“I don’t have to ask for it,” he reminded me, tilting his head back a little more so he could press an open-mouthed kiss to the side of my neck, right over a mark he’d left on me the nightbefore. After he’d shoved my face into a pillow and pounded me until I’d practically sobbed. “It’s mine whenever I want it.”
“Are you trying to make me break the no sex in the hot tub rule?” I wondered, and felt his abdominal muscles twitch under my fingers with his laughter.
“You can contain yourself until we’re back in the room, can’t you?”
“No,” I said, flexing my hips a little to prove how stiff I was.
“But I want to relax,” he said, bringing his own hands up under the water to link with mine, lacing our fingers together.
“Okay.” Whatever Aspen wanted, I would give it to him. I tried to make that a general habit in every aspect of my life now. “I can wait. But once we’re back in the room, I can’t make any promises.”
“I love how much you want me,” he purred out, melting onto me like hot, sticky, clingy honey.
“Always. Like, every minute basically.”
“I love you.”
“I love you so much, Cupcake. You make me so fucking happy.”
“You make me happy, too,” he said, the gorgeous little rasp in his voice more pronounced with the way he’d gone totally limp in absolute bliss and relaxation. “This trip wassucha good idea. My brain has been so fried lately.”
He’d been busy as hell all through the fall semester already, but in his own words, it was a good kind of busy. He wasn’t exhausting himself with long hours at the café and up late at night stressing over his home life anymore. Now he could mostly focus on keeping his GPA flawless. I used the term mostly, because we were deep in the trenches of our junior year internships, both at Vane Corporation. Of course, I was interning in the marketing department, and Aspen’s internship involved working directly with my father, literally in his officeand metaphorically under his wing. I was pretty sure there was some kind of ethical issue with that, but who was going to tell Faulkner Vane that they had an issue with the way he ran his company? He had Aspen sitting in on meetings and poring over spreadsheets and campaign data, and everything he would need to absorb to become a successful CEO.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure my dad is fast tracking you to get you ready to take over the entire company when he eventually retires.”
Aspen chuckled, but shook his head. “I don’t know about all that. I think he just wants someone who he feels like he can really trust under him.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter. Once we’re married I’ll own half of everything of yours anyway.”
“I don’t own anything, so you’re kind of getting a raw deal on that one.”
“Well, once you inherit Vane Corporation.”
He snorted again. “I’m not going to own Vane Corporation! You’re crazy. You’re his son, not me.”
“Not in his mind.”
My dad was still, and even more so now, nuts about my boyfriend. My own fractured relationship with him was slowly coming back together, piece by tiny piece, but Aspen was an excellent buffer between us. But on the opposite side of the coin Aspen’s mom, Rochelle, pretty much completely freaking adored me. And not just because I’d helped get her life back on track in terms of her addiction. She’d taken up baking as one of her hobbies to help distract from any urges to drink. When we’d spent the first week of winter break with her, she’d stuffed me full of holiday cookies and brownies and eggnog.
“Do you think if we really did get married, he’d make me sign a prenup?” Aspen wondered, and I scoffed.
“He’d makemesign one so I can’t take half the company fromyouif we ever get a divorce. No, scratch that,” I corrected myself. “If he suspected we were getting a divorce, he’d just take out a hit on me to spare you the trouble.”
Laughing again, he shifted, lifting himself off my lap a bit so he could twist around and straddle me, hooking his arms around my neck as he leaned in close. Arching into him a little, I stroked my hands down his slick back to grip onto his waist.
“That is so not true, Caelyx. Your dad loves you. He asks me about you all the time.”
“And what do you tell him when he asks about me?”
Aspen smirked a little, tilting his head as he stared into my eyes. “I tell him…” He dipped his head down to kiss my neck. “That you’re perfect.” Another trail of kisses down my collarbone. “And amazing.” And then over my shoulder. “And you are everything I’ve ever wanted.”
“That’s good to know.” Okay, maybe Icouldn’twait until we got back in the room.
“Anyway, we’re way too young to talk about getting married yet.”
“You’re right,” I agreed. “If we got married now, people would think you accidentally knocked me up or something.”
Snorting, he cocked a brow. “Yeah, I’m starting to think we might be in the clear on that one.”
