Page 24 of Love on the Run

Beau quickly wiped his mouth with the white napkin. “Actually, can we get one of these to go?”

“Certainly.”

Anna fought against a smile. “You really liked it?”

“Loved it. Are you going to help me eat it when we get back to the room?” he asked.

The room. Of course they were sharing a room. Dinner had eased some of the tension between them, but the thought of returning to their quiet room sparked new nerves within her.

Maybe sharing dessert with Beau would prepare her to share a room with him. After all, they had seven more nights to spend together.

Chapter 8

Beau

Agood steak could make even the worst situations bearable. If nothing else, he’d eat like a king for the next week.

Was food the way to Beau’s heart? Probably. He just wasn’t going to announce it to his present company.

Anna strode into the room with her shoulders pulled back and her head held high. An hour without her phone ringing or talking about Dean had done wonders for her mood.

“Oh! Do you want to check out the hot tub?” she asked, rounding on him with wide eyes and a bright smile.

No wonder Anna got everything she wanted. It wasn’t easy to say no when she lit up like a sky full of fireworks when she was happy.

But the hot tub? No way. Anna was aknockout. That was a fact, not an opinion. The less he saw of her, the better.

He put the dessert on the counter and headed for his bag. “Nope. I’ll be at the gym if you need me.”

He brushed past Anna without glancing her way, but her delicate fingers wrapped around his arm, stopping him in his tracks.

“Hey,” she whispered.

Every muscle in his body tensed. Why did Anna feel like a threat when she was this close?

Slowly, he turned. Her light-blue eyes searched him with a dangerous brightness.

Her words were soft, but they held plenty of weight as she whispered, “Thank you for coming.”

With a nod, he stepped out of her grip. Her fingers trailed across his bicep as he disappeared into the bathroom to change. When he stepped back into the room to grab the key card, Anna was wrapping a towel around her body.

More coverage was all for the best, but not when her top was strapless. He’d never found bare shoulders to be a problem, but she was hard to ignore when they were the only two in the room.

Beau grabbed the card from the counter and turned his attention toward the wall. “I’ll be back in an hour.”

After all but jogging to the elevator, Beau pressed the button for the first floor and leaned back against the wall. Threading his hands into hishair, he closed his eyes and sucked in deep breaths.

She needed to get one thing straight. He wasn’t honorable or perfect, and he wasn’t here for her.

He’d run away as many times as it took to get the message across. While she was doing romantic things like lounging in the hot tub, he would be as far away as possible.

Would distance keep his thoughts in check when he knew what she was doing? Probably not.

An hour in the gym with rock music blasting in his ears was enough to get his mindset under control. Anna who? She didn’t exist in his world. If she did, thoughts of her were carefully filed away under “Not Beau’s business.”

The room was quiet when he returned. It wasn’t that Anna was a loud person. She just had a way of screaming her presence whenever she was near.

Grabbing his sleep clothes, he slipped into the bathroom. Tile covered the floor and walls, and a granite countertop ran the length of one wall. The double shower was outrageously large, and the whirlpool tub was equally extravagant. This bathroom was bigger than his bedroom at home.

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