Chapter 9: Zach

I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling yet again. The sun hadn’t risen yet – the room was a silvery gray with light filtering in through open curtains. It didn’t take me long to remember where I was. Hailey moved against me and I looked down. She was asleep on my chest. We must have shifted throughout the night. It felt good there beside her. Right.

We were in the mountains together.

I had woken up in situations like this more times than I could count – a place that wasn’t home with a woman I didn’t know. This time though, it was different. I didn’t want to run away before she awoke. I didn’t want to avoid seeing her again. I didn’t want to leave her at all. Sounded like I was fucked in my own head.

It didn’t have anything to do with taking her virginity either, although that was a feat for any man. It did something to my ego and left me wanting to help her explore further her sexy little body. I just hoped like hell that she wouldn’t be clingy. It was a stretch, but we had a long road ahead of us.

I glanced down at her again. She looked so much younger when she was asleep, her face relaxed and beautiful. Her blonde hair framed her face, slightly wavy where usually it was straight, and her lips were soft and round. I knew what those lips tasted like now. Both sets of lips and fuck me if I didn’t want more of her.

She was delicious. My body responded to the thought of her and I felt myself harden. I shifted a little but I didn’t want to wake her. Her skin was soft and blemish free, hell she didn’t need any of that crap on her face at all. Last night had been something new. I couldn’t remember when I’d last been with someone as pure as Hailey, someone for whom sex wasn’t just something to do. Her orgasms, her responses to my touch and my kisses, made want to offer them all over again.

I picked up my wristwatch from the nightstand and checked the time. It was half past five. We’d fallen asleep early and I was ready to roll.

I had to piss, and couldn’t hold it any longer. I shifted out from underneath her, carefully laying her on the pillows and tried to slip out of bed without disturbing the covers too much. On my way to the bathroom, I picked up the used condom to discard it before she woke up and saw it. Nothing like a used condom to rip a hole in the fond memory of your first time. In the bathroom, I had to calm down first before being able to use the toilet.

When I opened the bathroom door, Hailey was awake, her blue eyes large and piercing.

“Morning,” I said. She smiled at me and my heart fluttered in my chest. Chill it. It was a fucking smile.

“Hi,” she said. I lifted the covers and got back into bed. Hailey was self-conscious. She clutched the covers to her chest. I wished she wouldn’t – she was beautiful to look at.

“Come downstairs with me,” I said.

Hailey frowned. “Now?”

I nodded and got up again. I retrieved two robes that I’d spotted behind the bathroom door and handed her one. I pulled the other around my naked body and waited for Hailey to do the same. The clothes on the floor were still wet, crumpled in little piles. Housekeeping could sort that out for us later.

We walked downstairs. The full-length windows in the living room looked out over the mountain. Hailey stood next to me. Together, we watched the sun rise over the peaks of the mountain, painting the world with brush strokes of gold.

“I love it here,” Hailey breathed.

I nodded. The feeling was mutual. It reminded me of my mother. Now, Hailey had been added to that memory. Of all the women in my life, she was the only one deserving of it. I kept the moment to myself, not quite sure how to share it anyway.

When the sun was above the horizon, Hailey walked to the kitchen.

“Coffee?” she asked.

“Please,” I said. “I’m going to shower first, though. Let’s have breakfast, then get ready and go into Aspen. I haven’t been in town since I was a kid.”

Hailey nodded. “I’d like that,” she said.

I showered while she made breakfast. Eggs and bacon and toast. It wasn’t the five star meals I was used to. It was better. There was something authentic about Hailey that I liked. When we finished eating she went upstairs to take a shower. I unpacked my laptop and sat in the living room, reading the news.

When Hailey came downstairs I stopped reading and watched her come down the last few steps. She wore leggings with a long brown jersey and tan boots. Her blonde hair was loose and she had applied a light layer of makeup. The color scheme worked for her skin tone. My mother would have said that she was an Autumn.

“You look great,” I said. Her cheeks colored slightly. Was she blushing?

“Do you want to get going?” she asked. I powered down my laptop and we walked out to the car together.

How had one night together changed both of our attitudes? Right. It wasn’t just the night. It was the weeks together with her grinding me down, and my teasing her mercilessly in the office. It was time to break the ice, to explore each other, to open up a little more.

She can open up all night long. I smiled at my nefarious thoughts as we drove toward the center of the city.

Aspen lay at the foot of the mountain and it hadn’t changed much since I was younger, aside from all the designer boutiques that had taken up residence downtown. Hailey and I walked through the streets, visiting shops, acting like tourists.

“I love it out here,” Hailey said. “Even in town, the air is so fresh. I feel like I can breathe properly. It reminds me of home. It’s just a lot colder.”

Hailey had mentioned that she wasn’t from Denver initially but I hadn’t paid much attention to anything she’d said before. We stopped at Peach’s Corner café for lunch. The place was quaint – a red brick building with seating inside and outside. Orange umbrellas over the tables outside made the place look homey. We opted for a table inside.

“You don’t talk about home much,” I said after we’d ordered club sandwiches and coffee.

Hailey glanced up at me. “It would be unprofessional to talk about things like that at work,” she said. I knew it wasn’t just because of that – this was the first time we were making real conversation.

“Well, pretty girl. This isn’t work, unless you expect me to pay you for last night. Tell me about home,” I said and smiled as she gave me a haughty look.

“You don’t have enough money in your bank for a woman like me.” She crinkled her nose and my damn heart twitched again. “Anyway. It was a lot like this, actually. Not the mountains, of course, but the small village feel with all the locals knowing each other and most of them not leaving to find greener pastures. I was one of the few who wanted more.”

“Why?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Because the world is a very big place and it would be silly not to explore at least a little bit of it.”

I nodded. It was true. The world was a lot smaller for me, but that happened when you had a lot of money. The money aspect also took away the adventure, the concept of having to fend for yourself.

“What made you get into public relations?” I asked.

Our food arrived and we waited for the waiter to leave before Hailey answered.

“I like working with people. I’m good at it. It made sense.”

I nodded. She was good at what she did, that was for sure. When she dragged me out to Aspen I had thought that it was going to be a colossal waste of time, but I was enjoying myself. And despite how much I protested about the suits and the conference tips and all that jazz, it had helped. I wouldn’t admit it to the woman, but Hailey had been right.

“Because of my work I also meet a lot of people from other walks of life. A lot of people in need of PR help are higher up on the food chain than I will ever be. It’s nice to have a glimpse at what other people’s lives look like.”

I listened to her as she spoke. Her voice had a sexy softness to it. My balls contracted as the blood from my body rushed to fuel my erection. What was it with this woman?

“It’s hard work, though,” she said, sharing more now that she was talking. “I’ve worked hard to get where I am.”

I thought about my own journey. Losing my mother had been painful and taking second place in my father’s life didn’t exactly make for a great relationship, but other than that, everything had come to me easily. I worked hard through college, of course, but that was a matter of studying. If that was the hardest thing I’d ever done, my life was a joke.

“Can I ask you something?” I asked, changing the topic. Hailey’s face closed, unsure about what I was going to ask.

“Ask,” she said.

“How do you feel after last night?” I reached out and touched her hand, drawing my fingertips over the top of her knuckles. “You enjoyed me?”

Hailey looked down, her cheeks coloring again. “I’m a little sore, but it was great.” she said, her voice gaining some volume. Confident. I liked it.

I smiled. The response was so open and direct. I had meant emotionally, but her face, the way she said it, the secret smile that played on her lips, was something to behold.

“Do you regret it?” I asked. “Giving your virginity to a bastard like me?”

Hailey looked up at me, her eyes a dark blue. She hesitated a moment before she shook her head and smiled.

“I don’t. Not in the slightest, and you’re only a bastard on days that end with a ‘y’.”

Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. It was too practiced. It was the kind of smile that suggested the opposite of what she said. I knew what it looked like because I used it all the time. I didn’t want to press her, though. We were in public but were going to be alone together for the next couple of days. The more time we had together in bliss before it got awkward, the better. Of course, I hoped it wouldn’t get awkward at all.

Hailey was different and for the first time in a long time, I was willing to explore what that meant.

I didn’t think she regretted it. It was my ego, my pride, which got in the way of thinking any woman would regret sleeping with me. But there was something Hailey wasn’t telling me. The reason why she was called out to work with me was because of my image. I was a womanizer – it wasn’t a secret. Even though I hadn’t said anything to her and I was sure my dad hadn’t either, Hailey must have figured it out by herself. My escapades weren’t exactly a secret and if she hadn’t known then, she knew now after we’d slept together.

That was what I did, wasn’t it? I fucked women, and they loved it.

I didn’t want it to be like that with her, though. I didn’t want her to see me as a man-whore, as someone who took what he wanted and moved on. I wanted her to see me for the person I could be, the person I wanted to be when I was around her.

We talked about other, lighter things until the end of the meal. I paid and we left, heading back to our lodge. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with her, yet, but I wanted it to be different. I wanted to do something with her that I’d never done with any other woman before.

When we got home I would start looking up what Aspen had to offer by way of a classy night out. Hailey deserved to be spoiled. She deserved to feel special and I wanted to show her that I wasn’t all about sex, even though my history suggested otherwise.

I wanted to show her that I could be real, that I had more to me than charm and money. It was strange to feel anything, but I did, so fighting it was out.

It would be good for me. It had been a long time since I’d been anything other than a player, a socialite with nothing more on his mind than what I could get by the end of the night.

I wanted to be the person I used to be. It would be good for both of us, I decided. It would be worth a try at least. Maybe.

And if nothing else? I’d go back to being the dick I could easily be. Nothing lost. Nothing gained.