I’m not sure where I get the bravery, but I touch the very tip of my tongue to his bottom lip, pleased when he shudders in response. “Take it or leave it, sir.”
He makes a low, growling sound in his throat. “Could you save that for another time? I’m just Tripp right now.”
“You only want to be called that when…If we…”
If he weren’t wearing sunglasses, somehow I know his pupils would be expanding right now. “Yeah. I want to be calledsirwhen and if.”
My nipples tingle and stiffen at the image of Tripp on top of me, naked and sweaty, while I moan and call himsir. I’ve never pictured myself having sex with a specific person. Now, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to picture anyone else.
“I’ll think about it.”
He lets out a short, punctuated laugh, but there’s a tension around his mouth. Hunger. “You’re going to drive me fucking crazy, aren’t you?”
“I’ll think about it?—”
His mouth cuts me off with firm contact and I lose all my bravado in an instant. If I had any doubts that I’m out of my depth with this man, they vanish in the face of his potency. The hard, smooth texture of his mouth and how he exudes capability. Confidence. Need. I’m instantly overwhelmed, and that reaction only intensifies as he parts my lips and draws on me slowly but insistently.
Yesterday, I was just a high school graduate with a summer job. Now, I’m kissing the heir to the Sterling fortune, and my panties dampen with the first stroke of his tongue against mine. His fingers thread through my hair and tilt my head back, allowing him to feast on me from above, making me feel preyed on by sensuality. Experience. I’m the virgin and he’s hunting me. Wanting me. Determined to have me.
His free hand corrals my hips closer, and I whimper at the feel of his erection, so thick against my tummy. And I can’t help but skate curious fingers down his hard abdomen and brush my fingers over the proud ridge, his mouth working, working, working mine with building need, before he breaks away, tilting his hips to push into my touch.
“Just say the word, angel, and I’ll make a call. One single phone call and your only job this week will be to milk me dry.”
Oh. Wow.
He could do it.
Call the powers that be, men so high on the food chain that I don’t even know their names. He could request me as his personal entertainment for the duration of his stay. No one would probably even question him.
“I’m not one of the amenities,” I gasp, pulling away, seriously considering slapping him.
Tripp hauls me back while my palm is in midair, his mouth panting on top of mine.
“Before you get upset, you wouldn’t just be there for my pleasure.” He explores my mouth with a slow sweep of his tongue, groaning over my taste. “I’d consider it my personal mission to orgasm you until it starts to hurt.”
I moan, losing power, and he watches me from above, his hand encircling my throat and squeezing. When did I lose control of this situation? Did I ever have control of it? I shouldn’t be allowing any of this to happen, but my body seems to have already reprogrammed itself to need him.
“I can see you’re not ready to come to my room. So here’s what we’re going to do. Put my number in your phone, Vida. Text me where to meet you tonight.”
“Okay,” I breathe shakily.
He releases me, watching with glittering eyes and a heaving chest as I locate my phone and tap in the passcode. Tripp takes it out of my hands and adds his number before giving the device back to me.
“If you’ve got a boyfriend, break up with him. I’ll see you tonight, Vida,” he says, helping me onto my bike and kissing me a final time, his mouth so demanding that my head is spinning by the time he tears himself away.
I pedal away in a daze.
What exactly have I just agreed to?
SIX
Tripp
I exitthe black town car and step onto the curb, raising an eyebrow at the restaurant where I’m meeting Vida. Manny’s Mussel Pots.
Seriously?
There are two Michelin star restaurants at the resort and we’re meeting at this place? The sign proclaiming Manny’s as the best mussels in Massachusetts is hanging by a thread and the front window has a crack in it. Despite some mild irritation that Vida won’t let me bring her somewhere worthy of her, I can’t help but crack a smile. Because while I already knew she wasn’t a gold digger, this is just another piece of evidence in her favor.
