So I look back to Ryke and say, “Let’s just flip for it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Why not?”Because my odds are now fifty-fifty.
Lo brings a quarter out of his pocket. “Who wants to call it?”
Ryke nods to me. “Go ahead, princess.”
“Stop, you’re making me blush,” I say flatly.
He actually laughs, and both Lo and I share a smile. His brother hasn’t relaxed this whole trip, not with Julian here and Scott threatening to unhinge his brother’s life.
Hearing that sound from him lifts the whole mood of our run. “Heads,” I tell Lo.
He tosses the coin in the air, and it comes down into his palm. He cups his hand over the quarter, and I hear the mechanical groan of Ben’s camera as he zooms in over my shoulder.
Lo uncovers the coin.
Tails.
This is why I hate gambling.
I usually lose.
CHAPTER 30
ROSE CALLOWAY
“This week went by so fast,”I say, watching the snow fall outside, the dark sky illuminated by the ski resort’s bright lights in the distance.
We fly back home soon. Back to rabid paparazzi. American television. And my mother. Even though Ben, Brett, and Savannah have followed us around, it’s been nice to have a house that isn’t rigged twenty-four-seven with cameras.
Connor sidles up behind me, and his hands slip around my waist. I sink back into his chest, the action so much more natural now. It’s hard to believe that months ago I was scared of this intimacy. Now all I think about are ways to be closer.
He pulls my hair off my shoulder and kisses the sensitive skin of my neck, marking a line up to my ear. My nerves prick with each feather-light touch. “This week may have gone by fast, but tonight will feel so…” His warm breath tickles me. “…unbearably…” He brushes the straps of my nightgown, and they fall off my shoulders. “…slow.”
The air nips my skin, and he runs a hand from my thigh, along the curve of my hip and settling his palm on my breast. He tugs the silky fabric to expose them. A breath hitches in the back of my throat as he kneads my breast with one hand, standing behind me while I stare at the snowfall. His muscular body overtakes my frame, no space between us, and I eagerly wait for his skin to meet mine, for his shirt to be gone, his pants to disappear.Please, yes…
He massages my breast with force and want, rippling a new feeling through my core. I ache for him. All of him. Histhumb flicks my hardened nipple back and forth, shivers cascading down my spine.
And then he spins me around, his eyes grazing my breasts and the way the nightgown bunches at my waist. “Step out of it,” he tells me.
I wiggle the nightgown to my ankles, my head starting to readjust, to make sense of what’s going to happen. “Are we…” I trail off, lost to the way his eyes bore into each crevice and curve of my body as I stand bare, only in a pair of black cotton panties.
When he finally meets my gaze, he says, “I’m going to fuck you.”
Notwe’re going to make love.Notwe’re having sex.Just, “I’m going to fuck you.”
A demand that drops my mouth and soaks my panties. Right there. That’s it. I’m done for. He can take me any way he wants.
I cast out any nerves that try to attack me because I’m still a virgin. Despite being with him for over a year and gaining confidence, this is still new. I imagine most girls are anxious their first time.
Connor grabs me around the waist before I descend further into my head. He hoists me over his shoulder, and I let out a gasp. He pats my ass while my head dangles upside down, all the blood rushing to my brain.
“Stop thinking,” he orders, throwing my body onto the soft mattress. My breath and thoughts leave me at once.
Holy…I watch him slowly unloop the leather belt from his pants. My heart races as he leans over and takes my wrist in his hand, wrapping the leather around it and a rung in the wooden headboard. When he secures the buckle, he bends to his suitcase and finds another belt.
