“Even so if?—”
“Lee, Wilder’s got this,” Cole interjected with a chuckle. “Take care guys and have a safe trip.”
“Bye guys and I’ll take care of her, don’t worry.”
And he would, that was something I was sure of.
“Oh my God, honey, this is beautiful.” Doing a full turn, I tried to take it all in, not expecting a hotel room to feel so peaceful. “This is not thehotel you were looking at online.” It was much fancier and more expensive. Wilder just shrugged.
The moment I stepped into thesuite, because that was how damn great he was, the hush wrapped around me like a warm coat. The high ceilings gave the room an airy elegance, but it was the little details that made my heart catch, like the soft cream walls, the crown molding, the way the late afternoon light spilled through the tall windows and landed across the worn hardwood floors like it belonged there.
Wilder dropped our bags just inside the door and watched me as I took it all in; the velvet couch tucked in the corner of the sitting room, the crisp white linens pulled taut over the king bed, the thick drapes that looked like they could drown out the world if we wanted them to.
There was something old-world romantic about it. The kind of room where time slowed down. Where you could forget the weight of everything outside and just breathe.
Wilder walked up behind me, curled his hands over my shoulders, and rested his chin on the top of my head. “You needed a break,” he murmured, and I felt it in my chest, my throat, my whole body.
He was right. “We both needed this.”
And in this quiet, golden-lit space that smelled faintly of lavender and polished wood, with him at my back and nothing pressing in for once, I believed that everything would be okay.
“You didn’t need to book a suite,” I told him, reaching up to place my hands on his.
“You deserve it. I want you to feel like a princess. To be spoiled and to feel l-l,” he stumbled over his words, and I held my breath. “Like the most important person in the world.”
The disappointment felt heavy on my shoulders as he flashed me a tight smile. As if he knew that wasn’t what I’d hoped for or expected, but he couldn’t give me anything else.
“It’s just perfect.” I swallowed back the lump in my throat. “How many days are we staying here?”
“We’ve got two full days of relaxation before we go and get the bull.” He sighed. “Before that damn long journey home.”
On the way we stopped halfway in a cheap motel and crashed for a whole eight hours before getting back on the road after breakfast tacos from a drive-thru. Going home we’d have to drive straight back. There weren’t many places you could stop with a bull. A huge bull apparently, because the Millers were also buying the trailer to transport him as theirs wasn’t big enough.
He turned me in his arms, framing my face with his large hands. “I booked us dinner in the hotel restaurant.”
“You did?”
“Yep, I did. But we have a whole three hours until then.”
“What do you want to do? Investigate? Go for a swim?”
His eyes twinkled with possibility as one of his hands moved down to my ass and gave it a squeeze.
“I was thinking maybe we should take a nap.”
“A nap you say?” There was no way this man wanted to sleep. If I knew anything about him it was that he was insatiable. “A real get under the covers, dead to the world kind of nap?”
He cocked his head to one side, like he was thinking. “Although, I’m not that tired. Maybe we should do something to tire us out. What do you think?”
“Hmm,” I pretended to consider his suggestion, even as heat pooled low in my belly at the look in his eyes. “I suppose we could do some cardio. A good workout always leaves me feeling pooped.”
His grin was wicked as he backed me toward the bedroom, his hands never leaving my body. “I like the way you think, Brownie. Would you like an all-out quick and hard cardio session, or a nice, slow kind of cardio session?”
My nipples tightened against the lace of my bra, heat coiling low in my belly at the promise of what was to come. “You decide,” I whispered, breathless.
What followed was slow, reverent, and heartbreakingly tender. He worshipped every inch of me like he was learning a map he never wanted to forget, his lips brushing against my skin with murmured words that made my pulse race and my heart ache in the best possible way. When we finally cameundone, tangled in the crisp white sheets and struggling to catch our breath, I felt weightless. Floating in something close to love, maybe not yet spoken, maybe not yet shared, but deeply, undeniably mine.
Dinner in the hotel restaurant was like something out of a dream. Wilder had somehow managed to get us a corner table with views of the city lights twinkling below us, competing with the diamond stars in the sapphire ocean of the night sky. As soft jazz music played in the background it felt like I was starring in my own romance movie.
