Chapter 24 #3
Their team leader checked her phone and read something before looking back to the team.
“Even though the word breakfast is in the name of the place we’re staying, make your own damn breakfast. We don’t want outsiders anywhere near us.
I just got confirmation that the kitchen is well-stocked.
There’s an authentic Italian restaurant in town that will be providing supper tomorrow night.
They won’t be allowed in any further than the kitchen.
” Kayla glanced at her phone. “ETA is three minutes. Grab your gear, grab a key, and grab some sleep. I’ll see you in the dining room at fourteen hundred hours. ”
As usual, Clint and Ashlin were the last off the bus, the last to pick up their gear stowed in the rear, and finally enter the B&B. Kayla stood in front of a worn wooden counter, wearing a Cheshire-cat smile and dangling a white feather keychain between her thumb and forefinger.
“I saved this room for you. According to the owners, it is truly a honeymoon suite.” She dropped her smile to a grin.
“I figured you two would appreciate it more than anybody else here. Sleep well. Clint, I’ll forward any texts I get.
I don’t want to interrupt the two of you, especially since you’ve only been together for a few days, yet you’ve been married for over seven months. ”
On the way to their room, Kayla’s words hit home.
She and Clint had only been together, physically, just over a week.
She’d already grown accustomed to being with him as his wife.
The nights they had spent together now seem normal.
They had worked together, tracking down terrorist cells, and had tried to eliminate one that turned out to be empty.
This next one could be completely different.
They walked down the hall to the very end and found their room. Clint turned the key and opened the door.
They both sucked in air at the same time.
“What the fuck?” Clint said without moving into the room.
“Oh my gosh. Please say it ain’t so.” Ashlin broke out laughing.
Every single item, including the ceiling, was covered in red or white hearts.
Sometimes both. Be fore they even flipped on the light the ceiling glowed in the dark with white and pink hearts.
She had seen ceilings decorated with glow-in-the-dark constellations and stars.
Her own nieces’ and nephews’ bedrooms had them, but hearts? Really?
She found the light switch and laughed even harder.
The heart-shaped bed had a red velvet bedspread that matched the drapes.
Where the footboard should have been were two matching, heart-shaped footstools.
Of course, the headboard was a red padded heart.
At the other end of the room was a pink heart-shaped bathtub.
The more she stared at it, the more she could see jets, so it was actually a hot tub.
No way in hell could she seek Clint lounging in it.
“Do you have an eye mask I can wear?” Clint looked at her in desperation. “I don’t know if I can go to sleep in this room.”
Still laughing, Ashley looked up at him and promised, “I’ll wear you out so you can fall asleep quickly.
” She wandered past Clint, who was frozen in the doorway, and into the room in search of the bathroom.
Since she’d been flying, she couldn’t leave and use the one on the plane.
Thankfully, the bathroom wasn’t quite so over-the-top.
Quite. A huge red heart was tiled into the shower.
Hearts surrounded the hot and cold-water faucets and the spigot.
The pink toilet seat had a red heart in the middle.
She was thankful that the toilet itself was white.
Clint would appreciate that. As she sat down to use the facility, her gaze dropped to the floor, tiled in red, white, and pink one-inch squares.
Ashlin had never been a girly girl, so pink had never been in her color spectrum, especially with her auburn hair.
When she was finished, she washed her hands in a pink heart-shaped sink. She stepped out to find Clint exactly where she’d left him, heavy duffel bags still in his hands.
Ashlin put her hand over his eyes and instructed, “Close them. Don’t move.
” She lifted her hand and grabbed his bags, placing them next to hers.
She walked back to the door, took his hand, and led him to stand by the bed.
“Keep your eyes closed.” She stripped him out of his clothes, threw back the covers, and told him to sit.
After gently pushing him down, she picked up his legs and pulled the covers over him, hand and all.
“These sheets feel really soft,” he said as he stroked them.
“That’s because they’re satin,” she explained. “Give me a minute, I’ll be right there in bed with you. I’m sorry, but I need to sleep.” She stripped, then turned out the lights and crawled into the weird-shaped bed next to him. “We might get lucky, and it’s only for tonight.”
She kissed him, and he took it deeper. “I love you,” he whispered, their heads under the covers, before she rolled onto her side and fell asleep.