Page 9

JACOB

Tesha stumbled up the stairs, and I steadied her, causing her to laugh more.

"You only had three glasses of wine," I said.

"I know," she groaned. "It just goes right to my head. It'll wear off when I lie down."

"True. Though maybe the stairs were the wrong idea."

She laughed again, then covered her mouth. "We had no choice. Someone threw up in the lift."

"Yeah, I'd probably have added to that if we'd gone inside. The smell always sets me off."

"Then it's good to walk."

"Yes, though you should maybe take off your heels..."

"It's fine, we're almost at the bedrooms, and I already feel better."

"Good." I still stayed close to her as she stumbled down the corridor. Her words might be clear, but her body definitely hadn't caught up when it came to coordination.

"This is me!" She threw her hands into the air when we got to the door of room twelve.

"So it is."

"Thanks for walking me home, Jacob."

"My pleasure, Tesha."

She smiled in a way that made her whole face light up. There was truly something beautiful about the way she expressed her emotions. She was animated and endearing, all at the same time. She opened her bag and searched through it, presumably to find her key.

Her smile fell and a more concerned expression crossed her face.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Will you hold these?" she asked.

I opened my hands and let her pile things into it, mildly surprised about how much could fit into such a small bag, and the fact she was trusting me with her keys and purse.

She turned the bag upside down and shook it, letting out a groan and rubbing her forehead.

She looked up and let out a frustrated sigh. "I've lost my key."

I raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were supposed to be good with those."

"Very funny," she responded.

"Sorry, the joke was right there."

"I know." She started putting her stuff away. "It must have fallen out of my bag when I knocked it. Do you think I could go back to the dining room to look?"

"They kicked us out and locked up, remember?"

She groaned. "I guess I'm going to have to go down to reception and ask for a new one."

"It's closed for the night," I said.

"What? Who closes the reception when there are guests?"

"No hotel I'd ever run. But the one my sister picked for her pre-wedding knees-up? That one."

"Eurgh. What am I going to do? I can't wake someone up in the middle of the night."

"My bed is huge, you can share, if you want." The suggestion slipped out before I truly had time to think about whether it was a good idea. But she looked so stressed by the idea of not having a key, and it wasn't like I could just let her sleep out here on the floor.

She laughed. "If you were a different man, I'd think that you had ulterior motives."

"Definitely not," I promised. "I can promise you that my hands will stay to themselves."

Indecision warred on her face. "Are you sure? I don't want you to be uncomfortable either."

"I'm the one inviting you," I reminded her.

"All right, but you're going to have to lend me a shirt, too. This dress makes me look good, but it's not exactly great for sleeping."

I laughed. "All right, you can borrow a shirt."

"I'll wash it before I give it back..."

"That's really not necessary," I said, digging my key out of my pocket and letting us both into my room.

I held the door open and let her inside, realising that there was surprisingly little about this that actually felt uncomfortable.

I liked that. But it wasn't a huge surprise.

Tesha had made me feel like that almost since the moment we met.

"I know this is a really strange question, but you don't happen to have a spare toothbrush, do you?" She looked at me with large, dark eyes that didn't seem nearly so drunk any more.

"Would it surprise you if I said I did?"

"A little." She looked around the room, but I doubted she'd find anything of interest. It was likely the same as hers.

"My toothbrush ran out of charge this morning and I couldn't find my charger, so I just bought a packet of toothbrushes from the supermarket on my way here. You're free to take the other one."

"Thank you. I hate trying to sleep when I haven't brushed my teeth. And even if we're not going to have sneaky sex in the middle of the night that we pretend didn't happen tomorrow, I don't want to offend you with my morning breath."

"You think we'd regret sex in the morning?" I asked curiously.

She shrugged. "I didn't say we'd regret it, I said that we'd pretend it didn't happen. Those are two different things."

"I suppose that's probably not what Ella wants to hear when she asks if we had a good time tonight."

Tesha laughed, a beautiful sound that lit up the room. "Either that, or she'd love it and start planning our wedding."

"Are you not married already?"

"Not last time I checked. You shouldn't believe everything you read about the gods online."

"You'll have to tell me what's true and what isn't." I dug a clean t-shirt out of my suitcase and held it out to her. "It's nothing fancy."

"I appreciate it all the same." She took it with a genuine smile. "Mind if I use the bathroom first?"

"Knock yourself out." I gestured in that direction.

She set her bag down on the bedside table and headed into the bathroom with my shirt.

I sat down on the bed and let out a sigh.

This wasn't the kind of situation I envisaged getting myself into when my sister had invited me on this weekend.

And yet there was a tiny part of me that was excited at the prospect of getting to spend a little bit more time with Tesha, especially when we'd be truly alone this time.

There wouldn't be anyone we worked with waiting tables nearby, or my sister planning some kind of thing to get us to spend more time together.

It was just going to be the two of us, and I definitely liked that more than I wanted to admit.