Commitment (102 page)

As soon as he opened the door to the suite, he heard the
water.
The shower was running.
It took only a
moment to process that the
cleaning cart wasn’t outside, and the door had been locked. Grinning, he headed for the bath
room and shoved open the door.
Just then, the wa
ter stopp
e
d and Riley stepped out, dripping wet, and
reaching
for a towel
.
She
shriek
ed
when she caught sight of him.

“Oh my god, you scared me!” she said
placing a hand over her heart. 

The towel had fallen to the floor, so she was completely naked before him, her hair in wet ringl
ets and falling about her face.
She knelt to retrieve the towel just as he was doing the same and they hugged, holding each other silently and for a long time.

“What’re you doing here?” he asked.

“
Is it okay I came
?”

Shawn looked at her and Riley laughed.

“I didn’t like how you sound
ed last night,” she
explained
.
“
And I cou
ld tell what you were thinking.
About ditching everything and coming home
.
S
o I thought maybe
I should just come to you
.
”

“I’m glad you did,” Shawn said
quietly
.

They’d come a long way from the days when she used to ask him what he was thinking all the time. Now,
she
understood even the things he didn’t say.

“I had this whole elaborate plan for surprising you and
you ruined it,” she mock-pouted
as
headed into the walk-in closet
.

By the time Riley re-emerged dressed in jeans and a blue tank, he remembered why he’d come to the suite in the first place.

“Shit.
I have an interview
in about a half hour
,” he said heading for the closet
himself
.
“Brendan’s waiting out front.”

“Can you be a little late?” she asked.

Shawn grinned at her. “Why? You have something in mind?”

She
peeled her tank off again. She wasn’t wearing a bra. Shawn stared at her breasts.

God, she was
perfect
.

“Maybe. Do you?”

Shawn backed her into the
bedroom
until she fell backwards onto the king-size bed. He peeled his
s
hirt over his head and began working on his belt when his phone rang.

Riley laughed.
“
Uh oh.
Brendan’s
spidey
sense is telling him that you plan to
leave him
hanging
.”

“Better him than you,” Shawn said, continuing to work on his belt.

Riley raised herself up onto her knees and stopped him,
re-
fastening
his belt
buckle.

“
No.
Go ahead and do your interview.
I’ll see you
when you get back
later.
”

He hesitated
, drinking her in with his eyes;
his wife, his everything.

“
You sure?
”
he asked.

“Of course I’m sure,
Shawn
,
” she said
, her hand soft on the side of his face
. “I’m not going anywhere.”

g