Page 30 of I Am Salvation

I nod and continue driving until we get to the destination.

Canyon Vista Resort and Spa.

Resort and spa? I was thinking a Motel Six or something. Maybe a Holiday Inn.

This place is way too ritzy. The kind of hotel where extremely tan sixty-year-old people wearing white linen suits spend their winters. It’s like something out of a Southwestern postcard—a series of adobe-style buildings in earthy tones of terracotta and sand. Cottonwood trees and clusters of sagebrush surround the resort, and the place is outfitted with large exposed beams, handcrafted wooden doors, and wrought-iron accents. A sprawling courtyard, dotted with colorful desert flowers and a central stone fountain, leads to the entrance.

I stop the car. “Diana, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

“Don’t worry about it, Dragon. I’m the one who stowed away on your trip. It’s on me.”

I shake my head, looking at the resort. “I can’t afford this. I’m not going to let you pay for my room.”

She lets out a huff. “Fine. We’ll go somewhere else.”

“You can stay here. But I can’t, Diana.”

“All right, Dragon.” She puffs her lips out. “What would it take to get you to stay here with me?”

“You’re already letting me stay in your penthouse for free.” I sigh. “I don’t like being emasculated, Diana.”

I expect her to roll her eyes at that one, but she doesn’t. She simply takes my hand. “Look at me, Dragon.”

I turn and meet her gaze. Those dark-brown eyes are like pools of rich chocolate.

“I would never think of emasculating you. That’s not what this is about.” She grabs my hands, squeezes them gently. “We’ve been to bed together, Dragon. I know who you are. What kind of man you are. This is only about us being comfortable for the night. And if you want to pay me back, that’s fine. Why don’t you buy dinner?”

“One dinner won’t make up for everything you’ve done for me.”

Her eyes twitch upward, but then she returns them to me. “I wish you’d stop thinking about it that way. I have the means. It’s not fair that I was born into it, and you weren’t. It’s just how it is. I’d like to do this for you.”

“In return?” I ask.

“In return, nothing.” She sighs. “I spent the last two days trying to figure out how to live with my conscience.”

“Because of me?”

“No. Because of something at work. I don’t know that I really want to go into it, but suffice it to say, I made the wrong choice. Rather, in the end, I made the right one. It cost me my position at the firm, but that’s okay because I can live with myself. I’ll be able to sleep tonight.” She opens the car door. “I’d like to sleep in a comfortable bed. And I’d like you to sleep in one, too.”

Is she talking the same bed? Or two separate but equally comfortable beds?

God, I hope it’s the former.

I lean toward her. “What exactly happened, Diana?”

“Tell you what,” she says. “I’ll level with you, Dragon…if you level with me.”

I look down at the spotless floor of Diana’s BMW. Right. That won’t be happening anytime soon.

On the other hand, though, she’s here with me. I should have told her not to come. I should have insisted. But I didn’t.

I didn’t because on some level I want her here.

On a lot of levels I want her here.

I’m feeling things for this woman—this woman who’s so damned out of my league—that I’ve never felt before. I’d say it was love if I knew what the fuck love was.

Diana Steel may like fucking me, but she’s never going to love me.

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