Hot Buttered Rum: Standalone Romance (Silk Stocking Inn Book 4) Read Online Free

and downy quilts. “Oh my, that is a bed that you could get lost in.” I walked to the window, where a cushioned window seat was filled with nearly as many pillows as the bed. The first patters of rain hit the glass. “Will Turner be all right out on his boat?”
    “Oh sure. He’s spent his whole life on the ocean. His grandfather was a fisherman. He knows he can come back to the inn if it gets too bad out there.”
    Coco headed to another door and opened it. “I suggest you have a nice long soak in a bubble bath to start your weekend.”
    I walked forward and gazed into a richly appointed bathroom with a tub that was deep enough to swallow me up. The bathroom was more sumptuous than the bedroom. “I might just wrap myself in bubbles and sleep in that tub.”
    Coco laughed. “Might get a bit cold. I’ll go downstairs and fix you something to eat.” She waved her hand around the cozy room. “Enjoy.”

Chapter 4
    I lit three ivory colored candles, and instantly, a heady fragrant mix of jasmine and vanilla swirled through the steam rising up from the hot bath. I touched the water with my toe and then submerged my foot into the opalescent mounds of bubbles.
    My body hadn’t even settled completely into the hot, soapy cocoon when I’d made the firm decision to buy a soaking tub when I got back home.
    Heavy raindrops did a tap dance on the window pane just above the tub. I leaned back and bubbles wrapped around me like an airy cloak. The skeletal limbs of the oak tree growing below the window vibrated as a burst of wind sprayed the window with rain and leaves. As much as I would have enjoyed gazing up at a starlit sky from my luxurious bath, the stormy weather on the other side of the glass made the whole thing that much cozier.
    My eyelids felt heavy from the long work week. I pushed away all the numbers and calculations that were usually scratched in my mind when I closed my eyes. Oddly enough, once free of work clutter, my mind went straight to the fisherman, Turner. When he walked into the bakery, I’d felt a weird sensation as a little voice in my head whispered, ‘he’s your happy ending’.
    I’d quickly blamed it on the fact that I’d been talking about my lack of a happy ending earlier in the day. Not to mention, I was slightly intoxicated by the buttered rum cupcake and completely bewildered by the idea that I’d ended up at Silk Stocking Inn, a place that had seemingly popped up out of nowhere. The fact that Turner also looked the part of the perfect happy ending hero didn’t hurt either.
    A sharp tap against the window made me look up. The tap was followed by a sharp screeching sound. I reached for the towel, and as I looked back, I was startled by a fluttering movement outside the window. A beady eye was staring in at me.
    My heart raced with alarm as I stepped out of the tub and wrapped myself in the towel. It took all my courage to look at the window again.
    Relief washed through me as the parrot’s green head bobbed up and down as he stared inside. “Dexter, what on earth—?”
    I walked around the tub to the window and turned the lock. Dexter flapped his wings to stay perched on the sill as I slid the pane up. The second the window was open, the bird shot through in a flurry of wet green feathers. He landed on the vanity and immediately entertained himself in the mirror. He tilted his head back and forth, apparently quite enamored with his own reflection, rain-soaked and all.
    I yanked down the window and plucked the plush pink guest robe off the door hook. I blew out the candles and opened the drain on the tub. Dexter’s little feet clicked across the marble topped vanity until he got to the edge and turned around. His squawk echoed off the plaster walls. Then he flapped his wings and headed right for me. Before I had a chance to shrink away or cover my face with my arms, Dexter landed softly on my shoulder. His tiny talons grabbed hold of the lush fabric, and he tottered around to face the