Ryan's Surprise

Ryan explained Skip's call to Marissa and then picked up the hotel phone and called Annabel's room. He placed the phone back in its holder and turned to Marissa. "The line's busy. She may just be calling room service or something. I'll give it a couple of minutes and try again." he said. "Maybe you could keep me amused in the meantime?" he suggested as he rolled over and blanketed her with his body.

"I'd be more than happy too." Marissa replied. "Although … what I had planned, I would hope, would make you totally forget about making phone calls altogether … and then poor Skip would be left sitting awake in Australia waiting for a call that would never … come … while you were …" Marissa grinned from ear to ear suggestively.

Ryan returned the look. "Coming?" Ryan asked hopefully. "What exactly would I be doing? What did you have in mind? I think I like it what ever it is." He added not giving Marissa a chance to answer.

"You know you sound like Seth." Marissa said laughing at him.

"What a horrible thing to say. We haven't been married for 24 hours and already you are abusing me."

"Well it's a bit of a concern to me too. Promise me you will never turn into Seth? Summer may find him endearing but he doesn't do it for me."

"What does do it for you?"

"Don't you mean who?"

"No. As of yesterday, I know who. You said yes. And that means that I have sole rights. Of course it is a two way street. This … " Ryan indicated his body. " … is all yours. Forever."

Marissa laughed and started to run her hands over him. "And I intend making the most of it. But you'd better make that phone call because I'm not going to be responsible for my actions for too much longer if you keep moving like that. And then you'd have to explain to Skip why Annabel didn't get his message."

"Okay." Ryan said and picked up the phone to try again. Replacing it he turned to Marissa.

"It's still busy and much as it hurts me to say this, I guess I'd better go down to her room and pass on the message. Maybe she took the phone off the hook so she could sleep in or maybe she has accidentally knocked it or something." He got out of bed and pulled on some jeans and a t shirt and quickly pulled on some shoes.

"Don't be long." Marissa said.

Ryan smiled. "I can't guarantee that a part of me won't be long by the time I get back if I keep thinking about you in my bed."

Marissa laughed. "I might put my rose petal bikini back on." she suggested.

"Okay. But nothing more." Ryan said as he picked up the room key and hastily made his way out the door. He couldn't wait to return.

---

Ryan got to Annabel's room and knocked. All he could think about was getting back to Marissa as quickly as possible. He knew he was impatient but he couldn't help himself so he knocked again.

The door opened to reveal Keith still fastening the tie belt on one of the hotel gowns.

Ryan pulled back and looked at the number on the door again wondering if he had accidentally gotten the rooms mixed up. What was Keith doing here?

"Good morning." Keith said chirpily. "I wasn't expecting to see you up this early. I thought you were room service with breakfast. You're not getting a tip unless you have food with you." He joked while standing to one side to allow Ryan to enter.

"Um." Ryan didn't move but he looked around unsure of exactly what this all meant. Had they swapped rooms or something? He thought that he had a pretty good idea of what it meant, but he was trying to deny it to himself, trying to think of some other logical explanation other than the obvious.

Keith stood waiting for Ryan to explain his visit. Just then some people walked by on their way to the lifts. "You'd better come in. I don't want to stand here with the door open while I'm dressed like this."

Ryan moved inside the door and still stood not saying anything … just looking around taking everything in.

Keith by now was puzzled. "Ryan what is it? Is something wrong?" he asked. He thought it odd that Ryan would even be here at this time of the morning. He had imagined that he and Marissa would have been enjoying the first morning of their honeymoon for several hours yet.

Ryan shook his head. "Um… No. … I …I …I have a message for Annabel."

"She'll be out in a minute. She was having a shower but I told her that breakfast was here when I heard you knock and she's starving … so she won't be long."

"Uh huh." Ryan replied.

"Did Marissa like her surprise last night?" Keith asked.

Ryan was forced to reply even though his mind was still trying to come to terms with what was obviously going on here. "Yeah. Thanks. It was great. I owe you."

"No problems. I hope you don't mind. We made use of a few of the leftovers." Keith said as he indicated a few candles scattered around the room.

"Ah. No. That's fine." Ryan replied. "So, you … and Annabel?" he asked.

"Yeah." Keith smiled. "That's not a problem is it? I mean you don't have some rule that prohibits employees getting together?"

"No. It's just … " Ryan started. "I mean, I knew that you were getting on, I just didn't know that you were …" he shrugged.

"Getting IT on." Keith finished smiling.

"Yeah. I guess you could put it like that."

"Well …" Keith tried to explain. "After you hatched your plan on Friday night, Annabel suggested that we have dinner together to get to know one another a little better and well …one thing led to another and " he shrugged "what can I say? Things just sort of happened…. she's quite something."

"I guess she is." Ryan had to agree.

Keith could see that Ryan was uncomfortable so he tried to hurry Annabel along. "Annabel. Are you done in there yet?" he asked and then turned to Ryan. "It's not a problem is it? I thought you'd be happy for us? You did sort of set us up?"

Ryan didn't know quite what to say. Was he really responsible for this?

Annabel walked out of the bathroom drying her hair with a towel. She had a hotel gown on but it was completely open; her hands too busy with the towel and her wet hair to bother with the tie belt. She looked up and was obviously surprised to see Ryan standing there but she didn't react at all. She obviously wasn't at all concerned about her nakedness.

Keith noticed Ryan's expression and turned to look at her as she walked towards them. She continued to dry her hair as Keith quickly moved in front of her to fasten the belt. "Annabel!" he said obviously disapproving of her actions.

"What? You don't think he's seen a naked woman before? I wouldn't mind betting there's one in his bed as we speak." She replied.

"That may be so. But he hasn't seen you naked before." Keith stated.

"He could have if he'd wanted to." Annabel teased. "He only had to ask."

Ryan now was getting angry at her suggestive comments. Not only were they in poor taste but they were obviously making Keith uncomfortable as well. Maybe he had totally misjudged her all along. It wasn't as if he hadn't been warned by the women around him just what she was like. Summer, Marissa, even Kirsten had warned him but he had always dismissed their claims.

"But if you change you mind, I'd be happy to show you what a real woman looks like? I'm sure it would make a change from a scrawny coat hanger." She added.

"Annabel!" Keith said. "What's gotten in to you?"

"Most recently … you." She answered sweetly.

"I think you should apologise." Keith stated.

"Don't bother." Ryan stated. "I only came here to deliver a message from your boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?" Keith asked. He looked at Annabel waiting for her to deny it.

She shrugged.

"It seems that your phone is turned off. So Skip called me and asked me to get you to ring him now … before he goes to bed."

"Skip? You're Skip's girlfriend?" Keith asked … complete bewilderment written across his face.

Annabel shrugged again. "We've been seeing a bit of one another."

"Quite a bit from what Skip told me when we went out on the town together in San Francisco." He commented. "We actually got propositioned that night by two very lovely ladies but he wasn't interested. Said he had someone waiting for him in LA. How wrong could he be?" Keith asked and then added "What sort of person are you?"

"I'm the sort that doesn't like to sleep alone." She replied indignantly. "And don't pretend you didn't enjoy it. You certainly didn't put up much of a fight."

Keith shook his head. "I had no idea…..How could you do that to him? To me?"

Annabel smiled. "You both seemed to enjoy what I did to you. So don't pretend you are all wounded. You were having just as much fun as I was." She stated.

"You disgust me." Ryan said as he moved towards the door. "Just remember to call Skip."

"Wait for me." Keith said as he pulled on his pants and hastily gathered the rest of his clothes.

"Where are you going?" Annabel asked.

"You don't seriously think I'd hang around here now that I know what you're like?" Keith replied.

"But I haven't finished with you." Annabel stated.

"That may be so. But I've finished with you." Keith said as he walked out the door.

R/R Thanks.