Chapter 21
Veronica
I sat down on the sofa in Carter’s mansion and placed the McDonald’s bag on my lap. We’d talked a little on the way back to his place, but I’d mostly kept my thoughts to myself. This night had drained me.
“Hungry?” Carter asked and carried the second bag into the room. The space was comfy and not what I expected. There wasn’t a TV in here, only bookshelves, a fireplace, and two sofas. He sat down beside me and put the bag and our sodas on the coffee table.
“I could eat,” I said and opened the bag. I brought out my fries and tucked in. The saltiness satisfied me deeply. I usually ate healthy, but today’s ‘festivities’ warranted a bit of fat and salt.
Carter brought out his burger and tucked in. It was weird, him in a fancy suit feasting on fast food, and me in my date dress wedging fries into my mouth as fast as I could manage. We didn’t talk at all.
I tried shoving aside everything that’d happened but I revolved around those thoughts. In the span of a couple weeks, my life had gone from on track to off the rails. I’d lost my apartment, my sister, and gained a whole lot of anxiety. I couldn’t get started on Carter. That was a rabbit hole I’d already fallen down.
We finished our meal and I grabbed for my soda at the same moment as him. Our fingertips brushed. I ignored the instant kickback of desire and drank the soda instead, sluicing away the savory with fizzy sweetness.
“So,” Carter said, at last. “I have plenty of guestrooms. You can pick out whichever one you like best.”
“Oh, thank you,” I replied. “I appreciate that.”
“I don’t have any women’s clothes here. Jayne took all her stuff ages ago and whatever was left is at your apartment.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t wear my sister’s clothes anyway,” I said. There wasn’t enough money in the world. “I’m okay. I’ll sleep in this dress.”
“I can offer you some old sweatpants and a shirt, if you’d be more comfortable in that?”
“Thank you.” I slurped more soda to cover the awkward silence.
Carter threw the empty cartons and packets into the brown paper bag, then wiped his mouth and fingers on a napkin. “I feel like I should apologize again. I don’t want you to lose trust with me, Veronica.”
I shrugged. “Don’t apologize. It’s like you said, we both did stupid shit. I guess that’s what happens when you’re thrown into the deep end. Carter, I just – I think that we either moved too fast or, I don’t know. I had a bad feeling about this from the start. You’re off limits.”
“No, I’m not,” he said, firmly, and scooched a little closer.
“You are, and you know it. I shouldn’t have let this happen.”
Carter sighed. “I don’t care about what we should or shouldn’t have done. I care about moving forward with you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I stand by what I said. I’m going to get a divorce, even if it means losing everything,” he said.
My heart thumped beneath my ribs, a hammer against wood rails.
“Jayne’s done something strange,” he said. “She bought that art gallery and I’m pretty sure she evaded taxes. I need to speak to my lawyer’s contact in Italy. Apparently, he’s got news for me that is best discussed in person. And once that’s done, I’m going to find Jayne. I’ll do whatever it takes. Threaten her with litigation if I have to.”
I pressed my lips together, then released the pressure ever so slowly. “I’ll be happy for you once you’ve sorted it all out. I want you to be happy and free. For you.”
“I want you to come with me,” he said.
“What?”
He took my hands in his, raised one and kissed my knuckles, then did the same with the other. “I want you to come with me to Italy. I want you to be with me every step of the way. You don’t have to see Jayne or speak with her, but once it’s done, you and I can make our own memories there.”
“And what if she refuses? What if she wins?” My sister had always gotten her way. She didn’t understand the meaning of ‘no.’
“She won’t win.” Carter hesitated. “And if I lose everything then so be it. I’ll figure something out.”
“If you lose everything you can move in with me,” I said and laughed. It was meant to be a joke, but it was the truth. I’d never cared about Carter’s money. This had barreled along at an incredible pace.
“You’re too kind,” he said and grinned at me. He lifted my hand and turned it over. He kissed my wrist, a wet, warm touch that sent shivers down my spine. “Will you come with me to Italy?”
“Yes,” I said. “If you need me, I’ll go with you.” I didn’t have rent to make now. My apartment was totally trashed from Jackson’s little adventure. I didn’t have anything to lose, and God knew, Georgia would probably chase me out of her apartment with a broom if she found out I’d turned him down.
He snaked his hands around my waist, then sat back and pulled me into his lap. I didn’t resist, and excitement tickled in the center of my chest. I brushed my fingers through his hair, trailed one down to his lips. “You really want to do this?”
“I really want to do this. I want to be with you. I’ve fallen for you, Veronica.”
And I’d fallen for him, even though I hadn’t wanted it to happen. He’d electrified me from the start. Turned up on my doorstep with that box of my sister’s crap and stared right into my soul.
“I love you,” he said, lips moving beneath my fingers.
I sucked in a gasp. “Don’t say that. You can’t. I mean, not yet. Surely.”
He tucked his hand behind my head, warmed me with his touch. “It’s the truth. I love you. I think you’re the only woman I’ve ever loved.”
“Carter,” I muttered, and tears welled in my eyes. Gosh, the ups and downs of today! “I love you, too.”
He tugged my body into his and kissed me, seared my soul with that kiss.
I switched positions without breaking that mind-altering embrace. I straddled him, my cotton dress creeping up my thighs, and pressed myself into the bulge hardening in his suit pants.
“God,” he grunted, into my mouth. “That’s going to make me crazy.”
“Good. You’ve driven my insane. You deserve it,” I said and nibbled on his bottom lip. I circled my hips, increasing the pressure on his crotch.
He hardened beneath me, a reminder of what we’d had before, and ran his hands down my body, cupping either breast. He broke our kiss, ripped off my jacket and tossed it aside, then feasted his eyes.
That was the best I could describe it. Feasting his eyes. He sat back and admired me while I gyrated in his lap. Finally, he tugged one side of my dress down and exposed my left breast.
The nipple puckered in the cold air. He leaned forward and caught that between his lips, warming it. He suckled and growled, low in his throat. “Fuck,” he said and kneaded my breast in his hand.
“Yes, please,” I said and reached between his legs. I couldn’t wait a second longer. I needed him inside me, now. The tension that’d grown between us, the fights, spurred me on. I unzipped his pants, unbuttoned them, then reached inside.
My hand closed around his cock. I stroked once, down from his head and to the base, then back up again.
Carter moaned and clung to me. He exposed my right breast, licked and kissed that one, too. He grabbed them both, forced them together and sucked both nipples at once.
I almost lost it, closed my hand around his girth and cried out. The warmth, wetness – it was a perfect storm of pleasure and we hadn’t even started yet. “Don’t stop,” I whispered.
He didn’t. He worked my breasts in both hands, gentle but firm, then freed his fingertips and dragged them up to my neck, into my hair. He broke away at last, then brought my mouth to his.
The kiss destroyed any inhibitions I might’ve had. My taste on his tongue. The deep kiss.
I dragged his dick out of the opening his pants, then lifted myself, dragged his head between my lips and mixed our juices.
“Jesus,” he groaned and broke the kiss. “You’re going to make me come like that. Just like that.”
“Nuh-uh.” I placed his tip at my entrance and didn’t move a muscle. “Not before I’ve felt you.”
“You’re everything, Veronica,” he said.
I sat down on his cock, speared myself on his length, and dug my nails into the back of the sofa. “Oh, God.”
He gripped my hips, gaze locked on mine, and raised me ever so slowly.
We moved in our rhythm, the special movement that was unique to us. I rocked up and down, my breasts bouncing, warm from his kisses, and he guided me, used his strength to deliver us both to pleasure.
I flicked my head to one side, let my hair fall loose, and rode him. He grazed me in all the right places. His heat filled me, and he tensed up.
“Veronica, I’m close.”
“Come for me,” I whispered. “Please, come for me.”
“That’s what you want?” he asked, breaking each word off and struggling with the next.
“Yeah. Please.” I reached between my legs and played with my clit, circling it only twice before I started my own journey to climax. The connection between us was too intense. “I’m going, too.”
He threw his head back and let out low grunt. Drove himself into me, iron grip on my hips, branding me, making me his. And then he erupted inside me, pulsed against my walls.
I broke over the edge and joined him, pulsing and crying out.
He grew bigger, if that was even possible, and I closed around him. We rocked through our orgasms, primal, connected, and then I lay against his chest.
He lifted his head and kissed my hair. “I love you,” he said.
“I love you,” I replied. I didn’t want to move from his lap, but we couldn’t sleep like this.
So, this was what real love felt like. It was unforgiving. It had me in its grips, talons buried deep. I’d been carried away from rational thought and into the realm of pure emotion and dreams.
I’d never dreamed of finding the man I loved and marrying him, but I could make an exception for Carter. He’d changed how I felt about relationships, about love, about everything. I didn’t want this moment to end.
“You want to go upstairs?” he asked and slipped out of me. “I’ll draw us a bubble bath. I’ve got a massive tub.”
I tried moving off his lap, but my legs trembled too much. “I don’t think I can.”
“I’ll carry you,” he said.
“Don’t be ridicu –”
Carter wrapped his arms around me and lifted me from the sofa. I looped my arms around his neck, he caught me behind the knees and held me against his chest. He walked through the mansion, up the stairs, smiling at me.
“I could try walking,” I said.
He laughed and kissed me again. “You don’t have to be strong all the time, Veronica. Relax. I’m yours, and you’re mine, and that’s the way it’s going to stay.”
“What’s that got to do with walking?”
He carried me into his bedroom and laid me on the white, crisp sheets. Carter stripped off my dress and lay next to me again, traced his fingers over the slopes of my breasts and the curves of my thighs.
For the first time in my life, I felt truly loved.