‘See you in a few hours,’ she said, giving me a little wave as Jesse turned us around. ‘We’ll take care of everything here.’
‘But – what – ?’ I exclaimed as Jesse led me out to Cole’s truck.
He just smirked, opening the door for me, waiting as I lifted myself in.
‘Seriously, Jesse, what the –’ I began as he jumped into his side and shut the door, leaning over and taking my chin in his hand.
He kissed me again, this time with a force that took my breath away, the implication clearer than any words.
‘I said,’ he breathed, pulling back and starting the engine, seemingly utterly unimpeded by his right arm, ‘hold that thought.’
Stunned, I just sat back, unable to do anything other than glance at him as he drove us a few minutes out of town. He turned off the highway to what looked to be a very expensive, very beautiful hotel, only speaking to confirm our names at reception.
Only when he’d closed the door to the room behind us, a vast suite laid out in front, did he begin again.
‘Are you still holding that thought?’ he whispered, drawing me to him, his fingertips working across my shoulders, following the outlines of my tattoos.
I nodded. All other thoughts of the auction, of keeping it as a surprise for him, vanished as his eyes took me in.
He moved us to the bed, the hunger in his expression so fierce that I could already imagine the feeling of him on my skin.
‘Nowyou can take it off,’ he murmured, gesturing to my corset as I sat on the edge of the bed. My eyes widened as he knelt between my legs.
I unhooked the catches at the front, feeling his low moan rumble through me as he brushed my hands aside once I was halfway down, my breasts all but exposed.
‘I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought of this,’ he whispered, putting his lips against mine, his tongue tracing them. ‘You are so fucking precious to me.’ He kissed me so softly, with such care, that it reminded me of our goodbye.
‘As you are to me,’ I answered, my breath hitching as he continued to unhook the remaining catches, finally taking it off. ‘I’m yours, as long as you want me.’
He moved his mouth down, his tongue circling my nipple as he started to undo my jeans, then pulled off my boots.
‘What about your clothes?’ I complained, barely able to concentrate enough to form the words as my waistband was tugged down, revealing the black lace underwear beneath.
‘Oh, no, no,’ he groaned into my skin as he gently pushed me back onto the bed, his mouth reluctantly leaving my breasts and working down to my hips. ‘This is all about you,for you. I know what you’ve been up to, running yourself into the ground to organize this auction all week.’
‘What? You know?’ I gasped as his fingers slipped into the lace, stroking low between my legs.
‘Oh, I know,’ he confirmed. ‘And I have never felt so fucking loved in my life.’
I raised myself up onto my elbows, hearing the change in his tone. I watched as he kissed the side of my thighs, stopping as he saw me, gradually kissing his way back up to my face.
‘I knew how you felt about me before you even left,’ he said, looking into my eyes, his hand brushing stray hairs back from my face. ‘Maybe before you did. Butmy fucking God, Hestia, I want you to know,to feel, how much I love you right back.’
My breath caught on the intensity of his words, but now my gut instinct was to draw closer, to show him what I knew inside. Any desire to run, to avoid it – gone.
‘I didn’t know how to tell you – what it meant,’ I whispered back as his lips covered mine again, his hand now wandering down towards my hips.
‘I know, honey,’ he agreed, ‘but you showed me. You always have done. This week is no fucking different, which is why Lottie called me. You deserve the fucking world too. So I’m going to give it to you, starting right now.’
As he laid me back down, his fingers slipping into my underwear, into me, I wondered how this could be real – how it was possible to feel this way about someone, physically and emotionally.
And as he pulled the rest of my clothes away, his kisses lingering longer, circling me, teasing me, I stopped being able to think at all.
The daylight was dimming behind the craggy peaks outside the window before we resurfaced. I stared out at it, still naked, transfixed by the colours across the snow-tipped peaks, the way the setting sun leached coral light over the slopes, setting them ablaze.
Jesse emerged from the bathroom, stopping as he saw me.
‘What does the viper mean?’ he asked softly, eyes drifting from my ass and down my left leg to where the snake wrapped around my skin. He skirted the edge of the bed, his cast and sling somehow still neatly in place despite the physicality of the past couple of hours.
