• • •When we got to Atlanta, Milo navigated through the city and pulled up in front of the Four Seasons. We hadn’t yet discussed where we were staying. Just like every other city we’d been to, I’d thought we were going with the flow.
I looked out the passenger window. “Wow. This place is beautiful.”
“I researched the nicest hotels in the area while you were driving. Since it’s our last night together, I figured we deserved something special.”
Just hearing him say last night made my chest tighten again.
The valet came around and opened my door while Milo took our bags out of the trunk. The attendant handed him a ticket.
“Hang onto it for a few minutes,” Milo told the valet. “We don’t have reservations, so we might be leaving if they have no rooms.”
The guy bowed. “No problem, sir.”
Milo and I walked into the opulent lobby. It was, by far, the nicest hotel we’d been in. The lobby had sky-high ceilings, a massive crystal chandelier, and sun streaming in from floor-to-ceiling windows on two of the four walls. The room literally sparkled. I was pretty sure the marble floor was clean enough to eat off of, too.
“This is so fancy,” I said. “I sort of feel like a movie star coming in here.”
Milo linked his hand with mine. “These rooms are on me.”
“I can’t let you do that. They’ll be a fortune.”
“I insist.”
We walked up to the front desk, which had no line.
“May I help you?”
“Hi, yes,” Milo said. “We don’t have a reservation. Would you happen to have any rooms available?”
The woman nodded and smiled. “We do. What kind of rooms were you looking for?” She punched a few keys into her computer and said, “Our regular rooms are four hundred seventy-five dollars a night, or we have a suite for five hundred ninety-five a night.”
Milo looked over at me and winked. “Two suites, please.”
“Okay. And how many nights will you be staying?”
Again my heart sank. Milo’s face was glum when he answered, “Just one.”
“Very well. I’ll need a license and a credit card.”
As the clerk clicked away, the reality of this as our last night sank in. If we had less than twenty-four hours left, I wanted to spend every last moment next to Milo. He handed the woman his credit card and license and strummed his fingers on the counter.
“Actually, ma’am,” I said. “Could we change our reservation?”
The woman’s brows knitted, and she looked up. “You want to stay more than one night?”
“No. But we only need one suite.” I turned to the man standing next to me and lowered my voice. “Would that be okay with you?”
Milo’s eyes washed over my face, and he looked into my eyes for a few, very long seconds. He nodded. “Yeah. Definitely.”
Linking our fingers together on the counter, I smiled at the clerk. “One suite instead of two, please.”
The woman looked amused. “No problem.”
After she finished checking us in, she put two plastic key cards into a small holder and looked around the lobby. Leaning in, she said, “I ordered a bottle of champagne and some chocolate-covered strawberries to your room. If the manager happens to ask, your bathroom wasn’t working, so I sent it as an apology for the inconvenience. It’s also why you’ve been upgraded to our deluxe suite.”
Milo took the keys with a giant smile. “You’re the best.”
She looked at us with a coy smirk. “Enjoy your evening.”• • •Our suite was gorgeous. We had a view of downtown Atlanta, a separate living room and bedroom, and a bathroom that was bigger than most decent-sized hotel rooms. After I went online and made my flight arrangements, I decided the big bathtub was too irresistible to ignore. Plus, the hotel had a bevy of spa products lined up on a glass shelf in the bathroom that I couldn’t wait to try, including a coconut and sea salt bath bomb.
So I filled the tub, told Milo I’d have my ear buds in, and climbed into the warm water. Shutting my eyes as I settled in, I put on classical music and tried to relax. I’d had a tension knot the size of a golf ball in my neck ever since Felicity called.
It seemed unimaginable that tomorrow at this time I’d be back home in Connecticut. Obviously, this trip had to come to an end sooner or later, but I wasn’t ready for tonight to be the last one. Milo and I had been together less than two weeks, yet the thought of going home and not seeing him left a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach. I’d grown so attached to him.
Deep down, however, I did know I needed to figure things out with Brady before starting anything new. Milo had been right about that from the very beginning. And it made me so much more attracted to him to know he put my emotional needs above his own physical ones. Because a lesser man might not have. It would’ve been so easy for Milo to get me into bed, to take advantage of my neediness and vulnerability, especially because I was so attracted to him. But he didn’t. And while not quite two weeks might not be that long to know someone, the way he’d handled things between us had really shown me the type of man he was.