Page 28 of Only for the Week
Dani: But what you need Nelle?
Me: I need Ri interference
Dani: What you mean?
Me: I can’t handle any outings right now I just need a day of silence
Evie: Omg love her down but she will have to pry my cold dead body out of this room if she wants to do stuff today I’m not with it
Dani: LMAO I feel that my battery is all the way dead
Evie: Let her spend some time with her man and leave us be
Dani switches over to the group chat with all four of us on it to ask Ri to pardon us from activities today and Ri reluctantly agrees. I could’ve texted her myself but I knew it would go over better coming from anyone but me.
Satisfied with my efforts, I turn to Rome with a wide smile on my face. He looks good as hell leaning against the bathroom doorjamb in nothing but his briefs shaking his head in utter amusement.
“You good?”
“I’m great. So, what are we doing with all this free time?” I start to saunter toward him and he meets me halfway, dropping his lips to mine in a sweet kiss.
“You’ll see. Now get dressed. Wear a bathing suit.” He turns his back to me and starts pulling on the clothes he wore last night. “I’m gonna go shower and grab my stuff, but I’ll meet you back here in thirty.”
Hold on, get dressed? Wear a bathing suit? When he demanded I free up my day, I assumed he wanted to spend the entire day in bed. I wasn’t expecting an outing and now I’m even more turned around.
It’s risky because after I just made a big deal out of wanting to stay in all day to the girls it would be wild for me to get caught out and with Rome no less, but the idea of spending quality time with him outside of these four walls has a whole stampede of elephants running rampant in my stomach.
“Umm, okay.”
“No questions?”
“Were there supposed to be? I thought you told me to just trust you.”
“I’m just impressed you’re listening. Let me find out you’re a good girl after all.”
Heat rushes to my core, leaving me breathless. “Keep playing, you’ll find out what a good girl I am.”
His gaze travels the length of my body so painstakingly slowly I can feel all the womanism jumping out of my skin.
He lets out a sarcastic huff and bends down to grab my bag. He claims to have already packed it with the essentials at some point this morning. I’m convinced the man never sleeps. “Thirty minutes, Janelle.”
“Favorite animal.”
As promised, Rome came back to my room after thirty minutes and led me to one of our rental cars. We’ve all typically been riding bikes into town since it’s not far, so the fact that we’re in the rental means we’re going farther than the hotel-provided bike rentals would take us. What is he up to?
We’ve been driving for the past ten minutes, and I’ve been asking random questions to keep from asking that exact question.
“A giraffe,” he says after a moment.
“Aww, forreal? Giraffes are cute. Did you know that giraffes are the tallest terrestrial animal?”
He laughs and drops his hand to my thigh. “I didn’t know that. Look at you coming through with the animal facts.”
“Had to show you I’m more than just a pretty face.”
“I think I knew that already, Dr. Cross.” I smile at his jab. “Okay, what’s your favorite animal?”
“Oh, easy. Turtles.”
