Page 4 of The Hotel Room

“…and then, after drinks, she’s practically dragging me back to her place. Didn’t even ask for my number the next day. Clean. No strings.Perfect.”

James gave a tight smile, forcing a chuckle he didn’t feel. His eyes drifted over the crowd without meaning to. Women of all body types, different hair colors, lengths, and textures—short women, tall women, curvy, slender. Strangers.

Sex for him had always meantonewoman. Kate. Always and forever. He loved her—loved their life together, loved their sex life. He knew her body as well as he knew his own, every curve, every freckle, the way she responded to his touch like they were perfectly in sync.

Kate’s body had once meantfreedomto him. Now sometimes it felt like a prison, a reminder of all the things he hadn’t experienced, the roads never taken.

A body he hadn’t memorized. A stranger’s skin under his hands, unfamiliar and new.

What would it feel like to grasp a woman’s thigh he’d never touched before? To trace the curve of someone else’s spine, to hear sounds from a mouth he hadn’t already kissed a thousand times?

The thoughts burned—wrong and enticing all at once.

Nick tilted his glass. “You sure you don’t want this life, man? I’m telling you, the freedom’s underrated.”

James shook his head. “No, it’s… I’m good, Nick. Seriously.”

Except he wasn’t. Not entirely. And the fear that Nick could read that on his face made him shift uncomfortably in his seat.

Nick grinned, leaning in like he was about to deliver some kind of wisdom James didn’t want. “Come on. All these years with the same woman? Kate’s great and all, but—don’t tell me you’ve never wondered.”

James clenched his jaw, voice tighter now. “Wonderedwhat?”

Nick gave a knowing shrug. “What it’s like. The chase. The thrill of not knowing what’s coming next. Waking up next to someone you didn’t know existed twenty-four hours ago.”

James stared down at his drink, the bourbon catching the low light.

He’d never been that guy.

Not once.

Kate had been his first everything—his first kiss, his first love, his firstand onlysexual partner.

They’d met in high school. She was the girl who wore paint on her hands and teased him for how serious he was. They’d shared milkshakes and study dates and whispered dreams about forever. And then she’d been pregnant and they’d gotten married, built a life together, raised two amazing kids.

It was good. Itwas.

But lately—

Lately, it felt like he’d blinked and landed here. In this life. Like someone else had made the choices, and he was just living in them.

He shook his head, voice clipped. “I don’t need all that. I’ve got a family. A wife. It’s…different.”

Nick’s eyes narrowed. Not judging—just reading him. Pushing.

“Different. Yeah. You love her. I get it. But do you ever feel like you skipped something? Like you never even…” He gestured vaguely. “Tried the buffet before you picked the entrée?”

James forced a laugh, but it landed hollow. “That’s a pretty messed up metaphor, man.”

Nick grinned. “Maybe. But you’rethinkingabout it. I can see it. Don’t tell me you’ve never wondered what it would be like. Hell, you didn’t even get a wild phase. Straight from school to husband to dad. That’s…a lot.”

James exhaled sharply, bristling. “I chose this life. Iwantedit.”

And he had. Hadn’t he?

Nick shrugged. “Sure. But don’t you get curious? What it’s like to walk into a bar and have someonenewlook at you like you’re the only guy in the room?”

James's chest tightened.

---