I tilted my head back, into his cupped hand. I wanted the warmth and his touch. “What don’t I know?”
He sucked in a breath. In the darkness, his eyes peered down at me. He huffed, shaking his head. He repositioned his hands to my forearms, rubbing in an effort to warm my skin. “You’re freezing.”
My body had been shaking, but before it must have been shock from getting pulled into the water. Now I trembled nearly uncontrollably. The wind bit into my skin, the water giving it an icy edge.
He picked me up, carrying me until he found his jacket and my shoes. He lowered me until I was standing. He bent over, picked up his jacket and brought it to my shoulders. “I can’t drive us back like this. You’ll get sick.”
I wanted to answer him, but a shiver was all I managed. I was afraid to speak, because I wasn’t sure I would be understood.
He sighed, collecting me into his arms and holding me close. The wind rocked wildly around us, kicking sand up to stick to our skin. North ducked his head close to mine, pressing his cheek to the top of my head.
I nearly buried myself into him.
A NIGHT AWAY
North drove back to the main road on Folly Beach. I trembled at the wind cutting into me so badly that my body hurt, like a thousand needles were burrowing underneath the surface of my skin.
When we got back to the main road, North pulled into the hotel’s parking lot. He parked as closed to the doors as he could. He urged me to get off the bike, stood up, and dusted himself off.
“We look like a wreck,” he said. He tugged the jacket across my shoulders tighter. “When we go in, go find the bathroom. There’s a hallway to the right. Try to clean yourself up. I don’t want anyone thinking I’ve kidnapped you.”
I meant to nod, but mostly trembled. “We’re staying here tonight?”
“I can’t drive you back like this. And it’ll drive Kota crazy.”
I stared at the hotel. The building seemed huge. I’d never been in a hotel. North led the way under an archway and through the automatic opening glass doors.
The lobby inside had a sitting area to the right, and a guest registry desk to the left. The counter was empty. Was the hotel closed?
North nudged me, pointing out a sign to the right that said “Restrooms.” I padded over, suddenly realizing I’d entered in my bare feet. North had put my shoes into the saddlebag of his bike. I marched to the bathroom, trying not to shake so badly that I ended up falling over.
The bathroom’s heater was working very well. I stood just inside the doorway, absorbing the warmth. When I caught my reflection in the mirror, I blanched.
There was a good sized bruise on my neck. My hair was wild from the bike and the wind. There were clumps of sand all over. With my soaked clothes and North’s oversized jacket on my frame, I resembled some homeless girl from a war zone in a faraway country.
I had a fleeting thought of wondering what I was doing there. Who was I to stay the night at a hotel an hour away from home? What in the world was I doing? Whatever happened to Sang, the invisible girl that no one looked at?
I shook the thoughts off. I approached the sink, turning on the hot water and rinsing the sand off my hands.
I tugged my fingers through my hair, trying to rake back the strands. When that didn’t work, I used the teeth of the clip to try to comb out what knots I could. I brushed the sand away, feeling guilty that I was dirtying the floor.
When my hair was tied back again, I shoved North’s jacket around me and zipped it up. I still looked like a hobo girl, but at least my hair wasn’t a nest.
I opened the door, and found North standing outside the door. He perked up when I came out, and held up a card key. “Ready?”
My body started to shake again from tiredness and chill, and my nerves rattled. I forced a nod.
North found my hand, tugging me toward an elevator a little further down the hall. It felt awkward that I hadn’t seen anyone else around here yet. It was like the entire hotel was empty. Whoever he’d done business with at the front desk had disappeared.
North pushed the button for the fourth floor. I stood close to him. He kept an arm around my shoulders, his jaw set.
When we got to the fourth floor, the doors opened to a green carpeted hallway. North lead the way down the corridor, stopping at a room almost at the end.
I don’t know what I expected of a hotel room. I’d seen a handful over the years on television but I supposed I never paid too much attention to it. There was a single large bed, with a headboard made of bamboo rods stuck together. There was a lime green couch, a coffee table, a single desk with an office chair, an entertainment center. The setup made me think of my own bedroom at home, with a single small bed and a bookshelf. My bedroom was more barren than a hotel room.
North opened a door that lead to a bathroom. He flicked on the switch, leaning his head inside to look around. He turned back to me, curling his fingers. “Take your clothes off,” he said.
My eyes widened at him.
His head tilted and he frowned, then he shook his head. “I mean inside here. Take them off, wash the sand off. And then hop into the shower to warm up and get clean.” He stepped out of the bathroom and motioned to me to get in.
I padded inside. He closed the door. I turned, shivering where I stood.
The promise of warm water sounded good. I hurried to turn on the hot water, eager to strip and settle into a bath.
While the tub filled, I fiddled with a tray on the counter, fingering a coffee maker and a packet of coffee and the cups. I smoothed my hand over the towels, smelling the bleach and the other cleaners used in the space. It was heady and made me want to sneeze.
When the water was high enough, I left the faucet running and I stripped out of my clothes, dipping my toe into the warm water. I had meant to do what he said and wash my clothes first, but I was too eager to get warm.
I put my foot in and then stopped, tugging myself out of the bath again. The heat made my skin tingle painfully as much as the cold did. I eased my way into the water slowly, going as fast as I could. I drew the curtain closed, just to capture the heat.
When I was finally settled in and the warm water wrapped around me, I breathed out. I didn’t care to wash. I just wanted to absorb as much heat as I could.
When I thought about North, I forced myself to wash. He probably needed to warm up, too. I used the shampoo, thinking of how Gabriel would probably have a fit, but secretly delighting in the idea of him probably lecturing me and getting him to wash my hair again. I rinsed out as much of the sand as I could.
I wanted to stay forever, but after a while, I was starting to fight off sleep. Thinking of the bed so close, I groaned, summoning up the strength to pull myself from the water.
I let the water start to drain, yanking back the curtain and grabbing for one of the towels. When I stepped from the tub though, something about the room bugged me, and I didn’t understand it for a moment. My poor, tired brain didn’t want to process.
Then I realized my clothes were gone.
I blushed, realizing North had probably been inside the bathroom. Did I not lock the door?
As if North had heard my thoughts, there was a gentle knock on the door. “Sang?”
“Yes?” I asked, wrapping the towel around my body. “What is it?”
North opened the door poking his head in. His eyes caught my face, lowered quickly to the towel and looked up again. He had a towel wrapped around his waist, tied off at the edge of his hips. I got an eyeful of his muscular broad chest, and the lines of his abs. Dark hair trailed up from under the towel toward his belly button. It distracted me from his face.
“You good?” he asked.
I nodded, not too sure what he was asking of me exactly.
He entered, crossed the room and picked up a blow dryer that was plugged into the wall. He unplugged it, then left the bathroom, curling his fingers at me to follow.
I crossed my arms against my chest to keep the towel t
ight around me, walking out into the main room behind him. My skirt and shirt and his T-shirt and jeans were sitting on top of the heater against the wall. My underwear was spread out on the desk, along with a pair of black boxer briefs. He plugged in the dryer.
“I’ve washed everything,” he said. He pointed to our underwear. “But dry these and we’ll sleep in them.”
I blushed, taking the blow dryer from his hands. I wondered how he managed to wash the clothes. Did he do it in the sink while I was in the bath? I hadn’t heard him. He must have found a sink somewhere else.
I hadn’t thought far enough ahead to consider what to sleep in. There was a certain bit of comfort in the way Academy guys seemed to always be thinking ahead.
North left me to take his own shower. I swept the blow dryer on high across our underwear. I touched the material, testing it, wanting to put mine on before he got back.
I had my underwear on and was fumbling with shaking fingers to get the bra hooked behind my back when the bathroom door opened again. My heart skipped, and I stuffed my arms over my breasts, half turned.
North stood just outside the bathroom door. His intense eyes swept down my body before lifting to my face. “Sorry,” he said, his cheeks tinting. “I...”