She sighed unhappily. "Well, sir, as I said, it was supposed to have been done by now, but there was some sort of delay. The information you were given was supposed to have been true, but unfortunately no longer is. I'm sorry for the inconvenience."
Duncan opened his mouth, looking like he was about to ream her out. I squeezed his hand. "Duncan, it's fine. We can share. We're both adults. It's fine, I promise.”
The receptionist looked relieved. "The room I have available is a single king bed suite. It's actually one of our nicest rooms and has a window facing the bay. I can give it to you for a pretty significant discount, as well, to make up for the inconvenience."
A single bed?
I looked up at Duncan, and saw that he was likely thinking the same thing I was—it's not like we would have spent too much time in our individual rooms anyway, considering how combustible our physical chemistry is.
Duncan nodded, flipping a hand. "Yeah, that's fine. Thank you."
We barely had time to set our bags down and take a quick peek at the room—which was, as advertised, a nice one, with a stellar view and a spacious bathroom. No sooner had we both sat down on the bed with nearly-in-unison sighs than Raquel was blowing up my phone, wanting to know when we could meet in the lobby and go see the venue.
I patted Duncan's rock-hard thigh. "C'mon, then. Raquel is a little excited, if you couldn't tell."
He chuckled. "Yeah, I noticed. But she's getting married, and Hamish seems like a great dude. It's good she's excited."
"Hamish is as great as he seems," I said.
He glanced at me. "You're okay sharing a room?"
I shrugged. "Not like we have much choice." I grinned up at him. "I doubt we'll be getting much sleep, though."
His answering grin held promises of long, sweaty, delightful nights to come. "No, I don’t think we will."
My phone buzzed with another incoming message from Raquel. "Come on," I said, dragging myself upright. "We'd better go before Raquel has an aneurysm.”
We headed down to the lobby together. It was so crowded that Duncan had to take my hand so we didn't get separated, and then once we were through the crush around the elevators, neither of us seemed inclined to let go.
Raquel's eyes flicked to our joined hands, and a small smile flitted across her face—I immediately let go of Duncan's hand and put a bit of distance between us.
Duncan informed us that the restaurant was within walking distance from the hotel, so we set out on foot.
"Sorry about the state of the hotel," Ducan said as we walked. "I had no idea it was being remodeled. They didn't tell me that when I called. I don't visit this location much."
"Hey, I'm grateful, Duncan," Raquel said. “Our room is amazing. I'm happy."
“How are your rooms?" Hamish asked.
I snorted. "You mean room, singular. They ran out, so we're sharing."
Raquel didn't even try to suppress a snort of laughter. "I bet that's gonna be a hardship."
"We're just friends, Raquel," I said. "Don't make it weird."
"I'll tell you what, though," Hamish said, grinning, “I’ve never kissed any of my friends the way you two were snogging last night. It’s a bloody miracle you didn't end up fornicatin’ right there on the bloody fuckin' deck in front of us."
Duncan and I traded glances. "Um, what?" I asked.
Raquel cackled. "You guys were so wasted, ya'll. I'm not surprised you don't remember. I do, though."
“Yeah, well, you're annoying, because you never black out," I said.
She just shrugged. "I can't help that I remember everything. Trust me, Rune, there've been a few nights I wish I could forget."
"Like that party at the Kappa Kappa Gamma house?" I said.
Her eyes narrowed. "We won't be discussing that." Her tone was arch and prim.
