T h i r t e e n-5

I frown. "You're drinking wine on an empty stomach?" "Yes, I am. And I plan on having a few more before going to bed." She fixes me with a defiant stare which does nothing to soften my frown. A moment later the elevator pops open onto a dark carpeted hallway with the same dark wood panelled walls as downstairs, and again I follow her. Along to the very last door which she opens with a black and gold keycard. Inside, the room isn't what I expected. It's just a little smaller than the bedroom of the suite at the four seasons. It's decorated in a similar style as the rest of the hotel, lots of dark wood, plants and patterned carpets. There's a small seating area in one corner, with more vintage looking furniture and a TV hanging on the wall. On the other side of the room there's a large dark wood four-poster bed, with patterned drapes. At the foot of it, somewhat incongruously, yet somehow utterly in keeping with the quirkiness of both the hotel and the room, is a large wrought iron bathtub. From its angle, it faces out onto a wooden terrace, accessed by glass panelled french doors. It makes it feel as though we're in a Thomas Hardy novel. I can't help but imagine being in it with her, her resting between my legs with her head against my chest. My body roars with need. Charlie dumps the laptop on the table by the bed, and slips out of her shoes before lifting the telephone to ask for another wine glass to be brought up with her room service order. When she finishes the call and turns to look at me she seems a little less annoyed by my presence. Well, that was an improvement. "You shouldn't have come here." She says. Ok, perhaps I was wrong. I sigh. "I had considered that." I keep my eyes on her as I take off my jacket. "But doing nothing was driving me insane Charlie. I'm not prepared to do nothing when it comes to you. Not again." She softens a little, her body easing out of its tightly coiled stance into something more penetrable. "I called him. Earlier. After I left you." My body tenses. "I thought you might." I drape my jacket on the chair closest to me, without taking my eyes off her. "I offered him the money. Told him I'd sell the house in Martha's Vineyard, borrow it from my trust fund, borrow it from my father, whatever he wanted. I didn't want him to lose everything." "I assume he refused." I hadn't known Matthew Walker long, but I knew he was a stupid prideful bastard. Taking a loan from his wife would probably be even harder for him to swallow than taking it from Gideon and I. She smiles. "Of course he did. Would you like to know what his exact words were?" "Would I?" I highly doubted I would. "He said he was surprised to hear from me. Surprised that I'd managed to remove your cock from my mouth long enough to make the call." She smiles bitterly. I feel my nostrils flare and my fists clench but the knock on the door prevents me from responding with exactly the words I want to. "That'll be the wine. Would you mind getting it? I want to change." She says, disappearing into the bathroom. After tipping the room attendant and closing the door I place the bottle of Bordeaux on the small glass side table by the seating area and pour two glasses - a small one for Charlie since she hasn't eaten - and take a seat on the comfortable armchair near the fireplace, which is open but unlit and stacked with several small logs. I look back at the bathtub and decide it's a charming hotel. Chic and tasteful - I can see why she chose it. "I hope you gave them a decent tip, I like it here," she says as she comes around from behind me. She lifts the larger glass of Bordeaux from the table and I have to stifle a frown. Her hair is down now, loose about her shoulders, but she's still wearing her glasses. She's changed into a green belted silk bathrobe, which stops midway down her thighs, showing off her long pale flawless legs. "So you'll miss it when you move thousands of miles away then," I say. "I will. Amongst other things," she says staring at me as she takes a deep drink of her wine. Placing it back down on the table, she crosses the room to the roll top bathtub. "Sorry, but you kinda cut into my plan to have a quiet evening with a bubble bath and a bottle of Bordeaux. Don't mind if I carry on do you?" "Not at all," I say, already imagining her wet and naked. "You can wash my hair if you like?" She smiles over her shoulder, before leaning across to turn on both taps on the bath. As she adjusts the faucets I admire the view. The green silk riding up the back of her pale legs, revealing the beginning of her magnificent ass. She was naked underneath, that much was clear. That much was making my cock throb with a need like it did when I hadn't had sex in days. Yet I'd had some this afternoon, a lot in fact. With her. She was addictive. She always had been. Another thing that hadn't changed. Adjusting myself, I sit back in the sofa and sip at the delicious fruity red and instead try and convince myself that I can deal with not fucking her tonight. That I could leave this room after telling her how I feel, whatever it was, and if it made no difference then it made no difference. I'd deal with that too. When she's satisfied with the flow and the temperature she comes and sits on the dark red sofa across from me in her usual seated position, her legs tucked up under her body. She reaches across and lifts her glass, bringing it to her lips as she regards me over the rim. "I'm sorry about today," she says with a small nod, "about how I was with you, afterwards. None of it was your fault." She looks guilty. "I felt like being angry at someone. It was myself I was angry at, but I took it out on you. I apologise for that." "Apology accepted," I say, smiling at her. She smiles back before dropping her eyes and running the tip of her finger around the rim of her glass. "I'm sorry too." I tell her. "About how it went; about losing my temper like that." She looks up, frowning slightly. "Apology not accepted. I like that you defended my honor. It was very noble of you. Completely fucked up that you were defending it from my husband but still. Chivalry at it's finest." She smiles.