The Hotel – 30

I left the office, going into the lounge where I found Phil, Noah, and Caitlin huddled together on one of the sofas. They looked up guiltily when they saw me.

"We're helping Caitlin with her lines," Noah said. "I mean, we are going to do the show tonight, right?"

"Yes. Let's hope Tessa's murder hasn't made the news or we might be dealing with a lot of ghoulish people coming up just to be at the scene of the crime."

"If they do, I'll take them out to wherever she was found and let them deal with getting back here on their own." Noah grinned, getting a smack on the arm from Caitlin and a light chuckle from Phil.

"Where's everyone else?" I asked.

"Last seen, they're in the small lounge watching some comedy 'To get our minds off the tragedy for a while,' to quote Ramsey."

They were, and I told them we'd be putting on the show as planned. When Kirby asked, I said I didn't know if we were going to cancel the other performances once we got back to the city. I didn't want to, since they were for charity, but we'd make a decision later.

"Because we might be down another actor," he replied.

"I certainly hope not," I said.

Marsh nodded. "But it's a possibility, like it or not."

"It is," I agreed. "All right, I'll see you all at dinner. Enjoy the rest of your movie."

I left, heading to the elevator, only to have Edwin stop me.

"If you're not busy," he said sounding hopeful that I wasn't.

"I was going to change into something a bit less casual," I told him. "We're going ahead with the show tonight, but I already told you that. I might even try to nap for an hour if no one needs me. It's been a long day and it's not close to over, yet."

"If I may make a suggestion, use my suite. No one will bother you there."

"Not even you?"

He smiled, putting a hand on my shoulder to keep me from getting on the elevator. "Only if you want me to."

"That sounds distinctly like a proposition."

"Perhaps it is."

I saw a glimmer of amusement in his eyes, figured what the hell, and said using his suite sounded good to me.

* * * *

It was after six when I left Edwin's suite. I was definitely less tense than I'd been a couple of hours before. Good sex can do that. My only concern was that I was definitely disproving what I'd told him—that I wasn't into casual flings. Right then I didn’t care. I needed what he was offering, and frankly the fact he was a man who was able to become a wolf on command didn't bother me—too much.

I knew it could never be anything more than what it was right now—two men taking advantage of the moment. Barring the sheriff ordering us to stay at the hotel until he discovered who had killed Tessa, we would be leaving in the morning.

Edwin did tell me that the story the sheriff had given out to the news outlets was that Tessa had died in a tragic hiking accident. "There's no sense having every idiot within a fifty mile radius descending on us, hoping to view the crime scene."

I laughed, although it wasn't really a laughing matter, telling him I'd said the same thing to the troupe that afternoon. "Although I called them ghouls."

Dinner was a relatively silent affair. The camaraderie of the late afternoon seemed to have vanished again, with everyone buried in their own thoughts or looking at each other as if wondering if the person they'd known and liked for the past few years could be a murderer. I wasn't surprised that I garnered a few of those looks, too. It was human nature.

Guests who were, I presumed, spending the weekend at the hotel, started coming into the dining room, finding seats at the various empty tables around us. I knew just from watching them that they wanted to ask about Tessa's death. Thankfully, they had enough common sense, or good breeding, not to.