“Thank you for this. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”
“Blow my mind with the pitch.”
“I will, I promise.”
His eyes are dark with intensity. “Oh, I have no doubt about that.”
I sink down on one of the couches. “I appreciate the vote of confidence.”
Isaac takes a few steps back toward the door. The suit he’s in looks near-black in the dimmed lighting. “Enjoy your stay.”
“Thanks,” I say. “Oh… wait a second.”
“Yes?”
“Do you want a nightcap?”
The presumptuous words hang in the air between us, filling the giant suite with tension. My hand curls around the plush fabric of a pillow.
But then he nods. “Yes.”
I walk to the well-stocked minibar, but in this place, absolutely nothing deserves the prefixmini.The bottles are full-sized.
Isaac joins me, opening the built-in wine cooler with the ease of someone who’s been in this suite a lot. He pulls out a bottle of white, and I catch the label. It’s a Chardonnay.
“You remembered,” I murmur.
“Of course.” He pours me a glass and himself one of brandy before we settle on the oversized couches. I want to draw my legs up beneath me and resist the impulse. The suite is too pristine and filled with too much history. It feels like I’m on a movie set or at a museum.
Look, but don’t touch.
“Will you tell me more about this suite?”
He takes a sip from his glass and clears his throat. “What do you want to know?”
“Who’s stayed here?”
“You want names?” he asks, an eyebrow rising.
“A few,” I say. “Maybe not too many, or I’ll never be able to fall asleep in that bed.”
He chuckles and stretches his legs out. “We change mattresses pretty frequently, especially in this suite.”
My mouth drops open. “Because it gets so…”
“To make sure the springs are fresh,” he says. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”
I laugh. “God, the things I was picturing.”
“I can only imagine.” He taps a finger against the tumbler, and it makes a soft clicking sound. “All right, so you want some names. How about these…” he says and goes on to recite a long list.
My eyes grow wider with every single one. “Oh,” I say, “myGod.”
His lips curve. “Yeah. It sounds a bit unreal all laid out like that.”
“The last two you mentioned… did you have to sanitize the suite after they were done?”
Isaac snorts. “My dad had the whole suite reupholstered and scrubbed down with bleach. This is confidential, but every glass surface had traces of cocaine on it.”