Just For Safety
Miriam / Emma
What was it I expected, really? For the country boy to take me home, introduce me to his mom and show me around the family farm?
Truth be told, I guess that sort of is what I expected. Some kind of made-for-tv movie interlude scene where we got away from the dangerous stuff and took a quiet couple of scenes for reflection and appreciation of our lives. Something homey. Something comforting.
Instead, he drove us a couple of miles down Interstate 820, pulled off again, and guided the car into a Best Western parking lot.
Killing the motor, Ryan turned to me. “We’ll be safe here.”
I didn’t look at him for a moment, and he took my hand. I looked up, and his eyes were warm. “There is nothing to worry about here. Not right now. Right now, you’re safe.” I felt myself nod.
So this wasn’t what I expected, but then, what should I have expected?
It didn’t occur to me until his door closed behind him and he was walking across the parking lot, lean and sure, that I was about to share a hotel room with Ryan. That we would be alone, and safe, for the first time since he and I had spent the night together in his apartment. That thought, suddenly, made me feel slightly un-safe.
A few moments passed. I could see him through the sliding door, talking to the clerk at the desk, then filling out paperwork.
It was somewhat presumptuous, really, the idea that because he had rescued me (three times now, but who was counting?) I would share a bed with him. He might be a badass who liked to fight, and a hot piece of tail who, let’s be honest, was better in bed than anyone I had been with in my life. He might be a lot of things, but that didn’t mean I was going to sleep with him again just because he decided it was time! Who did he think he was, anyway?
By the time he walked back out through the doors, I was just about ready to punch him myself.
He slid back into Rosa Linda (for some reason I was unable to think of it just as the car), saying, “We’re all set.”
“Who do you think you are, anyway?”
He pulled away from me as if I’d slapped him, which was difficult to do in the close confines and resulted in him bumping his head on the window.
“What?” He seemed about as perplexed as I’d seen him today, and I’d seen him plenty perplexed.
“The audacity, that’s what. You think driving me in here like some knight in shining armor is going to get you laid?”
His face started to turn red, and he rubbed the back of his head where it had struck the window. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
I pointed at the hotel, suddenly furious. “I know what’s going on here, Ryan Calder. We’ll be sharing a room ‘just for safety,’ but next thing I know you’ll be wanting more than just a good night’s sleep, and I might give in to that and I might not, but it’s fucking presumptuous of you to assume it!” I didn’t realize my voice had risen to a yell until a woman walking in the parking lot looked our way, her mouth hanging open.
Hers wasn’t the only hanging mouth. Ryan looked at me as if I had gone insane and that he would very much like to also be out in the parking lot, inadvertently listening to me rant to an empty car.
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out something, which he held out to me.
“What’s this?” I said, taking it.
He snatched his hand back as if I might bite it. “It’s your room key.”
There were two plastic cards in a little envelope. Pissed as I was, I knew we were stuck together for at least the evening, come what may. I took one out and held it out to him.
Ryan raised his eyebrow and shook his head. He took another, identical, envelope from his pocket. “I have my own. To my own room.”
“You—?” Now it was my turn to just stare with my mouth hanging open. “Oh, shit.”
He nodded. “Yes.”
I turned and stared out the window. “So you didn’t think—?”
“No.”
“I’ve never been so embarrassed.”
He laughed. “I sure would be if I were you.” He put the car back in gear.
“Hey! That’s not nice.”
He bit his bottom lip as if trying to hold back laughter. I found the look sexy and frustrating. “You’ve had a long, rough day,” he said, “so I forgive you.”
That was better. “Than—”
“You fuckin’ psycho,” he said quietly. Then, unable to hold back any more, he burst out laughing.
“Still not nice,” I grumped.
As southern hotels go, it was relatively nice. The doors all opened on the inside of the building, so that was a plus. Our rooms were next door to each other.
“Not that I want to interfere if you have a man over, or something,” he said, seeing me into my room. “But if you need anything, I’m close enough.” I must have looked confused, because he said, “What?”
By this time it was early afternoon. It seemed as if the day had gone on forever, but my body was only just catching up. “Were you planning to just call it a day?”
He nodded. “Not much else to do.” He leaned against my door jamb, and I could suddenly think of several other things to do, not the least of which involved pulling him into my room and being presumptuous. But there were other concerns.
“I’m starving,” I said.
He scratched his neck. “And now you’re looking to further prey on my generosity and convince me to feed you.”
“My wallet is back at the diner—”
“That certainly is a problem.”
“Plus, if we’re going to do—whatever we’re going to do tomorrow—I’ll need a change of clothes.”
He grinned, eying me up and down. “You look good.”
I threw up my hands. “But I won’t smell good for much longer!” I said in desperation.
Ryan had the audacity to yawn. “All we’re doing tomorrow is taking out some bad guys. Trust me, it doesn’t matter how you smell.” He turned to go, and the door started to swing shut behind him. I had to run across the room to catch him before he disappeared into his own room.
I caught his arm right before he got in his door, pulling him to face me. It was completely unexpected, but he turned to me, wrapped his arms around me, and kissed me. He took his time, his lips roving over mine, soft and hot. We breathed one another’s breath through our open mouths.
When he lifted his head again, I was dizzy. “Well, that was—” I began.
He put a finger over my lips. “Let’s go get something to eat.”
Two hours later, I tumbled back into my room, breathless again. He had pressed me to the door, kissing me until all I could feel or think was the warmth of his body pressed against mine. This time, when he broke off I grabbed him and tried to pull him back to me.
“Who presumptuous now?” he said with a laugh.
“Don’t you throw my words back in my face.”
“Why not? They were pretty good words.” He stopped, considering. “As long as you weren’t on the receiving end of them.”
I looked at his chest, ran my fingers up one of his arms. “I’m sorry.”
He threaded his fingers through my hair. “Don’t be. It’s been a stressful day.”
And he kissed me again, hard, and then, without warning, turned and left me leaned against my door.
“Hey!” I called.
“I’m going to take a shower,” he laughed. “You’re not the only one who can smell bad.”
“Bastard.”
He had taken me to Texas Roadhouse and then made fun of my salad.
“Why the hell would you eat that when there’s perfectly good steak on this menu?” he said, tearing into a roll and smearing a pat of butter on it.
“Because this,” I motioned down the length of my body, “is a temple. And I take care of my temple.”
He let his eyes rove across me. “I saw you feeding eggs to that temple this morning.”
I liked the way he was looking at me. There was a part of me, a big part, to be honest, that wished everything about this situation was something normal, and we were just two people about to eat dinner, and that something normal could happen after that, and then another normal thing. Everything having a next thing that followed it, and all of those things just being…boring.
I shrugged. “What else do you eat at a diner?”
“Not the fucking salad,” he agreed.
When he paid, he drew a fat wad of bills out of his pocket.
“Is that supposed to impress me?” I said.
He peeled off a couple twenties. “Yeah. Is it working?”
I nodded. “Sure. It makes you look like a drug dealer, and that’s totally hot to the right kind of girl.”
Now, I threw the Walmart bag on the floral bedspread. Tore open the small bag of panties and pulled the tag off the bra.
Then I showered. For a while, I didn’t even think about soap, just let the water flow across me as hot as I could stand it, scalding my skin and flushing all the terrifying parts of the day away.
Every time I closed my eyes I could see Felix Martel staring at me, his eyes impassive, his grip tightening. There was a bruise on my upper arm where he had grabbed me. My heart started racing, and I could feel myself slipping into a panic attack. I forced myself to breathe, to slow down. To think about other things.
I unwrapped the small cake of hotel soap and began to lather myself. As I washed, I thought of Ryan Calder. Ryan, who had fearlessly charged into a battle for me. Who knew next to nothing about the situation he was involved in, but who kept going anyway. And somehow that led me to think about his muscular shoulders and wide chest. His lips on me.
My breathing quickened again, but not in panic this time.
I made up my mind to tell him the truth.