Griffin stirred beneath her ear. “Hungry?” he asked.

“Ravenous.”

Without moving her off his chest, he reached for the phone on the nightstand. “What do you want for breakfast?” he murmured.

“Pancakes,” she answered promptly. “A big stack of them dripping in butter and maple syrup.”

“Coming up, Princess.”

While they waited for breakfast to be delivered, they showered in the oversize stall with its double heads.

“Scrub your back?” Griffin offered.

She turned and presented her back to him. He washed her gently with the scratchy sponge.

“My turn.” Taking the loofah from him, she commenced scrubbing her way across his muscular back. “Every single time I’ve been naked in those showers with you and that stupid wall was between us, I’ve wanted nothing more than to be all soapy and slippery and naked in your arms.”

“Wish granted,” he declared, drawing her against his body.

Thankfully, room service was slow, and they had time to make lazy, slippery love in the shower, and for her to wash and rinse her hair, blow-dry it, and don one of the hotel’s fluffy bathrobes before she heard a knock on the hotel-room door.

She waited until the door closed and then stepped out of the bathroom.

Griffin was barefoot, his jeans slung low on his hips, and hadn’t bothered to don his T-shirt. She gulped at the sight of his perfect physique, wreathed in muscle.

He held a chair for her at the little table over by the balcony door, and she slipped into it, shy all of a sudden.

Ever perceptive, he asked as he sat down in his own chair, “What’s up?”

“You can be a bit intimidating, you know.”

“Me? How?”

“Have you looked at yourself in a mirror?”

“I might say the same for you, Miss Beauty Queen.”

She blew a stray strand of hair out of her face. “I joined this operation to leave all that behind.”

He snorted. “Meanwhile, I’m a grizzled old wreck.”

She picked up her knife and fork and risked a glance up at him. “You’re a warrior. Not too many men in this day and age can say that.”

He shrugged, setting off a display of rippling muscles that had her thinking about another round in the sack with him sooner rather than later. Food first. Then sex.

She dug into the fluffy pancakes with gusto, while Griffin made short work of steak and eggs.

Eventually, he pushed his plate back and propped his elbows on the table. “Thanks for this. I didn’t realize how much I needed it.”

“Funny, but I was about to say the same thing to you.” Their gazes met in a moment of naked intimacy that rocked her more than she dared to let on. He looked away first, staring out at the ocean glittering in the morning light.

“There’s something I’d like to talk to you about,” she ventured.