feel that way at weddings.”
I leaned back in my chair with my fingers curled around my coffee, just watching her, though not as intensely as before. She filled the room with that warmth she carried without even trying, and it was like feeling sunshine after being in the shade for too damn long.
Somewhere between jokes and the coffee refills, it hit me that she fit here.
Not just in this hotel room or at my side as my fake date last night, but in my life.
I wasn’t sure what that meant yet, but I did know that I didn’t want the morning to end.
And that I was genuinely interested in finding out more about her.
“So, what’s your store called?” I found myself asking after eating another piece of bacon myself.
She perked up a little, coming alive the way people usually only did when asked about their children. “It’s called Second Story.”
I smiled. “That’s cool. What do you sell? You mentioned the other night that it was vintage, but I don’t think you told me exactly what that entails.”
“A bit of everything. Furniture. Clothing. Some refurbished pieces of jewelry. I like finding things people have thrown out and making it beautiful again.”
“Reclaiming value,” I said. “I like that.”
She nodded and stirred the fresh cup of coffee she’d just made. “It’s not easy, especially lately, but I love it. It’s just that every business has slow months, you know? So I’m always looking for ways to increase revenue. Bring in more foot traffic. Generate more sales. Stuff like that.”
She was completely matter of fact when she said it. Not fishing for pity or making excuses. Just honest. Resilient. Even so, I could hear the weight behind her words.
She was hustling to keep the lights on and she wasn’t asking anyone to rescue her. It was impressive. “That’s really admirable, to be handling all that by yourself.”
A pink flush spread on her cheeks and she averted her gaze, a soft, almost embarrassed giggle sliding out of her. “Yeah, it’s a lot, but I manage okay. Most days. Besides, if I don’t do it, who will?”
The pride in her voice got to me almost as much as how humble she was about it. I’d met a lot of small business owners in my time and many seemed to believe that the world owed them something for all the hard work they put in, but not Ellora.
There was a spark in her that I hadn’t seen in anyone in a long time. She wasn’t driven by greed or ego. She seemed to have built her business simply because she loved it.
I couldn’t stop myself from smiling at her across the table. “You know, I spend most of my days surrounded by people who inherit things. Companies. Money. Names. You might not have the biggest empire, but you’ve got something most of them don’t.”
She arched a brow. “What’s that?”
“Guts,” I said. “You don’t wait around for people to hand you something. You make your own chances. That’s rare.”
And it’s also sexy as hell.
Her eyes widened. Then she laughed, trying to brush it off, but the faint pink climbing up her neck told me I’d gotten to her. She might not be quite as successful as I was, but we were kindred spirits, both hell bent on making our own way in the world.
I was just about to suggest we spend the day together and perhaps get to know each other a little better when her phone buzzed. She reached for it, and the second she saw the screen, her whole body went tense.
Her shoulders stiffened, her eyes narrowing just slightly. Everything about her changed in that one instant.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, setting down my coffee with my hackles already rising. Whoever had wronged her, I would make them pay for it. If she would let me, which I doubted, but at the very least, I needed her to know I had her back. “What can I do?”
She stood, already gathering her clothes and rushing toward the bathroom. “I’m so sorry, but I have to go.”
“Yeah, of course.” I tried to keep my tone casual, but her sudden shift had thrown me for a loop. “I just, uh, I realized I don’t actually know a whole lot about you. Do you have a kid or something?”
That made her pause for half a second. She glanced at me over her shoulder just as she reached the bathroom door. “No, I don’t have a child, but do I have a mother.”
That was all she offered. Before I could ask exactly what it meant, she was dressed and pulling her hair into a quick ponytail. She called herself an Uber, thanked me for breakfast, and pressed a hurried kiss to my cheek that felt way too much like goodbye.
Then she was gone and I stood there in the middle of the hotel room, surrounded by empty plates and the faint trace of her perfume, wondering where the mysterious woman was heading off to and why, after just one night together, it felt like I already missed her.