The Off Season

James watched Katherine as she pulled the t-shirt over her head and made her way to the bathroom. He watched her as she shut the bathroom door and a minute later he heard the water of the shower turn on. He took a look around Katherine’s hotel room and assessed that there wasn’t a damn thing to eat there. James crawled out of the bed and felt rather comfortable walking around naked and Katherine’s room. No sense in ruining this feeling by going out for food, so James decided to take matters into his own hands. He checked the hotel’s room service menu and with nothing sounding good for a post-sex buffet, but he decided on great Thai restaurant that delivered.

“Katherine, I’m starving.” James called out to her from the other side of the bathroom door. “How do you feel about Thai delivery?”

Katherine could feel the hot water of the shower run over her body. She could hear James from the other side of the door, but she wasn’t sure what he was saying . She had hoped that he was saying something along the lines of “hey, thanks for the great sex, I’ll be leaving now.” Katherine placed her head under the stream of water, trying to block out whatever it was James was saying.

James waited to hear a response from Katherine, nothing. He looked around the hotel for his boxer briefs and when he found them hanging from the same chair as Katherine’s bra, he slipped them on and made his way to the bathroom. James decided to give the door a knock, just to be considerate. He was hungry and wanted food and if he got to see Katherine wet and naked, so be it.

James knocked on the bathroom door, “hey, Kat, you okay in there?” He decided to take evasion actions and open the door just a crack, just enough to ask her if she was okay and what she would want to eat.

“Hey, things okay in here?” James popped his head between the door and its frame.

“Jesus, James!” “Yes, I’m okay.” Katherine wasn’t shocked at James maneuvering himself into the bathroom. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

The only thing Katherine could think of was how she going to get out of this one. Sure she knew what she was getting herself into when she attacked James in the hallway and invited him back to her room, but what she forgot to think about was what happens after all the good Scotch and great sex.

“So here’s the thing, I owe you food and I’m starving.” “I looked at the room service menu and there isn’t anything on there that looks good. “ James slowly made his way into the bathroom. “There is a pretty good Thai place that delivers to us over at CONSOL so I was wondering if you would want some food from there.” James stood in the middle of the bathroom, watching Katherine in the glass enclosed shower.

Her back was towards James and the first thing he noticed was how long her hair was. The second thing was just how nice her ass was. Through the steam he could smell the scent of the body wash that she had used. Floral, not coed Bath and Body works stuff, but something classy. Hell, he could use a quick shower too, James thought to himself, but it might be a little too intrusive.

“Kat?”

“Hey, I’m okay.” Even from behind a glass door, Katherine could feel his eyes on her. She shyly turned her head towards him.

“Thai sounds great.”

“How about I make sure you didn’t miss any spots,” “You know, an all –inclusive service.”

Katherine wasn’t about to go a second round with James, but apparently he was.

“I didn’t know that the Marriott offered that type of service,” Katherine turned to face James.

“They do now.” James stripped off the boxer briefs and made his way to the shower. Katherine opened the door and let the steam escape and James in.


It was almost midnight when they finished off the delivered buffet of Thai delicacies. James set up the spread all over the bed and Katherine was enjoying the simplistic mood of whatever this was. This was one of the oddest dates she had ever been on. Talk about getting the horse before the cart. Katherine had always been a very cautious, very formal person but in the past few years she did learn to loosen up and this whole episode with James had definitely been the loosest she had ever been in her life.

James couldn’t pinpoint what it was about Katherine that made him want to never leave her hotel room. She was smart, very smart. She had rattled off the multiple degrees she had received before going for her MBA. She was proud of everything she had accomplished and she wasn’t done. She was pretty, but not in an overly made up way. James could tell she took the time with makeup, but it was natural, not modelesque and she actually looked great without it. She was a redhead and James never felt attracted to gingers. Katherine’s hair fit her personality. She was feisty and James liked that. He liked that very much.

Katherine couldn’t help but be drawn in by James and his personality. He was cocky, but sweet. He would look at her and say something total inappropriate and then just give her that little boy smile. He was attentive. He would listen to her talk about her past, but then interrupt her with a story about something goofy that happened when his was in Dallas or North Dakota. He told her stories about his siblings and how close they all were and about his Mom and Dad and how they were the anchors for the family.

And of course she couldn’t help but be attracted to what he was. He was an athlete; gorgeous from head to toe. His body was built for his sport; long and lean, but muscular in the places where it was needed. His back, thighs and ass were the work of some Greek or Roman God and Katherine was thankful that she paid attention in that mythology class she took years ago. He was a “hidden ginger” with the red tint to his facial and small patch of chest hair. With a name like Neal, there was some Scotch-Irish in his heritage and the pale skin and chest freckles proved it. Katherine loved his blue eyes turned to a turquoise blue-green when things got intense. She could only image what color his eyes turned when he was on the ice. He wasn’t like anyone that Katherine had been involved with in her past.

After the food was gone and the conversation lulled, Katherine gave a big yawn.

“I should probably head out,” James looked at Katherine, wondering what happens next.

“I still need to take a look at this contract,” Katherine gave James that same wondering look.

James leaned over the bed and placed a kiss on Katherine’s forehead.

“This has been an interesting day.” James smiled against Katherine’s skin.

The next word to roll out of Katherine’s mouth would shock her, but not James. He knew all along that this was what was going happen.

“Stay.”


It was a full twenty-four hours of room service and earth shattering orgasms before James left Katherine’s room. She kissed him good-bye not knowing if she really had the guts to sign her contact more or less ever show her face in a Marriott hotel again.

Notes

A small edit at the end that will help transition into the next story