Page 41 of Bad Habit
His words warmed every part of my body, and suddenly I couldn’t wait to go upstairs, to be alone with Mac, to venture into uncharted, possibly treacherous waters on this journey of sin.
* * *
Faith
Ifollowed Mac into the wide, marbled entrance of our hotel room. I couldn’t close my mouth. It was so fancy, so luxurious. I peeked in the door to the left, thinking it might be the bedroom, but discovered instead a bathroom. There wasn’t a tub or a shower, but that was fine. We weren’t going to be here all that long, and I’d bathed this morning before Mac picked me up.
I followed him ahead.
“Oh,” I exclaimed. “How many other people are sharing this room?”
“Just us.”
“But this…” I’d walked into a space with sofas and chairs, a huge television the size of what I imagined they must have in movie theaters. To the right was a dining room table with a dozen chairs, and ahead of us the wall was floor-to-ceiling windows facing distant mountains. We were so high up.
“The suite is ours,” Mac plopped down on the sofa. “Well, ours for a few nights, anyway.”
I spun, taking in the lush fabrics in golds and creams with accents of robin’s-egg blue, and artwork comparable to what I’d seen at the museum in San Francisco. I walked to the window and put my hand on the glass. None of this seemed real. “All of this? For us?”
“For you.” He came up behind me and draped his arms loosely around my body. “All for you.”
I drew a long breath. It was so much, too much, but I supposed this was greed, and I kind of liked it. And I liked having his arms around my body. I placed my hands over his to keep them there.
“It’s too much.”
“That’s the idea.” His face brushed the side of my face, and the light stubble excited my skin.
“Let’s call this gluttony, step one,” he said. “Or maybe greed? Or lust?” His voice was a deep rumble in my ear. “You can lust for things besides sex, right?”
“I’m not sure.” I turned in his arms to half face him. “You’re the sin consultant.”
“Right. Yes. In that case, you have to listen to the expert.” He stepped back, putting his hand around my waist and pulling me with him. “Let’s look at the rest of the suite.”
“There’s more?”
“Of course.”
He guided me through a door past the dining area into a room with the biggest bed I’d ever seen. It had to be three times wider and twice as long as the one I slept in at the mission, not to mention the one I’d slept in my whole life before that. At the head of the bed were what looked like a dozen or more pillows and cushions all in beautiful fabrics, some so shiny I dared not touch them. I couldn’t imagine sleeping there.
At the end of the bed was a fancy bench. “What’s this?” I touched the red fabric, its pattern of raised threads depicting swirly shapes.
“A sofa? Chaise? Divan?” He shook his head. “I’m not sure what those things at the end of the bed are called, but we can look it up or call down to the front desk if you want to know.” He pulled out his phone.
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter.” The window in this room was floor to ceiling, too, and in front of it were two plush chairs, each looking wide enough to fit two of me.
Nick had turned through another door opposite the large window, and I followed.
He gestured to the side. “Vanity.”
“Yes, vanity, pride, that’s a major sin.”
“No, I mean this is a vanity. A place to put on your makeup.” He flipped a switch, and a mirror glowed with beautiful, soft lighting. “Not that you need makeup.”
A place just for putting on makeup? I was glad I’d brought the mascara and lipstick Sister Henry had picked out for me for my date. In front of the mirror were a long golden desk and a fancy chair.
“Closet.” He gestured behind him to a space about the size of my bedroom at the mission. Perfect rows of shiny wooden hangers hung from brass rods.
“Kind of overkill for my one dress.” I laughed.
