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I lean forward and kiss him softly.

“I can’t wait.”

He cleans off and dresses, sneaking out the side door and back to his room to shower while I do the same. Leaning against the tile as the hot water streams down my back, I revisit the memory of his mouth on mine, his hands exploring my body, gripping my hair, jerking me off and I’m half hard again. As much as I could probably get there on these memories mixed with fantasies of what else we will be doing later, I want more than a fantasy. I want to taste the real thing, and tonight, I’ll get to do exactly that.

I make my way to the kitchen. Lilah is collecting plates from Chef Henry and eyes me suspiciously.

“Where have you been?”

“I collected the order from the Beaker Brothers Ranch.”

“Yeah, but then you dumped it all in here and disappeared. Are you feeling sick? You look a bit flushed.”

I shake my head and then quickly turn into my space to grab the leftover cheesecake roses from my small fridge for Nate.

“Good,” she calls after me. “We’ll have no hope of convincing Nate to stay on if you’re holed up in your room sick.”

“Who’s sick?” Nate’s voice comes, and I plate the last of the cheesecakes.

“No one is sick,” I reply as he moves around the island to where I’m plating.

“Good. It would be a shame to miss out on dessert tonight. Are you still okay to go over the hotel stuff with me after dinner service? It would be nice to start getting the hang of things,” he says, and Lilah’s eyes go wide behind him as she mouths, “Oh my god, yes.”

“After dinner. Oui,” I reply and slide the plate of three rose cheesecakes over to him and pass him a spoon. He sits on the stool that used to be Jack’s and takes his first bite, eyes closing for a moment as the cream hits his tongue.

“Hmmm, so good. Oh, we should meet in my room. There are a bunch of papers and things in there that make zero sense to me. Is that okay?”

“Your room,” I repeat, and Lilah is nodding her head furiously behind him. “Sure. I can meet you there, say about nine?”

“Nine works,” he replies, licking his lips. “I can’t wait to see what you have to show me.”

Lilah strides through the doors to the dining room happier than I’ve seen her since Jack passed, and the staff behind Nate are smiling widely, too. I know Nate is using the hotel to create a cover story for me going to his room, but to them, this is a sign that he might do this, help run this place, and it’s nice to see them happy, even if it’s only for a little while.

“Hey,” Nate says, placing a hand over mine. “What’s going through that pretty head of yours?” he asks.

“It’s nice seeing them happy again,” I say, and he looks over his shoulder for a moment and comes back to me.

“We better make sure this place stays open then, so they can stay that way.”

“Wait, really?”

He shrugs. “I still have no clue how I’m going to do it, but sure. If you think we can, I’m up for it. Let’s give this thing a go.”

I lean forward to whisper, “This isn’t just because we… you know?”

He blushes, letting out a soft laugh.

“While I’d like to also see where that goes, no. You were right. Maybe Jack knew what he was doing leaving me this place. I’ve been in a haze of pain and anger for so long now, this place showed me I could smile again, I could find joy, and I’m willing to bet that’s what he had here, too, with them. With you. I want that, too.”

“Then it’s yours.”

“No, it’s ours,” he says, taking another bite of the creamy cheesecake topping. I grab a spoon and go to get some when he pulls the plate to the side. “But this is mine.”

“You don’t strike me as the selfish type,” I tell him, and he purses his lips, pondering that for a moment before he spoons a small half spoon and holds it out to me.

“I’m an only child. We don’t particularly like to share.”

“I’ll teach you.”

“It could take years,” he says, swinging the spoon slowly back and forth in front of me teasingly.

“Promise?”