Alex

I didn't necessarily remember drifting off to sleep. One minute, I was admiring the soft cotton sheets and how exquisite they felt against my skin...

The next, I was waking up to a darkly candle lit room, with a sweet melody playing.

Was this a dream? I thought to myself.

Was I finally getting my fantasy with Channing Tatum?

I rubbed my eyes, attempting to clear the grogginess from them as I focused in on everything around me.

Propped up on the mattress next to my pillow, was a little folded cardstock piece of paper. On the front, the words Read Me were scribbled in what I recognized instantly as Christian's handwriting. My still very sleepy self reached over to take a look at what the note said.

Hi Handsome,

Hopefully you rested well. As you can see, the room looks slightly different. I would like you to join me for dinner tonight. Help yourself to the luxury soaps and scrubs I specially requested for our room. They're located in the bathroom. When you're done, I've hand picked an outfit for you. It's packaged in the wrapped box at the edge of the bed. Once you're all ready to go, one of the hotel associates will bring you to your final destination.

Hope to see you soon,

Christian

I stared at the note, blinking repeatedly to make sure I had in fact read that correctly, and my mind wasn't playing tricks on me. Sure enough, when I looked down towards the edge of the bed, there was a brown packaged box waiting for me. The tag attached to it said the words Wear Me. I glanced over yonder to the open concept bathroom, and there was a large basket on the counter with bottles stacked neatly inside. I slowly pulled myself together, as I mustered enough strength to make it to the bathroom.

Sure enough, there was also little tag attached to the basket that said Use Me. I pulled out a blue bottle that quickly caught my eye. The scent was called Oceanic Mist, and I thought that was only fitting with where we were. I set that in the shower, and started to undress.

The outfit Christian picked out was a crisp button down white linen shirt, and black dress shorts. The shorts offered a snug yet comfortable fit that felt oddly breathable for its material. As soon as I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I almost tripped over my own feet.

"Well goddamn." I spoke to my reflection in the slightly fogged up bathroom mirror. "Aren't you one hot smoking son of a gun." I did that thing you saw in movies where the main actor would throw up some finger gun signs at themselves in the mirror. As soon as I did though, I realized just how truly cringe that was, and made a vow with myself to never do it again.

One last quick glance in the mirror was all I spared myself before I slid the key card into my shorts pocket, and left the gorgeous room.

Christian never specified on who exactly I was supposed to ask about where to go, but it didn't seem like he even needed to. Once I took that first step out of the room, there was a man already waiting patiently for me right by our door. "Good evening, Mr. Hamilton. I hope Mr. Ivanov's gifts have found you well. I've been instructed to bring you to your destination tonight. If you would follow me." The man offered a large smile, as he began to lead the way.

I tried to remember the way we first came with John, but it was too difficult to differentiate between the similar hallways. As I allowed the hotel staff to guide me, I made a mental note of each twist and turn he brought us through. I swear this resort was just far too big for my little brain to wrap itself around. I did soon realize we were approaching two twin doors that lead outside.

The sun had set already, but the last few rays of light allowed me to see this particular location better. There was a small balcony of space with no more than four tables set. It looked like a very privately reserved area, and I noticed there was only one person sitting out here. When the hotel staff opened the twin set of doors for me, Christian's eyes peeled away from the newspaper he was reading, to glance up at me.

He was wearing a button down shirt himself, except he had a few more buttons undone than I did. The sleeves of the shirt were rolled up neatly, which revealed those gorgeous tattoos. I could feel my mouth salivating as his eyes zeroed in on me. His hair looked damp, but I couldn't tell if it was water or gel. Regardless, it was styled back so perfectly that there wasn't a single stray strand.

"Hi." I croaked out. I didn't even know my throat had gotten this dry. Christian stood as soon as that word left my lips.

"Hello there." He replied, slowly walking towards me. I heard the glass doors close from somewhere behind us, as the hotel staff left Christian and I alone. "You look... absolutely divine." He whispered that last part as his hands found their way around my waist. His scent was off the walls tonight. If it wasn't for this very public setting, I'd demand he take me right here right now.

"T-Thank you." I stuttered out. "You- wow, you look- jesus."

Well, apparently we were well past the point of coherent sentences today, Alex. Well done.

Christian chuckled at my comment before he dipped down to steal a kiss. When I felt his lips touch mine, it sent my body into complete overdrive. It was something about how soft he was. How strong his scent was. I wanted more. I pulled him closer, tasting remnants of mint when his tongue prodded against my bottom lip. I let out a struggling moan I didn't even know I was respressing, and that was when Christian broke the kiss.

"Dinner first." He more or less mumbled to himself, as he put some distance between us. That made my whole body tingle. I let him lead me to the table that he was first seated at.

"What is this place?" I asked, trying to nonchalantly fix my growing erection as I took a seat.

"This is one of their private seating areas. I rented it out for the evening so it would be just the two of us." Christian explained. He, too, looked to be dealing with some discomfort in his southern region as I watched him take a seat.

The view of the ocean from here was something I could never grow tired of. There was a seductive breeze that settled through the resort, creating an even more comfortable temperature. Christian's hand reached across the table to slip mine into his. It was a simple gesture yet my already heavily beating heart did nothing but pick up in speed.

"I wanted some alone time with you. Just us. No distractions. No work. No family drama." He spoke, giving my hand a gentle squeeze. "I want to see where you're at. How you've been with the complete fuckery I've managed to put you through these last few months."

I gave Christian a smile. "I'd say that was a 50/50 effort on both our ends." That made him crack a grin. "And as crazy as it sounds, you're not too bad a partner to handle crazy with."

Christian's smile grew larger with those words.
"I'm glad I haven't been as terrible as I thought I have. Sometimes it's hard to separate my work life from my personal life." He admitted. Getting to know Christian these last few months made that statement absolutely true. It's insane how not even 3 months ago, I was sure this man avoided work like the fucking plague.

Now, I wasn't so sure I'd have my head on straight if I was dealing with what he was.

"I wanted to take this trip with you, as a little get away.... but I also wanted to speak with you about us. All this is- well, it's new territory for me. Being with you is very new territory for me... but it's something I want to pursue." Christian took a brief pause before continuing. "Me being who I am, a relationship isn't one that I can comfortably go through in private, but I don't want to feel like I'm rushing you to come out to everyone like this. That's not something I would ever ask for you... I want you to choose-... Derek?" Christian cut his sentence short.

"You..." I slowly spoke, "You want me to choose... Derek?" I asked. There was no way to mask the confusion there.

But before Christian could say anything else, I heard something come crashing to the ground behind us. That was followed by a groan and whine. "Ouchyyyy."

I whipped my head in the direction Christian had started to point towards, and sure enough, on the floor right behind us was Derek.

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