Page 16 of Keeping Kaitlyn

Even though I didn’t understand at the time, I do now.

Smaller or not, Hawthorne Helena is still a five-star hotel. Still boasts four Michelin-starred restaurants and enough designer clothing stores in the lobby to keep even someone as label obsessed as my mother happy.

“Mr. Hawthorne?” Rather than roll down the partition I raised between us the second Kait and I got in the SUV, the driver uses the intercom system because after what heundoubtedly heard, not more than an hour ago, he isn’t taking any chances.

Looking out the tinted window, I see that we’re in the underground parking garage of the hotel. Shifting a sleeping Kait in my arms, I press the button to roll down the partition myself. Kait’s been dressed and sleeping in my lap for a while now. “Yes?”

Flicking a look at the rearview before quickly looking away, he clears his throat. “I took the liberty of calling your concierge to help with your…luggage.”He stumbles over the word a bit because ourluggageconsists of a duffle bag and a backpack. “The rest of your belongings were deposited in your family suite when you arrived in Helena a few weeks ago,” he tells me, referring to the set of expensive luggage I had the driver who met me at the airport drive back to the hotel for me while I rode with Damien to the Barrett ranch.

“Okay.” Behind me, I hear the hatch of the SUV open so the concierge can retrieve our bags. “Clear the parking garage so?—”

“Pardon me, sir, but…” he says cautiously, flicking me another fleeting look. “It’s 3AM on a Wednesday in Montana. There’s no one here to clear.”

Right.

Laughing a little, I give him a nod. “Fair enough.” Gathering Kait in my arms, I start to move for the door. When he sees that I have every intention of letting myself out the SUV, the driver throws his own door open and dives out of the driver’s seat like he’s secret service throwing himself in front of a bullet. Seconds later, my door is opened from the outside. Seeing that Kait is asleep, the driver visibly relaxes. Behind me, the hatch slams closed on the SUV.

“Would you like me to take her, sir?” he asks while reaching for Kait. “I can?—”

“No.” Tightening my hold on her, I slide out of the car with Kait cradled in my arms. “And there is noher. I’ve been here the whole time. Alone.”

“Absolutely, sir.” Dropping his arms, the driver gives me a nod. Clearing his throat again, he takes a step back. “Are there any messages I can relay to the front desk on your behalf?”

“Yeah,” I tell him, giving him a grim smile before I start to move toward the private elevator a few yards away. “If anyone with the last name Barrett comes looking for me, I want to know.”

No matter the hotel,the family suites are pretty much the same. My grandmother designed and decorated each one, and even though she’s been begging me for years to let her redecorate them, I tell my mother no. I like knowing that no matter where I am, I can walk into a room and see my grandmother. It makes me miss them less.

Stepping off the elevator, I carry a still sleeping Kait across the foyer to a set of double doors that marks the room behind them as the master suite. Noting that the door is cracked, I push it open with the toe of my boot. Sure enough, our bags are waiting for us at the foot of the Alaskan King-size bed. Intent on putting her to bed in it, I stop when I feel her start to stir in my arms.

“Are we here?” She says quietly, her mouth brushing against the base of my throat with each word.

“Yeah…” Looking down I find those brilliant blue eyes of hers open and looking up at me. “Are you hungry?” I ask because I have no idea when the last time she ate was. “I can call room service.”

“That’s on my bucket list.” She reminds me with a sleepy smile. “It won’t count if I’m half asleep.” Tightening her arms around my neck, Kait resettles her head on my shoulder. “When are we getting married?”

Now.

Right fucking now.

Instead of answering her, I carry her to the bed and set her on the edge of it. “I don’t know.” Kneeling in front of her, I start to work her boots off. “We’ve got to apply for a marriage license and find?—”

“We don’t have to.”

When she says it, I stop what I’m doing and look up to find her watching me carefully.

“If you changed your mind, it’s okay,” she tells me while pushing a small smile onto her face. “I can?—”

“I haven’t changed my mind.” Looking down, I finish pulling off her socks before I stand, my heart pinballing around my chest so hard it almost hurts. “Have you?”

“No.”

Hearing her say it sends a flood of relief through me, so fast and strong, it nearly knocks me down. Hooking my fingers into the hem of her T-shirt, I pull it up, over her head. “Then it’s settled,” I tell her, dropping her shirt on top of her boots. “We’re getting married. As soon as I can make it happen, okay?”

Reaching behind her, Kait unclasps her bra so she can pull it off. “Okay.”

Even though I was fucking her, coming inside her, not more than an hour ago, the sight of half-naked Kait is enough to make me want to take the rest of her clothes off so I can bury myself inside her all over again.

I wasn’t kidding when I described the want I have for her as unhealthy. It borders on addiction. Feels like obsession. That’show much I want her. So much that I’m beginning to suspect that I won’t be able to live without her.

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