“Would you mind if I went back to my hotel room for a jacket?” Hobie asked.

“Not at all, I’m sorry. Where are you staying?”

Hobie pointed to the building they were standing next to. “Well, that’s convenient, isn’t it?”

“Let me ask you something,” Hobie began as they entered the brightly lit lobby. “You act as though you know I don’t live here.”

BJ shrugged. “You have that tourist look about you. Besides, not many native Chicagoans have that good of a tan in April.”

“Oh. Um, why don’t you wait down here and I’ll be right back?”

“Why don’t I come up with you?” “I’ll just be a sec.”

“And you’re afraid I’m going to accost you in the elevator.” “No, I didn’t say that.”

“Maybe you’re just afraid that you can’t resist me after all.” “I don’t see that happening.”

BJ made a few clucking noises under her breath. It was the proverbial last straw.

“I am not chicken! Oh, okay. Come on.” “What a charming offer.”

Hobie turned to glare at BJ, who quickly raised her hands. “Just kidding,” she said.

To Hobie, the silence in the elevator was deafening. She nervously cleared her throat as she wondered once again why she was doing this. “In the restaurant, how did you know I was gay?” The question had nagged her from the start.

“I didn’t,” BJ said. She leaned against the wall and fixed a gaze on Hobie that she felt all the way to her toes.

Either this woman has all the confidence in the world or she’s really that good, Hobie thought. She let herself become lost in the other woman’s penetrating gaze. It was hypnotizing, and Hobie felt as if she would do just about anything the woman asked while she stared at her like that.

“Oh,” Hobie said softly. The elevator doors opened before she could pursue that line of thought any further.

Once inside the room, Hobie retrieved the white linen jacket that went with her skirt. “Okay, ready to roll.”

“Do you mind if I use your bathroom?” BJ smiled wearily at Hobie.

“Of course not, it’s right through there. Do you feel okay?” “Sure, I won’t be a minute.”

Hobie stood before the window looking out onto the moonlit landscape of Chicago. She heard the water running in the bathroom and wondered again what she was doing in her hotel room with a drunken stranger. I just want the company, that’s all. I mean, I made it clear that I’m not going any further than having a few drinks. Oh, good Lord, Hobie, don’t lie, especially to yourself. You know damn well that if she looks at you one more time like she did in that elevator, you’re going to forget your resolve. You’re going to forget who you are and where you come from, and you’re going to jump into bed with her. There’s only one answer. I have to call this off and send her on her way, plain and simple.

“Breathtaking view.”

Hobie felt warm breath along the edge of her right ear and she hoped the shiver that ran across her skin wasn’t noticeable. “Um, yes. The city’s beautiful at night.”

“That wasn’t the view I was talking about.”

Fingertips slid along the skin of Hobie’s arms. She closed her eyes to the pleasing sensation and realized just how long it had been since anyone had touched her in that way. Soft lips on the back of her neck snapped her mind back to reality.

She spun around in BJ’s arms and stopped her as she leaned in to claim Hobie’s lips in a kiss. Hobie pushed against her chest with both hands.

“Oh, no, you don’t. This is exactly what I don’t need,” Hobie protested. She escaped to the other side of the room.

“Did that sound as unconvincing to you as it did to me?” BJ’s voice flowed across Hobie’s senses like warm honey. BJ slowly made her way across the room. Hobie looked up with big green eyes that appeared spellbound. “Because, Hobie, I think deep down that you think this is exactly what you need.”

Hobie suspected that was the same phrase BJ used all the time. Afew of the words might change now and again, but she had the feeling that the sentiment always reeled them in. BJ smiled in a way that Hobie suspected no woman resisted for long before she leaned in once more, but this time, Hobie didn’t stop her. Hobie looked like a small frightened rabbit, too afraid to run and too frightened not to.

BJ brushed her lips against Hobie’s, gently at first.

The strangled moan that came from Hobie’s throat was a dead giveaway. She slipped her arms around BJ’s neck and they shared a kiss unlike anything either of them had ever experienced.

Asound like sheer delight escaped BJ’s lips as the two broke apart for air. Seconds later, Hobie tangled her fingers in BJ’s short dark hair and drew her down for another passionate kiss. BJ slipped her hands under Hobie’s jacket and pulled her closer.

“Good God, that was—I mean—where did you learn to kiss like that?” BJ stammered breathlessly when they once again parted for breath.

The sound of BJ’s voice cut directly through Hobie’s libidinous haze. “What in the hell am I doing?” She tried to take a step back, but BJ still held her tightly in her arms.

“Well, if you don’t know, let me be the first to tell you that you’re a natural,” BJ said as her body swayed back and forth.

“God in heaven, what am I doing?”

“Hey, it’s not that bad.” BJ was slurring her words more than before.

“Not that bad?” Hobie nearly shouted. “I’m making out with a complete stranger who’s so drunk she can barely stand!”

BJ furrowed her brow in confusion. “You mean I’m still standing?”

“Oh, God! I don’t believe this is happening!” Hobie freed herself from BJ’s embrace and whirled around. “I do not do this kind of thing. I never let my body think for me. I mean, that’s not me. I’m a hopeless romantic, not the kind of woman who sleeps around. I need time to get to know you, romance...maybe some flowers. I’m so sorry, BJ. You seem like an incredible woman, but I just can’t—”

Hobie turned and the sight caused her to freeze. It took a full five seconds before her brain could slip into gear and impel her body forward. “Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no!”

Hobie rushed to the bed and BJ, who lay sprawled across it. “Don’t you dare! BJ, wake up. Wake up, damn it!” Hobie sat on the bed and lightly slapped the unconscious woman’s cheek. “Oh, God, please don’t do this to me. I swear, I will never, ever do this again. If you help me out of this one, I promise to start going to Mass more, and I promise I will never again act like a slut.”

Hobie looked down at the prone woman and realized that help would not be coming from above, at least not anytime soon. “BJ, please, you cannot stay here.” Hobie shook the woman’s shoulders one more time.

BJ made a small sound and rolled over, hugging the pillow beside her. She wore a pleasant expression, the corners of her mouth turned up in a slight smile. Hobie gave up in exasperation, her arms falling to her sides and defeat in her eyes. “This is why I don’t do things like this,” she said quietly to the sleeping woman. “This could only happen to me.”

BJ couldn’t understand why there was a maid walking on the ceiling until she realized that her head hung over the end of the bed. The slim brown-skinned woman who approached BJ did so upside down. The sight made BJ dizzy, which caused her stomach to begin its protestation of the previous evening’s alcohol consumption.

“May I clean the room yet, ma’am?” the hotel maid asked. BJ swallowed and cautiously examined the inside of her mouth with her tongue. She had been sure she would find cotton stuffed there. Finding no such substance, she swallowed a few more times. “Time?” she finally rasped.

“Excuse me?” “What time is it?”

“It’s 2:00 p.m., ma’am. The other one said not to wake you until after noon. She said to bring up a meal if you weren’t awake by now. Are you hungry?” She lifted the silver-domed lid covering a white porcelain plate.

The aroma, which under ordinary circumstances would have been tantalizing, struck BJ like an unseen blow to the stomach. She could feel the small rumble begin. “I’ll give you a hundred dollars if you get that food as far away from this room as possible.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

By the time the maid wheeled the cart to the elevator and had a busboy return it to the kitchen, BJ was sitting up on the side of the bed.

“Bless you,” she mumbled. “Here you go.” She held out a hundred-dollar bill.

“Oh, no, ma’am, you don’t have to do that. Your friend gave me a big enough tip to make my day.”

“I don’t have any friends,” BJ said instinctively. She fought to remember who the woman was she had been with the night before. “Been with” would have to be used loosely since BJ had woken up in bed by herself and fully clothed. Who the hell was she?

“Well, this gal checked out and paid me to do what I done for you so far. She even paid for an extra day ’cause she said you would probably sleep late,” the maid explained.

It isn’t exactly the first time I’ve passed out, but not even remembering what in the hell I did, that’s new. BJ ran her fingers through her hair and massaged her scalp. Her head felt as heavy as a bowling ball. She couldn’t believe that a total stranger had gone to that much trouble, especially after she had passed out on her. She had an odd feeling about the encounter. She couldn’t remember any particulars, but there was something there. It was something unlike anything she had known before. Thinking back, she drew a blank on the evening after breaking up with...what was that girl’s name?