28. Sebastian

Chapter 28

Sebastian

I couldn’t have asked for a better evening. I’d have even taken her storming out of the ballroom and crying on the porch of that goddamn estate over and over again if it meant I could relive it over and over and keep her endlessly.

It wasn’t because of the way she’d come out smiling from the bathroom, her makeup pristine, after I’d heard her speaking on her way out. She’d told me what had happened and grinned the whole way through it.

It wasn’t because she’d dragged me back to the ballroom and forced me back onto the dancefloor.

It wasn’t because she’d kissed me in the middle of a slow, romantic song that Morris and Ruby clearly adored as they danced ten feet from us, her hands holding my face and neck just beneath the ears as she smiled the whole way through. She hadn’t even looked at them.

It wasn’t because of her insistence to stay until the crowd started to drastically thin and the bride and groom made their exit.

And it wasn’t because of the way she’d failed to stifle her laughter as we walked in through the revolving door of the fanciest hotel I could find close to the venue and found Morris and Ruby standing at the check-in desk, Morris’ card clutched in his hand as he breathily shouted at the poor man behind the counter who looked like he’d rather be anywhere else.

It was because of the moment when I’d leaned down and whispered to her that our final act could come from me, I could offer to cover their honeymoon suite upfront since there was clearly an issue with the card Morris had brought — and she’d laughed, the sound so sweet it could give me a fucking cavity, and grabbed me by the lapels on my jacket and said, “I don’t care about that. I just want to go to our room.”

There had been times over the last few months when I’d found myself desperate for her, chasing her in my dreams and finding her in every waking thought. But none of them came anywhere close to how much I longed for her at that exact moment.

Heat bloomed across her cheeks as she looked up at me, those fucking hands still holding me locked in place. So beautiful. “What? You look like you want to eat me alive,” she said, her voice low enough that I was sure it wouldn’t reach the bride and groom. Especially not over Morris’ nonsensical half-shouts about how it shouldn’t matter that the room was booked originally with a now-closed account.

“I think you’re mixing up my clear look of need for you with my cannibalism face,” I joked. I pressed a kiss against her cheek, lingering just a moment longer than was necessary. “But I guess you could say I want to eat you.”

Her breath caught on a giggle, and it took every ounce of the restraint I’d trained to keep myself from throwing her onto the counter of the check-in desk, lifting that goddamn purple satin up to her hips, and having my feast right there in front of the two of them.

But considering I didn’t want to end up on the sex offenders list for public indecency and disorderly conduct, I forced myself to pull back and pass my card to the woman sitting next to the guy getting a lashing from Morris.

Clearing my throat, I dealt my final blow to the bride and groom for the evening. “The reservation should be under Blue. B-L-U-E . Penthouse suite.”

“ Penthouse ?” Nelly whispered, her hand tugging on my jacket. “A normal room would have been fine.”

“Is it so bad that I wanted to treat you?” I chuckled.

Her head flopped onto my shoulder. “So presumptuous.”

The woman behind the counter tapped away at her keyboard, checked my card, and within a minute she was handing it back to me with a classic hospitality smile and a set of keycards. “You’re all checked in. You’ll need to scan this in the elevator and it’ll send you straight to the top floor.”

Morris’ head whipped around toward me, his nostrils flaring, his face red with either anger or embarrassment, but it didn’t matter. I’d done my damage for her, and if she was content, then so was I.

Wrapping a hand around her waist and pulling her into my side, I turned us away from them and started us toward the elevator at the other end of the lobby.

——— —

I was on her the moment the door clicked shut behind us.

I didn’t care about touring the penthouse, didn’t care to check how nice it was or ensure the linens had been folded or cross my T’s and dot my I’s. I only cared about touching her, kissing her, having her, and I’d waited too fucking long to have a single drop of patience left in me.

The space between us had been far too wide for far too long. I closed it in an instant, pulling her back against my chest with my hand flat across her ribcage, relishing in the little gasp she let out. I kissed her ear, maneuvering her head with my nose and chin as I swept her hair across her back and over her shoulder. I kissed her cheek, kissed the space between her jaw and throat, kissed the soft spot beneath her earlobe that made her hiss.

But it wasn’t enough.

I slipped a hand between us, searching along her back for a zipper, but came up short. Doubling checking the front with the hand I held her with, I couldn’t find anything there either, and my desperation, my need forced my hands lower along her body. I fisted the ripples of satin, pulling the heavy fabric up her legs.

“Can you not find the zipper?” Nelly half-breathed, half-laughed.

I huffed out a chuckle against her ear. “No.” I released the skirt but kept one hand in place, my palm flat against her upper thigh between the folds of the slit on her dress. “I suggest you help me find it before I start tearing this off you.”

“I spent far too much on this thing for you to ruin it,” she whined. Her hand came up beneath her left arm and tugged at a zipper so thin and so embedded into the fabric that I never would have found it on my own, releasing the two sides immediately .

“I would have bought you a new one,” I said. I pushed each of the little straps off her shoulders, my breath hitching as the dress slipped just an inch down, showing me she wasn’t wearing a bra beneath it. I kissed down the back of her neck, along the top of her shoulders, holding her glued to me because I just couldn’t decide whether I had the strength to put enough space between us to let the dress fall. “Christ, I’ll buy you a thousand fancy dresses if you let me take them off you.”

An amused little huff crossed her lips before she turned her head to the side, her lips grazing my forehead while I took my time with her neck. “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.” Biting back my reluctance to separate us, I gave us just an inch of space and let her dress fall to her hips. Blood pooled in my cock almost instantly when I grasped one of her breasts in my palm, and I almost regretted allowing her to ask whatever question she was thinking up — I wanted her mouth preoccupied with other things instead.

Her head leaned back, falling onto my chest and shoulder. “When I was… when I was in the bathroom earlier, with Ruby, she said something before she realized I was there. Ah!” She squeaked as I pinched her nipple gently between my thumb and forefinger, a silent request for her to speed up her question so we could carry on. “I… I don’t know, I might have misheard her. But she said you were ‘ some billionaire’s son. ’ And then there’s what Bryan said after that game…”

I paused, even my breath stilling against her skin. “What’s your question, Nelly?”

“Um,” she stalled, taking a shaky little breath and covering the hand I had flat against her stomach with her own. “Are you?”

Squeezing her breast, I slipped the other hand lower, carrying her hand with it as I pushed the fabric that had pooled at her hips down further. It caught, but then it fell, dropping to the floor and leaving her in nothing but her lacy, black thong. God. “Would it change anything if I said yes?”

It wasn’t something I ever made a point of speaking about. If she’d done five seconds of Googling, she could have figured it out herself, and in truth, I was almost impressed that she hadn’t bothered looking me up at all. It almost felt impossible that she hadn’t, that it somehow wasn’t her motivating factor, but I had to remind myself that I’d had this before. I’d had someone who wanted to be with me , not my wallet.

Until she wanted neither of those things.

But it didn’t sting anymore like it used to, and I had to push past the sinking feeling that it could happen again and believe, hope , that it wouldn’t.

“No,” she breathed. “It’s just… I didn’t know. I just wanted you to know that I didn’t know. I mean, I knew you made good money from hockey, but I didn’t know that .”

I spun her to face me, forcing myself to think with my brain and not my cock for a moment. It doesn’t matter to her. I have to trust that. “I figured as much,” I chuckled, pressing a kiss against her lips and hovering just a breath from them. “Did you think it was just normal behavior for hockey players to give away expensive cars like candy?”

“Maybe, but nothing you’ve done has been completely normal ,” she smirked. Her hands grasped at the lapels of my jacket again, her feet slightly unsteady in her heels as she stood almost completely bare in my arms. She pushed, trying to get the fabric over my shoulders, but I maneuvered it back into place. “Oh, come on, I’m basically naked and you’re still wearing your whole suit. This is hardly fair.”

“I didn’t intend for this to be fair .” Bending down quicker than she could react, I hooked an arm under her rear and hoisted her up, throwing her over my shoulder in one quick movement. I took half a second to take in the main living space of the penthouse before setting my sights on the sliver of a kitchen I could see through the far doorway.

“Seb!” she laughed, her hands grasping for enough friction on my jacket to bring herself somewhat upright. “What are you doing? Put me down.”

I crossed the room with ease, slipping around the coffee table and through to the kitchen, complete with — fuck yes — a dining table. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the way you’d taste since I found you at Smokey’s,” I huffed, slamming my hand down on her ass hard enough to make her squeal. I dragged my fingers along the freshly pinkened flesh gently, just barely touching her, but I knew it would feel like little pinpricks to her. She squirmed against me, and I shoved the dinner plates on the table out of the way with my free hand before depositing her atop it. “I fully intend to have my fucking meal tonight. I’m even dressed for the occasion.”

I’d never seen her face or neck so red — not even when she’d dropped her bag and her vibrator had come tumbling out of it. “Are you serious?”

I shot her a grin and wrapped my fingers around the back of a chair, pulling it out and plopping it down directly in front of her legs before sitting down. “Deathly.”

Her throat worked on a swallow. “Um… I’ve never…”

I cocked a brow at her and dragged my hands down her legs, lifting her heeled feet into my lap. “Don’t tell me that cunt we left downstairs didn’t eat you out once in the five years you were together,” I grunted. Slipping my fingers behind the strap over the back of her heels, I slid them down, removing both of them one by one.

“No, no, he did. A handful of times,” she clarified, but she still looked nervous, still seemed a little bit uncomfortable. “It’s not that I’ve never experienced that, it’s that I’ve never… come from it.”

I almost saw red. Almost. “Fucking amateurs,” I breathed.

A laugh broke through her discomfort. “I don’t know, the guy I let try in high school said he was the world champion, so you might have pretty steep competition.”

I stifled the snort that came out of me and pressed a kiss against her inner thigh, not quite resisting the urge to sink my teeth into the soft flesh just a little as I played with the edge of her underwear. “Somehow, I highly doubt that title was actually given to him,” I smirked, pressing my hand flat against the middle of her chest. “Lay back and lift up so I can get these off you. I’m fucking starving.”

Hesitantly, she did as she was told, leaning back onto the table on her elbows and lifting her rear just enough for me to slip her thong down her thighs.

I didn’t care if this ruined my suit, didn’t care if she was convinced she wouldn’t be able to come from this, didn’t care that I was somewhat out of practice myself. I was desperate for it, and the moment I spread her legs apart and saw the glimmering, dripping dampness between her thighs, I couldn’t help myself.

I needed it.

I leaned forward in my chair, and the moment my mouth made contact with her, the taste of her sent my head spinning so badly I almost didn’t even clock her surprised little moan.

God, she tasted like heaven. I wasn’t going to want to stop.

I slid my tongue down from her clit before I’d even begun to work at it, selfishly dipping it inside of her to get more, and this time I fully caught her shaky, shuddered breath. I looked up at her over the expanse of her body, taking in every sight of her completely bare on the dining table while I was still sitting there in my full suit, desperately trying to keep my cock under control as her half-lidded eyes met mine and her mouth popped open just a touch.

“Do that again,” she breathed.

She didn’t need to ask me twice.

Heart thudding in my chest, I dragged my tongue down again, pushing it inside of her a little further this time, being a little more reckless. My nose rubbed against her clit as I twisted my tongue, dragging a hearty moan from her.

I wrapped my arms around her thighs and tugged her closer, pushing just a bit deeper. Her back thudded on the table as she gave up her pursuit to stay somewhat upright. “Oh my God,” she moaned.

“You taste better than I could have ever imagined,” I said, the words muffled and quiet from my preoccupied mouth. Air was overrated anyway.

Everything about her, from the flavor that coated my tongue, the way her pussy contracted around me, how her stomach and chest rose and fell with every shortened breath and gasp, the way she sounded as I touched her — it was too much. It was perfect. I’d denied myself of her for too long at the beginning and too long in the last month she’d been away, and I couldn’t help but use my hands, one hooked around her thigh and focusing on her clit while I worked her entrance with my tongue and the other locked on my lap, trying to gain any bit of friction on my cock through my slacks.

I wanted to seat myself inside of her so fucking badly, but I wanted to shower her with pleasure even more.

Stroking her clit with my thumb, I gave her little breaks from the stimulation at her entrance and dragged my tongue along her plump lips, top to bottom, on either side. She dripped as her hips gyrated, desperately seeking more, and I caught it all with my mouth, savoring every bit she gave me.

“Christ, Seb,” she said, panting between the words and her voice breaking on my name. “Fuck me. Please. Please .”

“So greedy,” I mused. I kept my thumb circling her clit but popped my head up just a tad, watching her move with heavy eyes. “You want to be filled?”

“Yes,” she rasped. Her eyes locked to mine, her chin nearly touching her chest. They were wild, wide open, hungry . Looking at her like this, nude and propped up as I worked her fully clothed, felt almost nostalgic — but I wouldn’t have to go home aching this time.

I wrapped my hand around the hardened mass in my slacks, so tempted to break and take what I ached for, but that hand could be put to use in far better ways. “You can’t have me yet,” I said, chuckling as her brows furrowed into a look of disappointment.

Her hips bucked toward me, a silent yet demanding plea. “What is this, a lesson on frustration?”

Abandoning her clit, I dug those fingers into her thigh instead and left my cock with my other hand, nearly growling from my own pent-up desires, no longer getting attention. I dragged my middle finger along her entrance, forcing her body to shiver, before slowly sinking it inside of her. So fucking wet. “This isn’t a lesson this time,” I breathed.

And I latched my mouth directly onto her clit.

She nearly jumped as I slid a second finger in at the same time, sucking that sensitive little bundle of nerves right in between my teeth and lashing it with my tongue. Curling my fingers inside of her, I pressed up against the little rough patch she’d nearly shrieked at the first time I’d touched her, and a sound broke from her that I felt positively honored to witness.

Another finger, and those sounds turned to gibberish, broken words and half-formed please s dripping from her mouth like saliva. Her fingers knotted in my hair, holding me to her. She felt like heaven wrapped around my digits, and all I could think of was her, how she sounded, how she tasted, how she would feel wrapped around my cock. I knew, and I needed it, needed it like I was suffocating and she was air, but I just had to hold off. I could hold off.

A fourth finger, and she opened up further, taking it like a goddamn champ. Every rough plunge had her gasping, every drag of my teeth or my tongue against her clit had her tugging at my hair and causing little pinpricks of pain across my scalp.

I never wanted to stop.

The feel of the backs of my knuckles slipping against warm, wet skin made me want to push her, wanted to see just how far I could go with her, and the moment I tucked my thumb into the cone I was making with my fingers, she broke around me. It was violent and unexpected, coming on without a hint of warning — just a garbled, raspy scream clawing its way from her throat and her muscles clenching around me like a vice before relaxing entirely, twitching .

Thank fuck we weren’t at home for that, or she’d have woken Matty even from the guesthouse.

She leaked across my hand as I slowly withdrew it, sticky and stringy. I lifted my mouth from her and pulled her body across the table, stroking her gently in circles around her clit to drag her through each wave. Her rear slunk down as it passed the edge, forcing her back up just enough that I could drop her into my lap.

“Good job,” I praised her, taking her slightly lolling head in my hand as I kept up the soft little circles between her thighs. Her half-closed eyes blinked heavily at me, her come-down still in full swing.

I brought my lips to hers, not caring if my entire mouth and chin were damp. I kissed her, and she grabbed my lapels with shaking hands, her hips raising just enough to tell me that she was getting sensitive and it was too much.

But I didn’t care. I wanted to overwhelm her, especially when I knew she thrived on it.

I slipped my hand from between us and forced her hips back down, pushing the center of her onto the straining bulge beneath my trousers.

“Can you feel how hard I am?” I asked, my lips hovering against hers. “Can you feel what you’ve done to me?”

She nodded weakly.

“Grind on it,” I ordered.

“I’ll ruin your suit?—”

I slipped my hand into her hair, fisting the strands into one handful and tugging just enough to show her I was serious. “I’ll buy a new one.”

Hesitantly, shakily, she shifted forward, dragging herself along me the way she had that first time she’d had me inside of her. But this time, she was empty, this time she was sensitive, this time she was drunk on her own pleasure with her mouth lazily moving against mine.

This time, I wasn’t trying to teach her anything. This time, I just wanted to be with her.

It was barely enough friction to feel worth it, but seeing her like this did something positively carnal to me. “Good fucking girl,” I grunted, tugging on her hair a little harder, moving my kisses to her cheeks, her jaw, her neck. Every time her hips shifted back, I could see the little mess she was making. “Do you like that?”

She nodded, pulling at the hair I held in my hand.

“I’ve got half a mind to make you do this to every suit I own,” I laughed, encouraging her forward as her hips began to shake, her movements a little choppy.

She nodded again, laughing weakly before it turned into a moan, her hands desperately pushing my jacket to my shoulders. I let her this time, removing my hands from her just long enough for it to slip down off my shoulders and fall between my back and the chair.

Nelly went for my tie next, pulling it, loosening it as her moans grew louder, needier, hungrier. I helped her, leaving her to her own devices with her shaking hips and pulling it clean off. I popped my buttons as I leaned back on the chair, still holding her hair with one hand, and just watched as she moved, my gaze flicking from her body to her parted lips to her eyes. One quick movement, and I pulled the fabric from where it was tucked beneath my slacks and belt, freeing the entirety of my chest and stomach for her.

Her hands touched my chest, dragging across each sensitive muscle. I let out a wobbly breath as I pulled my shirt over my shoulders, giving her more to play with, more to graze .

The moment her fingertips slid along the sides of my pecs, I almost lost every bit of restraint I’d been clinging to.

“Fuck,” I hissed, dropping my hands to my belt and immediately getting to work freeing it. “I need you.”

I meant that, and I meant it in far more ways than just this.

She leaned forward and pressed her mouth to my chest, sucking and licking across the expanse of my pecs, and dear God I was losing it, losing my sanity, losing my will to not just force my slacks down and bury myself inside of her with no warning. I pulled my belt completely free, dropping it to the side of the chair as I watched her, my chest rising and falling rapidly.

She looked like a fucking goddess moving the way she did. And as I stared, as I helped her grind her clit against my covered cock, as I watched her hips falter again and heard her moans increase in volume and frequency, I knew she was close again. I knew she was seconds away.

But her trembling hands went to the button on my slacks at the same time as her mouth found my nipple, and I broke, completely, utterly, terrifically.

I forced her to stop her movements and wrapped my arm around her waist, pulling her into me as I picked both of us up unsteadily out of the chair, using my hand on the table for support. She mewled her complaints into my skin, her frustrations from coming to the brink of an orgasm and having it stopped crystal clear.

“Seb,” she protested, linking her arms around my neck as I walked us through to the main room. “You can’t keep carrying me around, you’ll hurt your knee.”

I almost laughed. “I don’t give a fuck about my knee right now, Penelope.”

Behind the white couch and glass coffee table, an open door led straight through to the large bedroom, and although it wasn’t my four-posted bed, it would have to be good enough.

I just didn’t have the patience to make it there.

I carried her to the other side of the living room and paused, readjusting her weight, before sandwiching her up against the wall.

“Seb?”

“I need you,” I said again, propping her up so the wall would take half her weight and my hips would take the rest. I slipped my hand below her rear, popping the button on my pants and pushing down the zipper. I was rushed, clumsy, even as I forced them and my boxers down to my thighs, groaning the moment my straining, aching cock was free from its prison. “I can’t fucking take another minute of not being inside of you.”

I readjusted her lower, held her up with one hand beneath her rear, and pressed the tip of my swollen length against her entrance.

“You’re going to hurt yourself holding me up like this,” she reiterated, a little chuckle getting cut short the moment I pressed in an earth-shattering inch.

“I don’t care,” I laughed. “I don’t care at all.”

“You don’t have practice— ah, fuck —tomorrow?”

I swallowed down the moan that was dying to come out as I pushed a little further, her walls closing in on me and making my head spin. “I have a… game tomorrow.”

“ Seb .”

“Nelly, baby, please ,” I breathed, closing the distance between our mouths to try to make her stop voicing her concerns. She moaned into me as I slid further, past the point of resistance, and sunk shakingly in down to the fucking hilt .

I could die like this.

Happy, touching her, having her.

But she put her hands on my chest and gently pushed, breaking the kiss before I could get any further with her. “Bed,” she insisted, her mouth popping open again as I pulled my hips back just an inch and sunk back in.

Why does she have to feel like heaven?

“Please, bed,” she said. Her hands moved up my chest, along my neck, until they cupped my cheeks and held me there. “I’ll just be worrying about you the whole time.”

All at once, my need to take her warred with the need to give her everything she wanted. I sighed and dropped my forehead to hers, my cock begging me to stay and my brain screaming at it to shut up. “Okay, bed,” I sighed, pressing a kiss against her cheek. “But if you think for one second that I’m not going to carry you to it, then you’re sorely mistaken.”

She chuckled in amusement as I readjusted my hands, preparing to take the full weight of her again. There wasn’t a chance in hell I was going to retreat from her, and I could make it the ten steps to the bed slightly unbalanced if that’s what it took.

“Wrap your legs and arms around me.”

“Like a koala?” Her legs locked around my waist, then her arms followed suit around my neck.

“Exactly like a koala,” I laughed.

I took the rest of her weight, finding my footing on shaky legs, and fuck , okay, she had a point — my knee twinged. But I had just enough in me to get into the bedroom, cross the carpeted floor, and lower both of us onto the bed with her beneath me.

And that was as far as my willpower would take me.

“Thank you?—”

I cut her off with a single thrust of my hips, turning the end of her words into a little yelp. But then her eyes were rolling back, her head digging into the mattress as her back arched, my cock buried so deep inside of her I was convinced it would never come out.

Her mouth parted in a moan and I seized my opportunity, hooking my first two fingers behind her bottom teeth. I turned her head, opening her neck up for me fully, and did the thing I’d had flickering thoughts of for months now.

I made my mark.

I felt like a fucking teenager, but I wanted to mark her, wanted to look at it after and know that I’d done that, know that if we ran into Morris and Ruby on our way out in the morning that they’d see it, know that at least for now, I was claiming her. My mouth locked on, my teeth clamping down, and I sucked .

She moaned out her laughter, her fingers burying in my hair. “Are you giving me a fucking hickey, Seb?”

I grunted my reply, the sound muffled from my mouth on her neck. My hips had a mind of their own, driving into her over and over and over, getting me drunk on the pleasure she provided so easily. Removing my fingers from her mouth, I dragged them down between our bodies, sliding them over her mound and dipping them just above where we connected.

I zeroed in as I relinquished her flesh from my mouth, remembering the pressure she liked and giving it to her while I made little circles on her clit. Unfocused eyes struggled to see exactly how much of a mark I’d made, but as I pulled back, the little broken blood vessels became evident, painting a little patch of her skin light red.

Just the sight of it was enough to make me moan.

It would deepen by morning, I was positive, and with every thrust of my cock into her, every slide of her walls against my length, I couldn’t help but want to beg her to come to the game tomorrow or move back in or be more than just Matty’s nanny. I couldn’t help but want her in any way she’d give to me.

I’d fallen too hard, and there was no chance of me climbing my way back out.

“I want you,” I whispered, dropping my head back into the crook of her neck. I showed her with kisses, adjusted my angle to one I knew she’d prefer, one that got me deeper — I tried to convey the rest of the things I struggled to say with my body instead. “I want this. In case you forgot.”

“Fuck,” she moaned. Her fingers tugged at the hair on the back of my head, her face turning just enough that her lips scraped against my cheek. “I do, too. In case you forgot.”

The ache in my chest felt so contradictory to the almost unbearable bliss of her that it made my head spin, but I kept at it, moved faster, deeper, her walls shuddering around me as I sunk deep enough to bottom out. “God, you’re so fucking perfect,” I rasped. She clenched, and any other time, any other day, I would have gone rougher with her, I would have grabbed her by the hair and forced her onto her front, would have fucked her so hard that she left an impression in the mattress… but at that exact moment, that wasn’t what I wanted, and I could only hope that the same was true for her.

Instead, I lifted my head, kept my digits steady on her clit, and found her hand with my free one. I slipped my fingers into her palm, using them to spread hers open, and interlocked our hands as I kissed her.

And God, she kissed me back.

Her noises filled the spaces between our mouths, her body arching up to press into mine, and I could feel my release coiling, could feel it threatening to tip me over the edge before she could. But she was squeezing, her breaths coming quicker, her moans growing louder, and?—

Gasping into each other, we tumbled into it together, the shuddering of her walls far too much for me to bear through. The pressure behind my cock surged forward, spilling into her, filling her, and I did my best to keep my mind on her, her pleasure, her experience. I moved her through it, feeling each surge and crest and crash as she shuddered beneath me.

When we’d finally calmed down, I slowly slid out of her, collapsing in a heap beside her. I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her in, tucking her right into my chest.

“That was different,” she whispered, her fingers tracing little circles on my chest.

“Yeah.” I kissed her forehead. “That was different. Is that okay?”

Her eyes flicked up to mine, her lashes fluttering. “More than okay.”

What the fuck had happened to me? I’d been so guarded for so long, so intent not to let anyone this close, and somehow, she’d wiggled her way in and cemented herself in the one place I’d kept locked up for years. And I didn’t even regret it.

“Do you think they have room service here?” she mused, her mouth scrunching up at one side in thought.

I snorted. “You find out I’ve got more money than you thought, and the first thing you want me to buy for you is something from a room service menu?”

Her stupid little grin made my chest ache again. “I want fries.”

I laughed and rolled to my back, reaching across the bed for the pamphlet I’d briefly caught a glimpse of when I carried her in. “I think I can afford that.”