Embracing Today, a firefighter romance: (The Trading Yesterday Series, #3), Kahlen Aymes [essential reading txt] 📗

I used a delivery app to deliver my dinner to the hotel, but still had to go down to the desk to get it. I had no cash to tip and so didn’t feel right about asking one of the desk personnel to bring it up to the room.

I ate some of the salad and half of the cold roast beef sandwich I’d ordered and put the rest in the small refrigerator under the television. The thought of putting my dirty clothes back on was repulsive, yet I longed for a bath. I was tired, and just wanted to relax.

The deadbolt on the door securely in place, I took my phone into the bathroom and ran a bath. I was thankful that this hotel room didn’t have one of those godawful bathtubs without a sloping backrest. I picked up one of the small shampoo bottles and sighed, longing for the full-size bottles of toiletries in my suitcase.

“Oh, well,” I murmured. “This will have to do.” My uncle would chastise me for complaining. “At least I have a tub and hot water.”

After adjusting the water temperature, I poured a small vial of body wash under the running water, rinsing it out to get all of the soap out and under the running water. I decided to save the shampoo and conditioner for the morning. I used the Relax Melodies app to conjure a rushing wave sound, mixed with a crackling fire then shed my clothes and underwear. The light from the phone would be enough to see what I was doing, so I switched off the light before climbing into the deliciously hot water and sliding down until it covered me up to my shoulders.

Once I shut off the water, I was able to concentrate on the soothing sounds coming from the phone. Slowly the anxiety that had built up during the day was starting to ebb. Ben was coming to get me, and I had a deadbolt and one of those flippy locks securing the room. I might still be afraid, but the hotel, though more expensive than I had planned on for this trip, had lobby security and no other way to get up to the rooms.

I inhaled and closed my eyes enjoying the warmth that was slowly seeping into my muscles. My eyes started to droop, and the bliss of the plateau between drowsiness and deep sleep settled over me.

As I lay there, my head lolled to one side suddenly, quickly jerking me awake. I wasn’t sure how long I’d slept in the bathtub, but the water was tepid and the skin on my fingers and toes was wrinkled.

“Oh,” I said, blinking, and began to push from the tub, carefully wrapping one of the fluffy white towels around me as the low light from the phone illuminated the room in a soft glow. I was so tired and ended up under the covers in one of the two double beds closest to the bathroom, still wrapped in the damp towel, barely aware of how I got there. I couldn’t have opened my eyes if my life depended on it, and the damp heat permeating around me made my body go limp and my muscles relax. I realized I didn’t know what time it was, but surely it would be several hours yet until Ben arrived. “Uhhh,” I sighed. I’d left my phone on the counter in the bathroom but didn’t have the desire or ability to get out of my warm cocoon to retrieve it.

I’ll wake up in plenty of time, I thought then slipped into a deep, exhausted sleep.

I was startled awake by the hotel phone ringing shrilly beside the bed. I sat up, then scrambled across the bed toward the phone with an outstretched hand. What if it was Apollo? I tried to fortify my thinking, but I was still rattled from the events of the day before, and still afraid.

The thought was insane. There were thousands of hotels in Minneapolis and there was no way he’d be able to find me. I lifted the receiver with one hand, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes with the other. I inhaled my first deep breath of the day.

“Hello?”

“Miss Landry? This is Lisa from reception,” an unfamiliar female voice asked. “I’m sorry to disturb you ma’am, but you have a visitor. I can’t let him up to the room without your approval.”

The curtains were securely drawn, and I had no idea what time it was. The red digital numbers of the alarm clock on the bedside table blinked 0:00.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“3 AM.”

Ben couldn’t possibly have driven all this way already. It had already been close to dinner time when the police rescued me from the mall, and it had been after nine when they’d delivered me to the hotel. I’d texted Ben from the mall bathroom around seven. There was no way he’d be here yet. My heart started pounding painfully inside my chest as panic seized me. “What does he look like?”

“Um…” The woman sounded hesitant. “Tall, sandy blonde hair, blue eyes.”

“Marin, it’s Ben.” I heard his voice in the background. “May I just speak to her?”

Relief flooded through me. “It’s okay, Lisa,” I agreed. “I know him.”

“Hey, are you okay?” I could hear the exhaustion in his husky voice; that beautiful voice that I was starting to rely on. “I’ve been worried.”

“Hi. Yes, I’m fine. What are you doing here so soon?”

“I decided to fly. I rented a car at the airport and we can drive back tomorrow. I’m going to get a room and get some sleep. I had an early shift today. I guess it’s yesterday, now. I’m wiped out.”

My mind was filled with questions. I’d wondered why I hadn’t had another text from him, but now I knew it’s because he’d spent three hours on a plane. I had a hard time placing