Chapter 16
“Are you sure you want to go?”
“I don’t want to, but I really can’t see a thing. I’ll be back in just a few minutes. If you want me to come back, that is.”
“I want you. To come. Back.” I grinned, tucking my arm through his as I led him to the door. “See what I did there?”
“I didn’t, which is why I’m running down to my office to get my spare glasses. But yes, I see what you did there.”
We’d come inside from the balcony, messy and tumbled looking, blissful and happy looking, still kissing and touching, but when Archie tripped over an ottoman and careened off a lamp, he’d insisted on retrieving his extra set of glasses from downstairs.
I didn’t want him to leave. I could still feel him, where he’d been, inside me. But . . .
I peeked out into the hallway. “The coast is clear.”
“Are you sure?”
“There’s no one in the hall,” I said as I guided him out the door. Whether or not we’d been moaning and groaning on the balcony only moments before was beside the point, he was still in charge here, and I’d rather not anyone see him ducking out of my room with messy hair and swollen lips. And lipstick on his collar. And, oh dear, lipstick on his . . . pants. I swooped in quickly, licking my thumb and rubbing at his collar.
“What’s this?” he asked, taking the opportunity to slip his arms around my waist and hold me close.
“Trying to cover up the evidence,” I whispered, scrubbing at the stain. “Eh, you’re gonna need to send this out to the cleaners. And not your regular cleaners, unless you want them to know you’ve been fooling around with someone who’s been wearing fuck-me-red lipstick.”
“That’s not really the name, is it?” he murmured, kissing my neck.
“Might as well be. Send those pants out too,” I said, laughing when he missed my neck and nearly kissed the door instead. “Honestly, you’re like Mr. Magoo.”
“Mr. Magoo wouldn’t have made you come three times, Ms. Morgan.”
“You just called a coatrack Ms. Morgan, but you’re right about the other thing.”
“Three times,” he said once more, unable to keep the pride out of his voice.
“Three times, Mr. Bryant,” I agreed.
“So far,” he whispered deliciously in my ear, pulling me tightly against him.
“Someone could see,” I warned, as his hands dipped below my waist, grabbing a handful of my backside and giving it a squeeze.
He looked left, then right, decided he could see well enough to know that no one was there, and leaned in to kiss me slowly. And thoroughly. “Give me ten minutes. Just let me get my glasses.”
“You don’t need your glasses, Mr. Bryant,” I answered, breathless.
He bit his lower lip. Then he bit my lower lip. Then he said, “When I get back, I’m going to fuck you again.” I gasped. “And this time, I want to watch.”
He took the key from my hand, then gave me a little push back. Pocketing my key, he winked. “Ten minutes.”
And then he was gone. Hot damn. I loved a well-dressed man who had a filthy mouth.
Exactly ten minutes later I smiled as I heard the key in the lock turning. I heard the door open, then close, and then his footsteps as he crossed through the living room.
“Clara?”
“In here,” I replied, turning the water on. A moment later I saw his reflection in the mirror as he entered the bathroom. I turned from the faucet just in time to see his eyes widen behind his glasses. And then his jaw clench.
Standing in the middle of the bathroom, I slipped the robe from my shoulders and let it fall to the floor. I heard his intake of breath as he saw me for the first time, naked and waiting for his return.
“I was a little cold from being outside. Spring is here, but it’s still a bit chilly, don’t you think?” I spoke as though it was perfectly natural for me to be naked, walking toward him. I made sure my hips swayed a little more than normal, made sure there was a little extra bounce there, and in my breasts as well. I reached across him to grab two towels, and in doing so brushed up against him. “I thought I’d warm up in the bathtub, maybe you’d like to join me? It’s big enough for two.”
“Big.” He nodded, his eyes round as he watched me move across the room. I watched his gaze slip across my body, his lust evident, his body taut like a live wire.
I stepped into the tub, slipping under the water. “I’ll just be in here, when you’re ready.” I grinned, feeling the warmth swirl all around. He unbuttoned the rest of his shirt, kicked off his shoes, and pulled his suit jacket off.
I knew what he meant when he said he wanted to watch. I wanted to see him, see his body, take in every angle and plane that I’d missed on the balcony in the darkness. With each article of clothing that hit the floor, I saw more of this man, and more of what I’d been missing.
“You’re kind of gorgeous, you know that?” I called out to him as he stepped out of his pants. He was gorgeous. Broad shoulders, long strong arms, narrow tapered waist. A little bit of auburn-colored hair covered his chest. That same hair blazed a trail south, disappearing below the band of his boxers.
“Gorgeous?” He ran his hands through his hair, making it stand even farther on end. He walked over to the bathtub, kneeling down just beside it. He watched me, the tips of my breasts just breaking the water’s surface. He gazed down at me, watching me, taking everything in. “Jesus, look at you.”
I bit my lower lip, looking up at him through heavy lids. Keeping his eyes on mine the entire time, he slipped off his boxers, and stepped into the tub.
I could feel the water change as he moved behind me, the water rising to the very edge of the tub but stopping just shy. I watched as his hands slipped around my waist, tugging me back against him. Christ, he was hard, I could feel him sliding across my bottom.
“You’re very tall,” I remarked, as his legs snaked around mine, at least a foot longer.
“Am I tall or are you short?” he asked, nipping at the exact spot where my shoulder became my neck.
“Both, I suppose.” I leaned back against him. “If we flood this bathroom how much trouble are we going to be in?”
“Who’s going to flood the bathroom?”
I turned to look back at him, the movement disrupting the water and making it nearly overflow. “See, I gotta let some of this water out.”
“Clara, don’t worry about it,” he started to say, as I leaned forward toward the drain, unplugging it to let some of the water out. “On second thought,” he groaned, running his hands down my back toward my hips, which were now poised in the air as I sat forward on all fours, “what a wonderful idea, feel free to let out as much water as you feel is necessary.” And then he kissed me. On my backside. One cheek, then the other, his teeth nipping my skin and then . . .
“Oh!” I exclaimed, tipping forward against the front of the tub, slapping at the tile.
“Hold still,” he growled, as he tilted my hips forward, angling them upward as his tongue licked at my clit. We both moaned as he touched me this way for the first time, his mouth surrounding me, working me, sucking and fucking. The cold tile pressed against my breasts as his hot mouth devoured me as I rocked my hips against his face. His groans were as guttural as mine as I came in his mouth, on his tongue, seeing stars and splashing water everywhere as I came apart for him once more.
He splashed plenty of water of his own as he rose up behind me, put me on all fours properly and drove into me hard from behind.
“The water,” I panted, his hand slipping across my back and sliding under me, tweaking a nipple on his way to my shoulder to hang on tight, moving me back against him. “The water is . . . fuck off that’s good . . . the water is going everywhere!”
With his left hand he swept a pile of towels off the shelf and onto the floor exactly where it had started to puddle, then slipped his hand down along my back, ending with a resounding wet smack on my ass.
“Let me worry about the water, Bossy, you just concentrate on how this feels.”
And I did. I gave over and threw back my head, arching my back, arching into him, letting everything I was feeling run wild across my body as his groans became deeper and more animal by the second, using my body, hot and wet and slippery and right exactly . . . there.
“I’m spoiled now, you realize this?”
“Spoiled?”
“Mm-hmm,” I murmured as his hand traced a path down my shoulder, along my elbow, slipping down to my hip, smoothing across my bottom and back up again. His hand made this trip over and over again, while the other one held my breast. Curled around me almost entirely, we lay like spoons in a drawer. A very cozy, warm, contented drawer. After refilling the tub and enjoying an actual bath we’d retreated to my bed, exhausted and waterlogged but still unable to stop touching each other. Before retreating, however, Archie took a few moments to build a fire and the result was spectacular. With the room lit solely by firelight, everything seemed softer somehow. Corners were rounded, edges were blurred, even the very air seemed gentle. It was quiet and comfortable, and just feeling his hands on my body felt soothing, grounding somehow.
“All of this. The fire, the bed, the gorgeous.” I kissed his forearm, nuzzling against it. “My bed won’t feel quite the same now without you in it. I’ve been spoiled.”
“Well, I’ll do my best to stay in it as long as possible,” he replied, kissing me just behind my ear and bumping his hips into mine. Everywhere we could be touching, we were. Skin to skin, contoured and full snuggle.
As much as I was loving the full snuggle, the reality of what had happened, what had been happening for weeks now, was unavoidable.
“What’s wrong?”
“Hmm?” I asked.
He kissed behind my ear again. “You sighed. Almost like you were deflating.”
I shrugged. “Just thinking about what happens next. How do we handle this? What do we do?”
“I’d like to think we’d have another go, but you’ve exhausted me. I’m not complaining, just exhausted.”
“Not about that.” I laughed, flipping over so I could see him. The sheet nudged down, uncovering my bare bottom. I was thrilled to see his eyes wander, his pupils dilate, his breathing change. He might be exhausted, but there was no doubt he’d be having another go before the night was through. But for now . . . “I mean, about us. This was amazing, you’re amazing, but what the hell are we doing? Like, seriously, what are we doing?”
“I don’t really think it’s up to me,” he said, keeping his eyes on my body and not meeting my gaze, “is it?” And now his eyes were on mine, searching, wondering.
“I’m leaving.” My body went cold even saying the words out loud, to say nothing of the light that dimmed in his gaze. “I mean, not right now, not tomorrow, not even next week. But I am leaving. Eventually.”
“I know.” I ran my hand through his hair, and just like that very first time he leaned into it, hungry for my touch. “I could lock you up in the attic like a little stowaway, tie you up, latch you to the bedpost.”
“I feel like this conversation has taken a turn.”
“Best possible turn. Lonely hotelier can’t stand the thought of his tiny sex goddess leaving him, so he hides her away from the world. Makes her dress up like Princess Leia or the woman from Flashdance.”
“What’s happening here?”
“Hey, you’re leaving, I might as well get all my fetishes out on the table now, right?” His tone was teasing. Mostly.
I kissed him. “I wish I could promise you more, but I just can’t right now. My life, my world, is swooping in and fixing things and then swooping out to help someone else. I’m like a luxury-brand Mary Poppins.”
“First of all, thanks for putting the idea in my head of you dressed up like a Victorian governess, that’ll be impossible for me to ignore the next time you call me Mr. Bryant. Second of all, why did this happen? Tonight. What changed?”
I bit my lip, thinking. Then spoke from the heart. “Today was hard for me. I don’t do holidays. Or family gatherings.” I shook my head. “They aren’t really my thing. I tend to avoid. But today, being with everyone, and being with you, it was . . . what’s the word . . .”
“Incredible? Awesome? Super-terrific?”
“I didn’t vomit.”
He frowned. “That’s three words. And not what I was expecting.”
“If you knew me, really knew me, then you’d know today was a victory. I mean, I did panic and I did run away, but I didn’t tell you to go and to tell you the truth, before, when we were all together, when I wasn’t freaking out, and I wasn’t focusing so hard on getting through it, I actually enjoyed myself. And when you showed up, looking ridiculously cute, it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized if I only have this little bit of time with you, then I want you. It’s unprofessional, it’s scandalous, it’s literally the worst thing I could possibly do, sleep with the guy I’m here to work with.”
“Just to be clear, I’m the guy, right?”
I grinned, but went on. “But in the end, there were a hundred reasons to run like hell today, and only one reason to stay. And you’re the reason, Archie.” He closed his eyes, and smiled. “I’ll have to go away one day. And I don’t know what will happen then, which makes me so fucking selfish for saying this, but I’m going to say it anyway. I want you. For as long as I can have you.”
He stared into my eyes, and I felt like he wanted to know more. To ask more, to dig deeper and find out what was really going on under the surface. But maybe he also saw in my eyes that I’d said all I could tonight, and it was more than I’d shared in a very long time. Maybe he thought I was selfish, but wanted to be selfish too. God knows if there was ever a man who deserved a moment or two of pure carnal bliss free of obligation it was Archie. In the end he said nothing. He rolled me over, slowly, until he was on top of me once more. My legs slipped around his hips as naturally as can be, no thought needed.
I needed to say one more thing. “We have to keep it quiet, though, okay? No one can know.”
He nodded.
“I’m sure that’d be better for you too, right? Not having to explain what we might be up to?”
He paused a beat, then kissed me softly. “If I thought you’d let me, I’d walk you down the center staircase tomorrow morning, with my hands all over you for all the world to see.”
I kissed him back, just as softly. “Impossible.”
He nodded. Pulled his hips back. And entered me with one slow, smooth thrust.
I dropped my head back onto the pillow, a small smile toying at my lips. “I thought you were exhausted?”
“Impossible,” he murmured, drawing back out almost all the way. “What was it you were saying the other day?”
“When?”
“About liking it shallow.”
I felt him move inside me, slow and barely there, drawing it out and making me shiver. “Yeah. Shallow is good.”