6. Chapter Six
Chapter Six
Zach
Hand in hand, Zach and Drew almost stumbled to a stop just before the lobby doors to the Hyatt Regency Pittsburgh, both of them laughing as they breathed hard. It hadn’t taken nearly as long to get to the hotel as they’d feared, but they’d still run the whole way all the same.
Zach’s heart stuttered at the joy and adrenaline, wondering just where in the world it had come from. Having their flights canceled and being snowed in at the airport in Pittsburgh ought to have been fairly upsetting, but somehow, nothing seemed very upsetting right now, with Drew by his side.
He glanced down, and the sight of Drew’s hand still holding his made his heart flutter wildly in his chest. Was there something about Drew that just... made Zach’s anxiety fade into the background? God, everything felt so charged and exciting. And how was it late afternoon during a massive snowstorm in Pittsburgh? Everything felt almost dreamlike, like he was Cinde-freaking-rella at the ball and Prince Charming only had eyes for him.
Drew let out one last breathy laugh, his gray-blue eyes twinkling, and then adjusted the strap of his messenger bag with his free hand. “Shall we get a room? ”
Zach’s breath caught, and he watched Drew’s eyes go wide and his cheeks flush madly as he realized what he’d just said. Zach couldn’t breathe enough to respond, but his body had no trouble sending a deep tug of arousal straight to his groin at the implication—unintended as it may have been.
“I-I meant rooms . Get rooms. I... god, just shoot me now,” Drew said, disentangling his hand from Zach’s and then running it down his face as though he could wipe the embarrassment away.
“It’s okay, Drew. I know what you meant,” Zach assured him, though he’d been half-tempted to tease him. “C’mon. I’ll buy you another drink once we get rooms ,” he said, emphasizing the S with a grin and wondering where the hell this seemingly bold and confident Zach had come from.
Drew grinned in response, the blush now fading a bit, and then side by side, they walked through the main doors to the hotel. There were a number of people milling about in the lobby, kind of a hushed chaos that was mostly congregated near the hotel’s restaurant and bar, and Zach was surprised to find he wasn’t at all anxious right now, even with the crowd.
Still in a bit of a dream state, Zach merely followed as Drew stepped up the reception desk just as the previous guest was walking away. Zach’s dreamy haze vanished in an instant when he heard the clerk say they didn’t have anything left for the night.
Damn.
Drew was tapping his fingers anxiously against his wallet and credit card, which he must have taken out and laid on the counter at some point. “Shoot... um...”
“Nothing? Really?” Zach couldn’t help but blurt out.
The clerk, whose name tag read Janice, gave him a sympathetic smile and shook her head. Then she seemed to look between Zach and Drew, appraising them, maybe? Judging them? Zach wasn’t sure, but he was following her eyes when they landed on Drew’s credit card—something black and fancy and corporate-looking.
“Um... there might actually...” Janice started but trailed off as she typed something into her computer, glancing back up at Drew afterwards. “We do have one room left, but it’s...” Her voice lowered to a whisper. “To be honest, I never feel right renting it to anyone because it’s like two grand a night on a slow day—the Presidential Suite—but I noticed... you have a company credit card out, so... if your boss is paying for it...?”
“Two grand a night?” Drew’s voice almost squeaked.
“Ah, yeah. It’s... actually more than that tonight, but I, um, I think...” Her fingers tapped in some mystery pattern on her keyboard. “Yeah, with your corporate discount there, I can knock it down to... eighteen hundred dollars. And throw in free room service for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow—it’s easier to comp food,” she said, adding the last part in a rush.
Shit... $1800. For one night. Zach’s stomach clenched, and he closed his eyes briefly, trying to prepare himself for a night back in the airport, surrounded by thousands of people and noises. It wasn’t the end of the world, losing a night of sleep as he likely would, but... Zach opened his eyes and glanced at his companion. Drew looked over at him, an awkward smile on his face, and that uncomfortable racing of his heart at the thought of being stranded in the airport morphed back into something much, much more pleasant.
“Do you mind that it’s only one room?” Drew asked, his eyes soft.
But before Zach could balk at the cost of it, Janice piped up. “It’s more like an apartment. Huge—plenty of space and couches, one of which pulls out into a bed.”
Drew smiled at her and then looked back at Zach. “Then it’s all good, right? ”
“I, um... I wouldn’t be able to afford half of that,” Zach whispered. “I couldn’t justify that... I-I... Did I mention I work for a nonprofit organization because—”
Drew’s hand on his shoulder interrupted him mid-sentence. “Don’t worry about it,” Drew said softly. “The law firm of Vanderwall, Stockton, and Peters will hardly bat an eye at it—plus, they’d be paying for it whether you’re in the room or not.”
Although Drew seemed to try to smile and shrug it off, Zach could hear more than a touch of cynicism and weariness in Drew’s voice. His hand dropped from Zach’s shoulder, and he turned to give Janice his corporate card.
Zach waited by Drew’s side, his mind reeling a bit as Drew completed the registration process. Just what would a night in the Presidential Suite be like? And what would it be like to share a room with a total stranger? He really had no idea, but as his mind replayed the last few hours they’d spent together, Zach quickly realized that for some reason, Drew didn’t feel at all like a stranger. Any reservations he might have had about sharing a room overnight—especially a room that was apparently gigantic—faded, replaced by an eagerness he’d never really known until today.
A gentle touch on his arm brought Zach out of his thoughts, and he looked over at Drew, who was holding two room keys and what seemed to be two complimentary toiletry bags in one hand. “Ready?” he asked, his eyes sparkling and the smile that Zach was starting to crave growing wide across his face.
Zach could only nod, shifting the strap of his duffle bag carefully. As they made their way to the elevators and then up to the Presidential Suite, Zach couldn’t help but wonder why everything felt so... right. Because it didn’t make any sense at all, this weird sort of connection or attraction or whatever it was with Drew.
All afternoon, Drew had seemed to have some sort of sixth sense about what Zach needed—reassurance, safety, comfort, levity— and it only continued a few minutes later as they entered their room for the evening and howled with laughter at just how ridiculously grandiose the Presidential Suite was. And as they eyed the room-service menu, starving and astonished at their offerings. And as they watched the server set up their ridiculously large selection of food and beverages on the equally ridiculously large dining table for eight.
Even now, as Zach sat, slightly overfilled but insanely satisfied, Drew seemed to know exactly what Zach needed.
“God, I don’t think I need to eat for the rest of the week,” Zach said, his voice slightly strained as he stretched back against the chair and put his hands on his stomach.
“Mint tea!” Drew said, popping up out of his seat with an amount of gusto that didn’t seem right for someone who had packed away just as much food as Zach had.
“Tea?” Zach groaned slightly. “I’m not sure I can fit anything else in my stomach.”
“It’ll be okay. This, you can make room for,” Drew said confidently from behind the counter at the elaborate beverage bar. “Mint tea helps with digestion.”
“I’ll have to take your word for it,” Zach said as he smiled over at Drew, whose eyes lingered on Zach’s for more than just a beat, managing to steal Zach’s breath from halfway across the room. After a moment, Zach ducked his head, feeling a blush rise up in his cheeks. “Ah, I realized... we kinda blew right past the whole, um, date thing.”
“Date thing?” Drew asked softly, a slight roughness to his voice that made Zach’s eyes dart right back to Drew’s.
“Yeah . . .” Zach breathed.
Drew was watching him, and Zach couldn’t quite read his expression. “It, uh, didn’t feel like a date... to you? ”
Ah, god. Had it? He had no idea what a date felt like—he’d only read about them, watched them on a screen. “I... guess... not?”
There was an entirely-too-long silence during which Drew was looking down at the counter, quite obviously focusing on making the tea, but with his brow furrowed, and Zach’s anxiety meter began to go haywire. Had he said something wrong?
Desperate to fill the silence, Zach tried his best to hedge his bets. “I mean, it—it certainly didn’t seem typical for a first date, you know? And maybe—maybe that’s just because we’re so distracted and out of our element here—here in this gigantic room and all its fanciness. Maybe?”
Drew lifted the two mugs and came back around to the large dining room table. He set one mug in front of Zach and the other where he’d been sitting, then he cleared his throat and settled back down in his chair. Zach murmured a quick thanks as he watched Drew carefully... but while also trying not to look like he was staring too expectantly.
“Um...” Drew trailed off, fiddling with the paper and string of the tea bag in his mug. When he looked up at Zach again, he was biting his lower lip and his eyes seemed to hold some sort of nervousness. “I’m definitely out of my element here, but, um, it’s not the room...”
“It—it’s not?” Zach’s nerves were jumping around everywhere, but he wasn’t sure if it was from the conversation or Drew’s nearness now that they were sitting next to each other at the table again.
Drew shook his head, and Zach tried to keep his breaths slow and even while he waited for more of an answer. “This—this is all, um...” Drew trailed off once more, letting out a nervous huff of laughter .
For some reason, Zach’s nerves felt a bit more settled as he reached over and covered Drew’s hand with his own.
Drew took a deep breath as his eyes found Zach’s. “I’ve never... really... dated before.”
“Oh! Oh good! I mean, not that it’s good you never dated because that’s kinda sad, honestly, and—” Zach stopped himself and watched in horror as Drew’s face fell. He shook his head emphatically. “Oh god! No, no, no! I meant me ! Me... I-I’ve never been on a date before either! Ever. I have absolutely zero clue what I’m doing, and I’m sorry I didn’t mean—”
Suddenly, Drew’s lips were pressed against Zach’s, and there were warmth and sparks, tendrils of electricity running through him. Zach inhaled sharply against Drew’s lips, even as he brought his hand up to touch Drew’s face and moved his mouth tentatively, unsure and overwhelmed all at once, but hell if he wanted to ever stop. Seconds later, though, Drew was pulling back, his cheeks tinted pink and his lips parted. Drew’s eyes held a touch of concern, as though he were searching Zach’s face for something.
“Ohmygod . . .” Zach breathed as his hand dropped slowly back to the table. That was . . . He wanted . . . “More—oh, no wait, I mean . . . God, we should probably talk about . . . Hell, I don’t even know. I just . . .”
“More?” Drew rasped.
Zach nodded emphatically and reached eagerly with both hands for Drew’s face even as Drew leaned back in. Zach felt the soft roughness of Drew’s closely shaven facial hair against his fingers and decided he really, really liked it. The warmth and electricity were right there again, sparking every time Drew parted his lips to move against Zach’s, and all Zach wanted was more of whatever this feeling was. All too soon, Drew was pulling back, his gray-blue eyes seeming to darken as they searched Zach’s face again. Zach let his fingertips run gently over Drew’s jawline and down his chin before he rested them awkwardly in his own lap.
“I, uh...” Drew took a few quick and trembling breaths, his chest rising and falling pretty much as rapidly as Zach’s was. “That... that was my first kiss. I mean second, um, technically, just now... I, um... I’m not—not sure if I did it... right, but oh god, it felt right. To me... at least to me, it did?”
Zach was speechless for a second and could only nod. But then he managed to find his voice. “Me too, uh, mine too. Damn, if that was wrong, I don’t want you to figure out the right way.”
Drew started laughing, a breathy, gorgeous laugh that made Zach’s chest feel lighter and warmer and filled with an excited wonder. Who was this man who seemed to make everything so magical?