Hotel for the Lost by Suzanne Young

Author:Suzanne Young
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

We’re all hormones as we sit at a small table on the back patio, gazing stupidly at each other. Elias keeps hold of my hand, sliding his fingers along mine, teasing me with the sensuality of how he’s touching me.

“I don’t want you to leave,” he says, smiling sadly. He reaches for his white porcelain cup and sips his coffee. “But I know you don’t belong here.”

“Oh?” I ask, part flattered and part lonely at the thought of not belonging. “Maybe you don’t belong here,” I suggest, looking down at our intertwined hands. “I hear my grandmother’s attic is nice.”

Elias laughs and lifts my hand to kiss my fingers once more before letting them go. I wrap my hands around my glass, missing Elias’s warmth. I told him about how much I’m dreading going to my grandmother’s. How I won’t know anyone but Daniel.

“I’d take you away from that house,” Elias says quietly, staring into his cup. “I’d take you anywhere you wanted to go, Audrey.” He lifts his head, sympathy darkening his expression. “I’d be your family.”

There’s a puncture in my heart as Elias zeroes in on everything I’ve wanted to hear for the last three months.

“We’ll run away together,” I joke, although neither of us is smiling anymore. “I’m thinking California would be nice.”

“It is,” he allows. “I grew up there.” Elias sets down his cup, pushes it aside, and leans his elbows on the table. He turns to look at the garden, the neatly trimmed shrubbery, the mountain view in the distance. Flowers—roses of several colors, vibrant and fragrant even from here, crowd the landscape. This is easily the best view in the house.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence Elias looks over at me mischievously. “I think I’ve changed my mind,” he says.

“About what?”

“Taking you back to my room. I’ll leave the phone off the hook.”

I laugh, considering the offer. The butterflies in my stomach, the twist of desire. I can’t even believe when I hear myself decline. “I can’t,” I say, lowering my chin onto my folded arms on the table. “I shouldn’t,” I say instead. “No matter how badly I want to.”

“We still have twenty-three hours,” he says, disappointed but not put off. He opens the black bill holder and signs his name with a quick swipe of the pen.

“Twenty-two,” I respond, laughing when he narrows his eyes.

“Come here,” he whispers, tossing the pen aside to lean closer. When I do, he kisses me, sweetly, teasingly, over the table. He runs his lips over mine, and then there’s the soft touch of his tongue, the warmth of his mouth. My head spins and I grasp his shirt, to pull him closer still.

“Sorry to interrupt.”

Elias and I jump, and I look up to see Joshua, dressed in his Hotel Ruby uniform, not looking at all sorry. He shoots Elias a smug smile and then turns back to me. “The front desk sent me over,” he says. “Your brother is looking for you, Audrey. Probably a good thing that I found you first.

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