Chapter 8: Pembroke Night

"I can't go home tonight," I said.

We were still standing in the empty studio, and the phone was still in his hand.

"Rodrick has a key to my apartment. Marguerite has a key to everything."

"Then don't go home."

"I don't want a hotel either. I want one I know."

He looked at me for a long moment.

"The Pembroke has a suite on the top floor," he said. "Someone drew it very well."

The night manager gave him a key card without a word and did not look at me once.

The elevator was empty. Tobias stood a careful foot away with his hands in his pockets.

"Rule one," he said to the doors.

"Be quiet."

"I'm only reminding you."

"If you remind me again, I'll change my mind."

"That's all I wanted to hear."

The suite was exactly as I had drawn it.

The headboard wall in pale oak. The window seat in the corner. The long lamp I had argued over for a week.

I walked through it with my fingertips on the walls.

"Nobody ever let me see it finished," I said. "Rodrick wouldn't take me to the opening."

Tobias shut the door and locked it.

"It's better than the drawings," he said.

I turned around.

He was standing by the bed with his jacket already off.

His sleeves were rolled to the elbow, and his eyes were on me.

"Come here," he said, and I crossed the room.

He took my face in both hands and kissed me slowly.

We had all night, and he used it.

My blazer landed on the floor.

Then he found the long zipper of the dress and undid it one tooth at a time, with his mouth on the back of my neck.

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