“I’ve turned the water on to fill the Jacuzzi. I thought we might sit in it and talk and relax some. But certainly have a shower first. Likely we should all get clean before we get in the hot tub.”
He saw the frown between her eyes, but she silently slid off the bed and disappeared into the bathroom.
“I expect it’ll take half an hour to fill that Jacuzzi so we’ve all got time to shower first.”
Elijah jumped out of bed. “I’m feeling like a snack and she didn’t eat at all at the meet and greet. Why don’t I order something from room service while you and Ryia shower? It should be here before the Jacuzzi is ready.”
“Good plan.”
Ryia wasn’t gone long, but she was wrapped from armpits to ankles in a thick towel when she returned. Asher was disappointed. He’d wanted to stroke her skin, maybe suck her breasts some more, but he could do that later in the Jacuzzi. When the food arrived he saw the hunger in Ryia’s gaze, but he also noted the determined way she turned her back on the tray and pretended not to smell the heady aroma of burgers and fries.
Since she’d chosen to wear a towel, he and Elijah had also wrapped towels around their waists. “Come, eat,” he said.
“I mustn’t.”
“Why not?”
“Fat people like me are just pigs with their snouts always in the trough that other people have worked hard to provide,” she said softly.
He saw the pain in her face as she spoke and the desperate way she breathed deeply and straightened her spine.
“Who told you that bullshit?” asked Elijah. “You aren’t stealing our food. We want to eat and we offered to share with you. We’ve just used a million calories up in bed and now we’re hungry. You should be twice as hungry as us because you didn’t eat supper.”
“I had two slices of orange and—”
“That doesn’t count. Come and have some salad at the very least. There’s basically no calories in salad if you don’t add dressing,” urged Asher.
Asher was really starting to get angry at whoever had done a number of Ryia about her weight. She wasn’t skinny, that was true. But she wasn’t obese or wobbling with fat all over her body. She was a little chubby certainly, but mostly she was soft and lush in an extremely enticing way. Runway models might look awesome on the catwalk, but he suspected they’d be hell to cuddle, all sharp angles and protruding bones. Ryia had been a delight to hold in his arms and he couldn’t wait to do it again.
He tugged her onto his knee, tipped her chin up, and waited until she was looking into his gaze. “I don’t know who told you you’re fat, but you have to stop letting it fill your mind. Size zero is a job description. Real women have curves and I plan to explore your curves over and over again.”
“I do, too. But I’d like to know why you worry about your weight. And who fed you that bullshit about stealing our food?”
“My ex…”
“Just as well he is your ex or I might have had to ex him myself,” said Elijah.
Ryia gave a tiny giggle.
“You were going to say more. The ex-husband you mentioned earlier?”
Ryia’s gaze clouded over. “It’s complicated. But he’s out of my life now.”
“He’s still in your head, though, isn’t he? We need to exorcize him from there. The Jacuzzi will be ready. Elijah, bring all that stuff and let’s move the party to the Jacuzzi and we can talk and rest simultaneously.”
“Oh, I like that idea.”
Chapter Four
Fortunately the food was still on the room service trays, so Elijah carried them into the bathroom and sat the trays on the wide ledge beside the Jacuzzi. He hurried back to the bedroom and riffled through his luggage, pulling out lube and condoms. Not that he thought they’d be fucking again quite this soon. It was pretty awesome they’d been permitted to fuck her already and talk was what needed to happen now. He wanted to get to know her properly as the complicated and deep person she so clearly was.