Page 25 of Spiralling Skywards
“No,” Sarah stated as she looked up at me. “I’m not going back to your room with you. I’m not . . . I don’t do that kind of thing.”
Her voice trembled and her chest still heaved as she spoke, but her words were so quiet I had to strain to hear them. I palmed the back of her head and stroked up and down her spine with my fingertips under her jacket, trying to calm her.
“I’m not sending you home in this state. You can come home with me, and I’ll make you a coffee or something. I think we need to talk and get a few things straight.”
“No sex,” she mumbled against my chest.
“No, no sex. Not tonight anyway. Maybe in the morning, though not until you’ve wiped all that make-up off your face and cleaned your teeth. After all that garlic you had tonight, you’ll be able to strip paint with your morning breath.”
That earned me a dig in the ribs with her elbow, which was so much better than her tears.
***
With her body still tucked in tight against me, I opened the door to my room and threw my key card onto the desk. Her breathing was back to a normal rate and she’d stopped crying, but instead of pulling away from the comfort I was offering her, she let me lead her to the edge of the bed. When she sat, I knelt down in front of her.
“There’s a twenty-four-hour servo next door, I’ll go and get us some coffees, yeah?”
Her big blue eyes looked up from her lap and met mine. She still had tears caught on her lashes and the sight of them caused a lump to form in my throat.
She looked young and fragile, almost childlike, which didn’t sit well with me. I felt as if I were taking advantage of the age difference between us.
“What’s . . .” She cleared her throat, which sounded raspy from crying and sexy as fuck. “What’s a servo?” I couldn’t help but smile.
“The petrol station, as you call it here.” She smiled a little, and I spotted the merest hint of her dimple. Nodding her head, she said, “Coffee sounds good.”
“Don’t move, I’ll be right back,” I told her before grabbing my card and heading back out.
I’d used the coffee machine at the servo a few times, and it was passable, better than the instant shit they provided in the room.
I stood waiting for our coffee to brew and battled internally with what the fuck I was actually thinking. I’d taken her out for dinner tonight, made her cry, and now she was sitting waiting for me in my room. If Luke had any clue, he would crucify me, and I’d totally deserve it.
I made two coffees, and then, after noticing the tea and hot chocolate, I made one of each of those too. I grabbed extra milks and sugars before spotting the biscuits sitting on the shelf next to the machine. I’d discovered these things called Chocolate Hob Nobs my first night here, and the fucking things were addictive. I badly needed to find a gym to work off the ten kilos I felt I’d gained since I’d arrived four days ago. Or was it five? Jet lag and time zones suck. I’d had no clue which way was up since I’d been here.
I put the drinks in a cardboard tray, grabbed a packet of Hob Nobs, and just for good measure, a bar of Galaxy, a Twix, a Mars, and a Twirl. After all, girls liked chocolate when they were sad, right? At least my sisters did.
My heart dropped to my toes when I stepped back into my room and didn’t see her. It then catapulted through my chest, settling somewhere around my ears when she walked out of the bathroom with all of the make-up washed from her face.
I smiled.
She attempted to but instead managed only to stare at me while blushing beautifully. I almost mentioned how gorgeous she looked without all that shit over her face but decided against it. My big mouth had done enough damage for one night.
I put the cardboard tray down on the small table that had a chair on either side of it and pulled the contents out of the carrier bag.
“I wasn’t sure what you wanted, so I got—”
“Everything?”
I laughed. “Yeah, I reckon I got a bit carried away.”
“Ya think?” She smiled again as she spoke, which at least made me feel a little better.
“There’s coffee there, but I got a tea and a hot chocolate too.”
“I’ll have the hot chocolate please and a Hob Nob, if you’re happy to share?”
For you, Sarah Carter, anything. Hob Nobs, hot chocolate, my heart. All yours if you want it, I’ll share it all.
Jet lag, yep, I was still sticking with that.
