“Wow. She sounds like an interesting person. I want to travel, but I definitely need roots, somewhere to call home. What about your dad?” Tanner genuinely seemed interested, but that wasn’t a subject I wanted to broach right now.
“He passed years ago.” I took a deep breath. “Ugh yeah, that’s enough sharing for one night. How about we go enjoy the room service? I can’t wait to see your suite. I bet it’s beautiful as well.”
“Sounds like a plan.” He stood and took my hand again.
Hand-carved wood decked out the elevator. Then it hit me. “Tanner? You said you’re a college student, right?” He nodded. “So, what are you doing staying in this crazy-expensive hotel?”
His face grew serious. “I’m a twenty-one-year-old billionaire,” he deadpanned. “Just kidding, my buddy, Sean’s dad is loaded—probably why he’s a douchebag ninety percent of the time—he has a big spending account, so he put us all up here.”
“Well, I’ll be going now. I thought you were rich, and I can’t be hanging out with a lowly college student. It was nice meeting you, though.” I tried to keep the humor out of my voice but failed.
Tanner grabbed me around the waist and pulled me in tight. “Nice try, but you’re stuck with me. At least for now.” He planted a quick kiss on my lips and pulled back.
I touched my lips with my fingertips and smiled up at him. “All right, I’ll stay. So, what’s your family like?”
“My family lives in Smithville. It’s a small town—well, not as small as Pahokee—but small compared to Hamilton, where I live now. They live in a farmhouse on a few acres. My mom is a homemaker, and my dad is a police officer. He makes a decent living but certainly not a billionaire. And me? I’m a struggling engineering major, who’s very grateful for his friend Sean right now. If it weren’t for his dumb idea to randomly pick a place by darts, I wouldn’t have met you.”
His tone was serious, and he looked down at me like he could see into my soul. It scared the ever-loving shit out of me. I looked away quickly. I swear this guy had some sort of voodoo shit going on.
Changing the subject was my first thought. “Sounds really nice. I’ve only been to Vancouver. We hopped in the car for a road trip, and I ended up there. It’s absolutely beautiful. Have you ever been?”
“Way to break the moment.” He grinned.
The elevator dinged as we reached our floor, thank fuck.
“Saved by the bell this time, Easton.” He headed out through the doors, pulling me with him. “This is me,” he said as we stopped in front of room 1325. He opened the door and gestured for me to enter first.
“Wow, this is amazing.” I sighed and turned back to him.
He was smiling from ear to ear.
“I can’t believe you get to stay here. You’re so lucky.” I was in awe. This place was spectacular.
His smile turned into a smirk. “You could—” He stopped himself before finishing. “Never mind, I’m not going there. Do you want a drink or some dessert?” he said as he walked over to the cart.
“Wow, that was quick. How did room service beat us up here?”
“While you were admiring the lobby, they snuck past us. I had them send up a few of those Sex on the Beach drinks as well as some Toasted Almond drinks. I’ve never had them, but the guy downstairs recommended them and said they would go well with the desserts.”
The cart was overflowing with goodies. “Holy shit. That’s a lot of chocolate. I’m going to have such a sugar high. I can’t wait.” My eyes were wide as saucers.
“That’s the dessert sampler, so it’s got a little bit of everything. How about we wheel it over to the sofa and pig out?”
“I think you just became my favorite person in the entire world.”
“That was my evil plan from the beginning; I’m glad it worked.”
I pushed his shoulder playfully and giggled. Yes—giggled like a complete girly-girl. I wasn’t sure what was wrong with me.
“This is not going to be ladylike at all. If my stuffing my face with chocolate is going to change your opinion of me, then you should turn away now, Tanner, because I promise you that it can’t be unseen.” I winked and sat down with him in front of all the sugary goodness.
“I don’t think you could do anything to negatively impact my perception of you, Easton.” He gave me that same look again, like he could read me or something.
I pointed at him. “There you go looking at me like that again.”
“What look?” He portrayed such a sense of innocence that I wasn’t quite sure if it was false or not. “I have a look?”
“Yes, you do. You kind of gaze at me, like”—I shrugged—“I don’t know.” I shook my head. “Never mind.” I knew exactly what I meant, but I wasn’t saying that out loud.
He looked at me lovingly, and it kind of creeped me out. Not in a bad way because I kind of liked it, which meant it needed to stop.
I’d never had real feelings for a guy before, and every time one of them looked at me with any sense of adoration, I took that as crossing the line…and I’d take off running for the hills. For some reason, I wanted to stay when it came to Tanner. Maybe it was because I knew Tanner was leaving, so there was no long-term-commitment option. I was going to have fun with him for the week, then he would go home and I’d go back to my life. No feelings.
He seemed embarrassed as he looked down at his feet. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was doing that. I’ll try to stop myself.” He glanced back up, and my cold heart melted just a little for this guy.
Fuck it. I leaned in and kissed him, a long, closed-mouth kiss. But when I tried to pull back, Tanner tugged me into his lap instead.
Placing both hands onto my cheeks, he looked into my eyes. “There’s just something about you, Easton. Since the moment I saw you up on that stage and you gave Joe the finger, I’ve felt this pull—an unexplainable attraction and draw.”
I held in the girlish giggle that threatened to break free. That’s what awkward moments did to me.
“I had to meet you. If I stare at you, it’s because I’m intrigued and can’t wait to hear what you say or do next. I don’t care if you’re stuffing your face with a bunch of chocolate or cursing like a sailor. I seem to hang on every word.”
Ummm. What the actual fuck? I really should’ve just got up and left; this guy had stage-five clinger written all over him. But my radar wasn’t going off like it usually did. It had to be the safety net of knowing his time here was limited. There was no other explanation. It was nice to know that this had an expiration date, and I wouldn’t be the bad guy this time. But I also couldn’t let Tanner think this was more than what it was.
I smiled softly at him and climbed off his lap, then his face fell. “Listen, you seem like a great guy.”
“Shit. You’re giving me the great guy speech already? Before you go any further with that spiel of yours, I’m not delusional in thinking this is going anywhere. I leave in a week and live over four-thousand clicks away. After next weekend, we will walk away and never see each other again. But until then, can you live in the moment with me?”