Atonement(43)
It did feel a bit strange to be speaking to someone who had been intimate with a man I hadn’t slept with yet.
Although I didn’t think it was right, I suddenly felt jealous. Here was this beautiful, sophisticated woman sitting between two men she’d slept with and yet what was I? A frightened woman, not much younger than her, afraid of starting a relationship with Colin because of…what exactly?
A feeling of pure pleasure surged through my body and all the sudden, I wanted to share myself with this wonderful man who had great taste in women and lager and places to hang out. However, I couldn’t do anything with him, not in his grandparents’ house. It felt too perverse and inappropriate. It was then I formulated a plan in my head to get him to a hotel and then, only then, could we consummate what seemed like a tease between us for the past two weeks.
Everything in my body screamed it was too soon and I should have held out a little longer but we weren’t kids, we were adults. Relationships followed their own course and I was not about to play “The Rules” game. Even if I had decided it would be okay, we’d been on more than three dates, shared the same bed for a week and he had never touched me in any way that was considered inappropriate. What was I waiting for exactly? The only way I would erase the memories of said impropriety with Liam would be to consummate my relationship with Colin but could I do it and would I go through with it?
I was feeling no pain, and had more than my fair share to drink though I wasn’t shit-faced by any stretch of the imagination. We’d been at the bar for over three hours and it wasn’t like we’d pounded lager after lager without taking a breath. I was more than ready and I knew tonight would be the perfect night.
Besides, knowing how Colin was, he would never initiate anything sexual between us at this point. I’d told him I wanted to take it slow and two weeks wasn’t slow by any stretch of the imagination unless one took into consideration I’d spent the last two weeks sharing living space with the man in question.
Before Clarissa and Ambros left, we exchanged phone numbers and she told me she would call me the following afternoon so we could go shopping. We all said our goodbyes and shortly after they left, I turned toward Colin.
“Are you ready to leave?” I wondered out loud.
“Definitely…only, I don’t think it would be safe for me to drive. The drunk driving laws are a lot stricter here than they are in the States and I would hate for us to be stopped by the cops. What do you think we should do?” he inquired before he finished the rest of his lager.
I pulled out my Android and Googled the closest hotels to where we were and TripAdvisor recommended the Clarion Collection Hotel Folketeateret. It was actually the number one hotel recommended and I immediately called them and booked a room with a young woman with good English who snapped up my credit card details before I ended the call.
“We’re set. Let’s go. Where did we park the car?”
“I used one of those paid parking lots so we’ll just have to pay however much it will be for parking overnight.”
“Sounds good to me. We can get a taxi. Let’s go,” I said as I grabbed my sweater coat and slipped it on.
Colin grabbed me by the arm and whipped me around to face him. It wasn’t painful, just unexpected and sudden. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
His crystal blue eyes searched my face for indecision but I knew he wouldn’t find any.
I nodded my head, my own eyes never leaving his. “I’ve never been surer of anything in my life. Let’s get out of here.”
He slipped an arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him. “Okay,” he merely said before we left the Beer Palace.
Chapter Twelve
CHECK-IN TOOK a little over ten minutes before we received our card keys and walked up to our room. It was the height of Scandinavian efficiency. The room was done up in hues of burgundy with a comfortable queen size bed, purple hotel chairs, a flat screen television and a clean bathroom.
I immediately took off my shoes and slipped out of my sweater coat, which I set on a chair. Colin threw his leather jacket on top of my sweater coat before his arms circled my waist from behind and he buried his face in my hair as he inhaled deeply.
“Mmm, you smell good. Like shampoo, orange blossoms, lemon and something else…a hint of crushed roses,” he whispered into my ear.
I smiled at his comment. “It’s Classique by Jean Paul Gaultier. It’s one of my favorite fragrances by him but I am glad you approve.”