Page 32 of Veiled Fantasies

One dimple appeared, the one on the right. “I get the idea.”

“Yes, well, I’m usually a lot more…” Jill searched for a good word.Boring? Traditional? Bridled?“Um, in control.”

He studied her, hushed and serious. “Why?”

Why?“I guess because…nice girls aren’t supposed to be too loose.”And boy, do nice girls miss out.

His finger stroked her shoulder softly. “And what do you like better? Brazen or in control?”

She half hid in his chest. Good thing there was so much space there. His scent had something sylvan about it, something honest. “I like brazen—with you. I doubt I could do it with anyone else.”

“Did you ever try?”

“No!” She popped up, a little indignant, until she melted under the hot chocolate of his eyes.

He smiled. “I like you brazen.”

“Do you always like women brazen?”

He laughed it off, then grew serious again. “I like you the way you are.” Then he studied her lips and reached with his own. Warm, sweet, reassuring. The man was a dream.

“Where are you going today?” he asked at last, fingers playing along her back like a bard on a harp, finding the notes to a new tune.

She searched her mind for the plan she was sure she’d made the day before. So long ago. “Airport…check on Louise…then the museum.”

He raised his head off the pillow, making hers sink deeper. “And then?”

It took her a moment to catch his hint. “Then Erik,” she whispered, meeting his lips. A small, happy eternity passed there. She was almost getting bad ideas. She finally broke it off, feeling awfully cruel to leave him kissing air. “When will you be done?” she asked, going back to staccato touches.

He strung together thoughts between kisses. “Conference–call–at one–I should–be done–by two.”

“Mmm,” she mumbled. The afternoon seemed a lifetime away. “I guess I’ll see you at two then.”

One.

Two.

If only she could make the hours tick by that fast.

Chapter Eleven

Jill showered, dressed, and somehow peeled herself away from a goodbye kiss. Walking down the hall toward the elevator, she had to fight a strange new form of gravity that sucked her backwards, toward the room. To Erik.

He must have felt it, too, because suddenly he was there, chasing her down for one last kiss. One that started at her lips and reached all the way into her soul. After that, the elevator seemed superfluous. She could have floated all the way down to the lobby.

She savored the taste of him all the way to the airport and floated some more. No luggage? No worries. She pranced along, continuing her rounds of the airport. She had her new T-shirt to wear now, anyway, the one she bought yesterday. Sunny yellow, like her mood, with a winking camel and the Dubai skyline.

Flights? No? She left the counter, humming a happy tune.

If Jill breezed through the morning, Louise didn’t catch it. She seemed to be settling in, along with the kids. The furrows in her brow didn’t seem as deep, and the circles under her eyes had faded away. In fact, everyone seemed to be settling in. All the hotel guests rested in a kind of resigned stupor, moving slowly, speaking in hushed tones.

“How are you finding your new hotel?” Louise asked, sitting over tea as the kids scampered around the courtyard, chasing a ball.

“Oh, it’s…quite nice.” Jill stirred her tea fast enough to let it slop over the edges.

“And your roommate?” Louise asked, peeling a banana for her youngest, in for a quick pit stop at her knee.

Jill hid her blush behind her teacup. Luckily Louise was distracted this morning. Actually, she always seemed distracted. It seemed a permanent condition of motherhood. “My roommate? Oh…very accommodating,” she said, thinking of Erik’s soft, silky touch.

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