"Yeah."
With a smile she put the glass to her lips and upended it. The champagne poured into her mouth and was swallowed in less than two seconds. Her eyes began to water profusely from the effects of the carbonation but she reached in and pulled out the ring. She held it triumphantly before her.
"Would you like to put it on me?" she asked, handing it across.
I took it and she offered me her left hand. I slid the damp ring onto her third finger, seating it in place. The fit wasn't perfect, it would have to be sized when we got back to Spokane, but it looked at home there.
We drank the rest of the bottle of champagne, sipping at it while we discussed what we'd just agreed to do. Now that the question was out and answered favorably I became almost giddy, feeling elation like I'd never felt before. She was going to marry me! Nina too was blushing and giggly. Part of that was the wine and the champagne we'd consumed, but a good part of it was simple happiness and excitement I'm sure.
The waiter came by once to offer coffee or desert. We declined. He also offered his congratulations to us as he spied the ring on Nina's finger.
"I promised your mom that we wouldn't elope," I told her. "She wants to plan your wedding, help you with the guest list, all that crap. She's very adamant about it." And of course I knew why. My first talk with Jack Blackmore had made that clear.
"But when?" she wanted to know. "When can we do it?" She giggled a little, "get married that is."
"I'm not much for long engagements," I told her. "If it was up to me, we'd be man and wife before we climbed back in that airplane with Ron. But under the circumstances, we're kinda stuck by the fact that we're going off to college next month. Also, I'm still seventeen until February. That creates additional paperwork."
She pouted a little. "So when?" she asked.
"Next June," I told her. "Near the end of the month. That lets us be home from college for the summer long enough to get back into the swing of things, go to all the rehearsals, and all of that. How does that sound?"
"It sounds like a plan."
I paid the bill and left a generous tip for the waiter. We walked arm and arm back to the elevator and, when it arrived, found ourselves alone in it. As it began plunging downward we shared a kiss, a very deep kiss that involved a brief dance of tongues. When our lips parted she looked into my eyes.
"You know what would make this night absolutely perfect?" she asked.
"What's that?"
"Making love," she answered.
I took a glance at my watch, seeing that it was five minutes after eight. Right on schedule. "Funny you should mention that," I told her.
"Oh?" Definite interest showed upon her face. "Have you made other arrangements?"
"It just so happens," I told her, "that I have a reservation for a suite in this very hotel. All I have to do is check in at the front desk, pay my money, collect my key. I hear the rooms are VERY nice."
Another look of astonishment. "You reserved a room, HERE? At this place?"
"I hope you don't think that too forward of me," I said.
"But we have to be out of here at ten," she said. "You want to pay God knows how much for a room that you're only going to use for two hours? Bill, that's insane!"
"Isn't it? So what do you say? Care to join me for a bit in the executive suite?"
The elevator ground to a halt at the fifteenth floor. The doors slid open and a middle-aged couple dressed for a night on the town stepped in. We moved back to give them room. They eyed us carefully for a moment, as if trying to decide if we were dangerous, and then turned their backs to us. The doors slid shut and we began descending once again.
Nina and I looked at each other. She whispered, "Go get the key."
We rode to the lobby and less than ten minutes later we were riding back up to the thirtieth floor, key in hand, one hundred and seventy-five dollars lighter. I considered it money well spent.
Even though I'd lived in two lives (at least) and had been around a combined, remembered total of nearly thirty-five years, I was still impressed by the executive suite. As I said before, I was strictly a product of middle-class upbringing. My idea of a nice hotel room had always been a single bed in a small room with something of a view. I considered it classy if the bedspread actually matched the carpet.
The sheer amount of square footage in the room was staggering. There was a sitting room with plush furniture and a bar. There was the bedroom that was nearly four times the size of mine at home and featured a king-sized bed with frilly covers and a twenty-seven inch TV. The remote control was not even bolted to the nightstand. The bathroom had a huge shower, a separate bath, and a sunken Jacuzzi big enough to hold six people. The water was roiling and steaming in it and a small sign assured us that the water was fresh for our visit. The window did not face Puget Sound unfortunately but did look out to the north, giving an impressive view of the Seattle high-rises and the Space Needle in the distance. A complimentary bottle of White Zinfandel sat in a bucket of ice.
"Wow," Nina muttered, taking in all of the opulence, wandering from here to there, looking at this and that. She stared for the longest time out the window.
"You like it?" I asked, coming up behind her and encircling her waist with my arms. She leaned back into me.
"This has been the most incredible night of my life Bill," she told me. "I'll remember it forever."
"That was the plan," I said, squeezing her to me.
She craned her face upward, resting the back of her head on my shoulder. Her left hand, the one with her new ring on it, reached up to caress my face. "Give me some more memories," she told me.
Our lips came together in a kiss; a hot, passionate exchange of tongues. She squirmed her body around so that she was facing me, her breasts pushing into me, her arms around my neck. By the time it broke I was erect, knowing that nothing could stop us now, that this was finally the hour. No one knew where we were. For obvious reasons I had briefed no one in on this particular part of my plans for the evening. There would be no phones ringing to stop us. For the next ninety minutes we were in splendid solitude. Not an eternity, but at the same time, it was.
Nina reached up and pulled the knot out of my tie, loosening it. She pulled it off my neck and tried to let it drop to the floor. We both laughed as it hung stubbornly to my chest, suspended by the tie tack. I disconnected it and tossed the tie, tack and all, into the corner. I shrugged off my suit jacket and let it fall to the carpet.
Nina kicked off her high heels and then stepped back into my arms. "Undress me," she said. "Undress me and make love to me. Make me yours Bill."
I led her by the hand over to the bed and we stopped there, her facing it, me standing behind her. I slid my fingers over the material of her dress to her neck, touching the skin for an instant before grabbing the small zipper.
Slowly I slid it downward and the dress parted, showing me the skin of her back, the straps of her bra. I leaned forward and kissed the back of her shoulders while my hands pulled the dress off of her arms. Gravity did the rest, letting it fall to her feet. She stepped out of it and turned into me once more, her chest bare except for her bra, her silky white slip hanging to mid-thigh on her pantyhose covered legs.
I kissed her again, letting my hands touch the slip, to feel the soft material. I gently pulled on it and it came free, dropping, as the dress had, to her feet. Again she stepped out of it, this time kicking it away from us. My hands traveled across her back, across her butt, pausing to give a quick squeeze through the panty portion before continuing down to the back of her thighs. I stroked her through the nylon, pulling her tighter against me, inhaling her perfume as our tongues continued to dance.
I reached upward and found the clasp on her bra, undoing it, releasing her breasts from their confinement. I stepped back, breaking our kiss, my eyes devouring her as I pulled the bra free and tossed it to the floor. Her nipples were turgid, standing out like sentinels, begging for my mouth to kiss them, my hands to touch them. I didn't resist their call, I leaned forward and took one between my lips. Nina cooed as I sucked first one and then the other.