Chapter Twenty-Seven
Rose didn’t know what woke her in the quiet hotel room. She reached out to the other side of the bed but found it cold. She rolled to her side and saw Gray sitting on the small sofa, the drapes closed at his back. He wore a dress shirt and tie and had his laptop on his thighs, and his bare knees told her he wasn’t wearing pants. It made her smile.
“What time is it?”
He stared at her over his laptop, his eyes filled with a hunger she now recognized. He tapped a key, then looked at the screen. “I’ll have to call you back.” He closed the laptop, set it aside on the ottoman, loosened his tie, pulled it off over his head, undid his shirt, and took that off, too.
Then he stood in just his boxer briefs, muscles moving, all of him sculpted to perfection.
“I could look at you all day.” She ate up every inch of him with her gaze.
He came to the bed, crawled over her, slid in beside her, pulled her close, so they were lying facing each other, and brushed his hand over the side of her face and hair. “Did you sleep well?”
“You made sure I did. And I definitely feel better after the lovely dinner in bed you ordered for us last night and getting some sleep.”
“You should. It’s after ten.”
“What?” With the drapes drawn, she had no clue she’d slept in so late.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I put your phone on mute. I did answer a text from Maggie. She wants us to meet her and Joel for lunch at twelve-thirty.”
“Okay. Did she say anything else?”
“No. I didn’t ask anything, just replied that we’d be there.”
“I need to see her. I need to know that she’s okay.”
“I think she will be if she’s back with Joel. Right?”
It took her a second to understand what he meant. She needed some caffeine. “Yes. Joel was... is the love of her life.”
“That sounds a lot like how I feel about you.”
“Yeah?” She slipped her hand up his chest to the back of his neck and snuggled in closer to him. “Well, you are the only one I want.”
“So you’re just going to keep me?”
“Yes. I plan to do just that.” She smiled back at him, because his smile lit up her heart.
“Prove it.”
“Well, it may take some time, but you’ll see I mean it.”
He brushed his fingers down the side of her face. “I already know you mean it.” He kissed her softly. “I sent you an email this morning about the job you applied for last month.”
She didn’t expect that. “Are you serious?”
“A hundred percent. It’s all the information for your phone interview with the hiring manager for the department that posted the job request.”
“Gray, you didn’t have to pull any strings for me.”
“More than I want you to work for my company and be there with me when it goes public, I wanted to know why someone like you, with your education and talent, was overlooked. Twice.”
That got her attention. “What did you find out?”
“It took some digging, but I’m glad I did it, because our CEO has two college-age daughters who are both studying engineering. When he found out what I learned, he fired the HR person in charge of hiring our engineers and programmers.”
“Why?” She had a bad feeling, given the disgust on Gray’s face.