Free The 2014 R.L. Mathewson Chronicle Collection by R.L. Mathewson Page A

party, danced and hung out with readers and by the time they came back to their hotel room they’d been too exhausted to make love, a first for them.
                It had been the best signing they’d ever attended and when Jamie had received her invitation to attend this year’s Book Bash a few months ago she’d jumped at the chance. Even though Jamie had been just as exhausted as him and R.L. hadn’t been able to attend this year, she’d still been excited to attend Book Bash. She’d been having such a good time that he hadn’t had the heart to ask her to spend the night relaxing in their hotel room. Instead they’d had dinner with a few readers, attended the after party and danced until around three this morning before hitting a club for a few more hours until he could barely see straight.
                When Jamie mentioned hitting an all night diner with a few other authors and readers he’d been forced to beg her to call it a night. With a smile and a kiss, she’d agreed to take pity on him and call it a night. He’d barely managed to make it through his shower and collapse on the bed before he’d passed out, something that he was now seriously regretting.
                “I didn’t want to be stuck in the hotel all day,” she simply explained as she took his hands in hers and gave them a gentle yank, pulling him towards the bathroom.
                “Please don’t tell me that you want to spend the day at Disneyworld,” he grumbled, praying that he wasn’t about to be faced with a day of screaming, crying children, long lines and chasing after his wife every five minutes when she spotted vendors selling sugary treats that she just had to have.
                “No,” she said, shoving him towards the shower, “something better!”
                “I took a shower four hours ago,” he reminded her with a calm sigh, wondering what hell she had in store for him today.
                “This will wake you up,” she said, sounding excited as she quickly moved around him and started the shower, double-checking the temperature of the water before gesturing rather impatiently for him to get in.
                “I don’t want to wake up,” he pointed out grumpily even as he stepped in the shower, helpless to deny her something that she wanted.
                Well, helpless to deny her something that she wanted unless it was a shitload of sugar.
                “Please do this for me?” she asked, worrying her bottom lip.
                Even though he wanted nothing more than to crawl back in bed, he found himself reluctantly nodding as he ducked his head beneath the stream of hot water. “Fine,” he said around a heavy sigh, promising himself that they’d call it an early night tonight so that he could catch up on some sleep before their flight in the morning.
                “What are we doing?” he absently asked as he reached for the small travel bottle of shampoo that Jamie had packed for him.
                “Nothing big,” she said as she rushed around the bathroom, grabbing towels and clean clothes for him, clearly impatient to leave.
                He nodded, wondering if maybe they could knock this thing out in an hour or two so that they could come back to the hotel and-
                “I just want to cross one or two items off my list,” she casually explained, leaving the bathroom with a shrug as shampoo suddenly shot out of the small bottle in his hand, shooting up into the air before crashing down in the tub with a soft splat .
                “ Shit ,” he bit out on a groan as he was forced to squeeze his eyes shut and will his body that was suddenly very much awake to calm down, but it was nearly impossible as the thoughts of all the very naughty things that his wife wanted to do raced through his mind.