“Thanks, but I used the guest bathroom.”
“What about your mom?”
“She’s already out cold. Traveling tires her. Plus there’s the time difference.”
I’m feeling guilty now. And I cling to the feeling, because that’s better than being turned on by my boss. “I’m sorry to hear that, especially since she came out here for nothing. Maybe we should’ve told her the truth.”
“Actually, she was planning to visit anyway, so it doesn’t matter,” Nate says. “Our stuff just pushed it up a bit.”
Bye-bye, guilt. Hello, more intense libido.
“Tomorrow’s a busy day,” he says.
“Yes.” Tomorrow’s agenda! Right! Any port in a storm. “You have four meetings, three with auditors and one with your lawyers.”
“Uh-huh. Okay.” He pats the empty space next to him. “Well, good night.”
There’s no way I’m sleeping there. What if I do something really stupid during the night? Like gradually migrate toward the center…toward him?
“I’ll just take this love seat.” I move toward the small couch in the seating area.
He jackknifes up. “Absolutely not.”
“Why not?” Is there something wrong with it? Actually, now that I think about it, I’ve never seen him sit there.
“Because I’m a gentleman.”
“And?”
“I can’t let you sleep there while I take the bed.” He swings around and stands up. “You take the bed. I’ll take that one.”
I study his six-foot-plus frame and the couch, which is barely big enough to accommodate me. He isn’t going to be comfortable there. And really, there’s no reason for him to give up the bed, when it’s only for six weeks.
I press my lips together and think. There’s an easy solution
to this.
“Do you have some more pillows?” I ask.
“Uh, yeah. In the closet. Why?”
“Let’s go.”
I walk into the closet with him. He points out two huge drawers on the bottom, and I see six more pillows.
“Geez. Why so many?” I ask.
“I had trouble finding one I liked.”
“So why didn’t you toss the ones you didn’t like?” Nate never struck me as a hoarder.
“Ah,” he says, holding up a finger. “Because then they would not have been available to you tonight.”
I laugh at his faux-wise tone. “Yeah? You could see into the future?”
“I just felt guilty about throwing them out after only sleeping on them a couple of times. I was thinking about donating them, but couldn’t figure out where. I mean, who wants used pillows?” He shrugs.
Spoken like a true billionaire. I take them to the bed and line them up in the center. He watches with interest.