Friday, June 22
Jason Wu kept his face blank as he left his supervisor, walked through the beige cubicle farm filling the center of his company’s office and returned to his desk. He refused to slump in his chair. For the third year in a row, he’d been denied a promotion because his company had no openings higher up. The code waiting on his computer screen seemed meaningless.
Jason’s foot worked up and down under his desk. He’d married Eliza planning to start a family and enter the ranks of adulthood. Five years in, he couldn’t figure out why he still felt like such a kid. If Eliza were here asking about the performance review and promotion he’d hoped for, he would make a joke and play it off. He would take comfort in the admiration that so often filled her brown eyes and tell himself he’d done all right.
Without Eliza, the facts appeared stark. He wanted children with her but didn’t feel ready. He wanted a nice home with her, but the renovations he’d thought would help had made their evenings miserable. More than anything, he wanted Eliza—laughing, cheeks dimpling, raising one sexy eyebrow at him and twirling a finger through her curly hair. That vision of her seemed far too distant now.
Jason studied himself for a moment. Where was his easy joking when it came to Eliza and their house? He would laugh off a disappointment at work, then turn around and let an obstacle at home prevent him from enjoying the company of his beautiful wife. Jason had everything exactly backward.
At work, he needed to get a lot more serious. If he wanted that promotion, he had to start applying to other companies.
With Eliza, he needed a lot more fun. If he cared about preserving the joy and comfort his marriage provided, he could not afford to let renovations get in the way. Jason made a quick online reservation.
* * * * *
Eliza gasped as Jason turned the car into the parking lot of one of Providence’s nicest downtown hotels. “We’re staying here?”
He pulled smoothly up to the valet. “I told you I’d make it up to you.”
“Jason, I would have been happy anywhere with no contractors and a bed.”
He reached over and squeezed her hand. “I think we both deserve a nice night. Let’s forget about the contractors and pretend we’re celebrities.”
Eliza smiled. He’d had her dress up before leaving the house, and he cut an impressive figure in his tailored suit. She’d bought it for his birthday the year before, and the extravagance had paid off. Jason swung up and out of the car, the suit complementing his tall, lean physique perfectly. In the dim evening light, she could just make out the dark purple of his shirt.
He stepped around to the passenger side of the car and opened Eliza’s door for her. Her husband lifted her out of their car and into his arms, making her feel she’d just stepped out of a limousine, not a sedan. Large glass doors opened noiselessly to let them into the hotel lobby, which gleamed and smelled faintly of other guests’ expensive cologne. Eliza leaned on Jason’s arm as he checked them in. Outside the fundraisers she planned for the museum where she worked, she hadn’t been inside a building this nice in years.
Jason waved away the offer of a bellhop and shouldered both his bag and Eliza’s, leading her to the bank of elevators beyond the reception desk. When they were alone inside the box, he smiled, obviously pleased with himself. “What do you think?”
“Red carpet and a mirror on the ceiling,” Eliza said, gripping the brass railing that ran along the walls at waist height. “I’m impressed.” She winked.
“Not the elevator. The hotel.”
She smiled. “Ohhh… Well, I’m wondering how many nights we could have gotten at a motel, but other than that—”
“Motels don’t bring you breakfast in bed, which we are definitely getting in the morning. And I don’t think a motel would have been pretty enough for you.”
Eliza wrinkled her nose, a little embarrassed by his compliments. She studied the full-length mirror on the elevator wall across from her. She reassured herself that she shouldn’t worry about the cost of this hotel. Jason took good care with money. He wouldn’t have booked this room if they couldn’t afford it. “It’s overwhelming,” she said.
“I’m only getting started.”
“Yeah?”
The elevator dinged, announcing their arrival on their floor. “It’s 505,” Jason said, just before taking off at a run.
“Jason Wu!” Eliza called, laughing. “It’s no fair to race when I’m in heels!”
“I just want my prize.”
“I did not agree to a prize,” Eliza huffed, arriving at the door a little breathless as he opened it and carried their stuff inside.
“Really? Not even if the prize is spending a night with me?” He winked.
Eliza’s stomach fluttered. “When you put it that way…”
He shut the door behind them and lay back on the bed with a loud sigh. Jason patted the space beside him. Eliza obeyed the gesture, mimicking his posture and sigh all too precisely. He glared and she giggled.
“Apparently,” Eliza said, “being in a fancy hotel makes us both act as if we were five.”
“I’m just glad we’re not home, honestly. You were right. I had to get out of there. I was losing my mind.”
“I knew it was no good as soon as I saw you with that vacuum cleaner.”
“I certainly didn’t expect to get wounded! This has been totally ridiculous.”
Eliza laughed, but then rolled onto her side toward him and asked the serious question that had been on her mind since the night before. “Jason, how are we ever going to get it together?”
“What do you mean?” He shifted into a mirror of her position, the firm hotel mattress barely moving under his weight.
“We’re so tired all the time and everything keeps going wrong. I keep fantasizing about running away to Acapulco with you. How are we going to deal with adult responsibilities? You know—considering that we’re almost thirty.”
Jason touched the side of her face. “Are you saying we can’t run away to Acapulco?” He made his expression so tragic it was comic, and Eliza could not help bursting out laughing again. She swatted his hand away from her.
“I’m asking a serious question. I feel like such a screw-up all the time. I just want to have fun with you, but I’m always fighting that urge down. Everything’s a mess, and we’re not even having a good time. We’re also not doing half the things we should be.” Emotion overwhelmed Eliza mid-sentence and tears trembled suddenly in her eyes. She turned to hide them but he noticed right away.
“Hey,” Jason said, gathering her up against his chest. “No crying until we see the room service bill.”
Eliza snorted even through her tears. “Can’t you let me cry for a minute before you make me laugh again?”
“No.” Jason tilted her face up and kissed the tip of her nose. Then he, too, grew serious. “I promise I’m listening, though. I know what you mean. I don’t like the way it’s been either. It’s part of why I’m so angry with the contractors. I want them to get out of our lives so we can go back to having fun with each other. I think we used to talk about something else.” He squeezed his arms around her. “I’m pretty sure we used to do plenty of other things.”
Eliza nodded, her fingers playing over his stomach. “Tonight I want to just forget about the house.”
Jason rolled onto his back, pulling her body onto his. He rocked his hips up so she could feel his erection. “I think I can help.”
“That feels about right.” Eliza closed her eyes and buried her face in the side of his neck.
His fingers circled at the base of her spine, soothing for a moment, then rapidly transitioning to seductive. “We should probably talk afterward, or maybe, I don’t know, look at the hotel room we’re in. But right now I don’t have eyes for anything but you, even if they’ve got a bathroom in here with a full Jacuzzi and his and hers sinks.”
“Oh, God,” Eliza groaned. “You can’t even seduce me without sounding like you’re talking about renovations.”
“You’d better shut me up, then.” Jason grinned, his black eyes nearly disappearing in the crinkles around them.
Eliza ran her palm over the short, bristly black hair on top of his head. “No problem.” She dipped her head and kissed him, loving the way the antiseptic luxury of the hotel room allowed her to forget about everything but her husband’s body. In the room’s air-conditioned chill, she craved his heat. She molded herself to him, sighing in contentment when he wrapped his arms around her.
It had been weeks since they’d made love at all, and much longer since they’d done it when she wasn’t exhausted and could actually pay attention. She’d married a good-looking man. Eliza resolved to strip him naked first thing.
She pressed a series of quick kisses to his lips, then his chin, then traveled along his jawline and back toward his ear. “I want to see your sexy body,” she whispered, gratified by the way he strained up toward her in response.
Eliza straddled her husband in the hotel bed and looked down at his face. With one finger, she traced his high cheekbones, wide nose and strong jaw. She followed his perfectly formed eyebrows with a typical flash of jealousy—Eliza worked hard to make hers conform to such a neat line. Jason caught her hand and kissed her palm, but she smiled and reclaimed it to continue her perusal of him.
Now she stroked both hands down his cheeks and the sides of his neck, settling at the top of the suit jacket. She shifted her weight off his hips and onto her heels, opening up enough room to get at the button holding the jacket closed. He lifted his torso to shrug off the jacket, his ab muscles bunching beneath his button-up shirt.
She loosened his tie and undid it, sliding her lips down the silky fabric from the tip to his neck. Eliza nibbled Jason’s neck as she removed his tie. His hands came up, searching for the zipper of her dress, but she stopped him. “Not yet.”
“Soon,” he promised, and she winked and set to work on his shirt buttons. His chest always took her breath away. The combination of smooth, nearly hairless skin and hard, rounded muscle made Eliza want to kiss and lick for hours. She indulged herself, flicking her tongue across the hard tip of his flat nipple.
Her hands, however, remained focused on the ultimate goal. Even while she kissed his chest, her fingers worked at his belt buckle, trying to solve the puzzle of it despite the lust that addled her brain. Eventually Eliza had to look at the buckle to tackle it. “Damn. These things make me understand how men feel about bra fastenings.”
“I could take your bra off with one hand if you’d let me.” Jason’s hand crept up her spine. “Want to see?”
Eliza rolled her eyes and swatted him. “Can’t you see I’m busy? I have this cock to take out.” She freed him of the frustrating belt and opened the front of his pants, sliding her hand in to make contact with the hot, strokable skin of his erection.
“I thought you said you wanted to see my body,” Jason teased. “I didn’t expect you to do so much with your hands.”
“I’m looking with my hands.” Eliza released his cock and jerked his pants and boxers down over his hips, careful to keep his erection out of the way of the tangled fabric. She peeled it all down his legs and off his feet, taking his socks and shoes with her as she went. Dropping the clothes on the floor, Eliza slid her hands up Jason’s legs and buried her face against his crotch. “I did miss you,” she said.
“Are you talking to me or my cock?”
“Both. God, I missed you.”
“Are you done looking with your hands yet? There are some things I want to see too.”
Smiling, she gave herself over to him, crawling up his body and surrendering to his fingers. Jason kissed Eliza at her temple and the nape of her neck, burying his nose in her mass of brown, curly hair. He felt her up through the short black cocktail dress she’d worn at his insistence, pushing the skirt up to her hips and undoing the zipper down her side without actually taking any of it off.
Jason slipped one hand into the top of the dress and squeezed Eliza’s breast through her bra. With the other hand, he teased her clit through her panties. “Someone’s wet,” he murmured, still kissing her neck.
“Of course I’m wet. You’re hot as hell and I haven’t been getting enough of you.”
Jason rubbed his fingers up and down her slit until she soaked entirely through her panties and the fabric became silky from her wetness. He slid the panties back and forth, working toward her opening. Up top, he performed as promised and unfastened and removed her bra with one hand. His fingers, exquisitely hot and rough, stroked Eliza’s nipples until they hardened and ached.
“Are you going to undress me or tease me, Jason? I’m going crazy here.” A characteristically mischievous expression came over his face. Eliza recognized it through her arousal and shook her head. “You should not tease me. That is a bad idea.”
“Are you sure?” Jason lowered his mouth to her chest and licked her nipple through her dress.
“Take the damn clothes off, Jason. Please.”
“Well since you said please, I guess that’s okay.”
His hands continued to toy with her. More than anything, Eliza wanted to be naked with him, touching all his skin with all her skin. She wriggled free of him and pulled the dress off herself. And the bra. And the panties.
“There,” Eliza said.
“Are you refusing foreplay? Because I don’t want to be held responsible for committing that sin when it’s been this long.”
“You are horrible,” Eliza said, kissing him. “Lie back. And don’t worry. This is going to feel very good for me. You might even like it too.”
“Oh, I think so,” Jason said.
Eliza pinned him with one hand on each shoulder and took his cock, as slowly as she could manage. His delicious length filled and stretched her. She pushed him as deep as she could, closing her eyes to savor it. Then, keeping a hand on his chest for balance, she brought the other to her clit, swirling over it as she lifted and lowered herself.
Jason groaned. “Do you have any idea how hot you look that way?”
Eliza could only smile, caught in the ecstasy and relief of his body inside hers. Jason’s fingers locked on her hips, but she didn’t let him quicken the pace. She looked down at him through slitted eyes, feeling both possessive familiarity and surprise at exactly how handsome her husband was.
“I love you,” Jason mouthed. He caressed her breasts and the sides of her face as she moved above him. She leaned back to make his cock press inside her at her favorite angle. Jason understood and shifted his grip to hold her up. Eliza worked her fingers faster over her clit until the orgasm she’d been chasing burst forth from her body.
“Please,” Eliza gasped. Jason would know she wanted him to take over. She collapsed into his arms as he moved inside her, his every thrust a stabbing pleasure that increased the intensity of the orgasm rippling through her. She rested on him, floating in her own enjoyment and loving the increasing pace of his moans.
Jason pulled her forehead against his, held her tight, arched up and came inside her. Eliza ground against him through the last of it, still panting from her own exertions. They smiled at each other.
“I did need that,” Jason said.
“Me too.” Eliza rolled off his cock so she could curl against his side. The sharp smell of sex rose around them. She felt decadent and wild and more relaxed than she had in recent memory.
“I think we can afford to do this again for our anniversary,” Jason said after a minute. “This hotel seems pretty nice, even though I haven’t seen any of it. The bed works, anyway.”
Eliza trailed a finger over his chest, picking up traces of his sweat. Pleasure still ached where he had been inside her. “I really want to have our anniversary at home.”
“Well, it could be a good backup plan, right?”
“Sure. Yes. But—” She lifted herself onto her elbow and looked him in the eye. “I can’t wait until our anniversary to do this again. Can you?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“A very serious one. Really. This is the first night in weeks I feel like myself. It’s not just that it feels good to have sex. It’s self-preservation.”
“We can’t afford a hotel very often.”
“How about a motel? We just need a bed, right?”
“Even then…” Jason hesitated. “We can afford tonight, but I meant for it to be special.” He paused, forehead wrinkling in thought. “We ought to be able to do this at home.”
“Maybe, but look what happened last night. We’re not doing it at home.”
“We could start.”
Eliza sighed. “Jason, I think we need a better solution. We both know we can’t relax and spend time together when our house looks like the site of a national disaster.” She nudged him playfully. “You’ll vacuum again. I know it.”
“Can we go back in time and decide not to hire those contractors?”
Eliza winced. “Don’t I wish. Look, we have to get out of the house. Maybe go to someone else’s house.”
“Huh? Which friends are we going to call? ‘Excuse me, Sam and Rachel, do you mind if we borrow your master bedroom for a while? Ours is under renovation, and we need somewhere to have sex.’”
Eliza rolled her eyes. “Look, you got the hotel. Thank you. I’m going to eat, like, seven room service breakfasts in the morning and maybe some fries right now. But I think we’re onto something here. I’ll find somewhere for us to go. It won’t cost us any money. We desperately need to get laid more, and I just don’t think we can do it at home.”
Jason lifted his leg and turned it so she could see the bandage on the bottom of his foot. “I guess I’m going to have to give you that point.”
“Definitely.”
“Okay. Fair enough. Operation Get Laid is a go. You are the leader for the first mission.”
Eliza grinned and opened the night stand drawer in search of the room service menu.