TWELVE
Tripp
I watchVida’s face as we enter the bedroom. Since she works at Reserve, she’s accustomed to being around luxury, but I instantly know she’s never seen anything like this.
The room is sleek, masculine, ultra-modern extravagance. Dark wood, nearly black. Pops of burgundy and white. A fireplace sizzles with a blue flame near the window that overlooks the surface of the Atlantic. There is a built-in bookshelf backlit with a light that casts the room in a gentle glow, so I don’t bother turning on any more lights.
Overcome with gratitude to have Vida here, to know she loves me back, I sit down on the edge of the bed with her in my arms, memorizing her awed expression as she looks around, absorbing the opulence with parted lips. I don’t know if it’s normal to get sexual pleasure at the thought of steeping her in luxury, but fuck it, I do. I want to take her on a tour of villas along Lake Como, buy her the one she loves most, and eat her pussy on every piece of furniture she buys to decorate the place. Iwant her to sit on my dick while she shops online for overpriced French purses. I want to feed her oysters while she sunbathes naked in the Maldives.
I’m sick, but I don’t want to cure myself.
I only want to get sicker.
Logically, I know she’ll never be the kind of girl who is comfortable spending bucketloads of money, but a man can dream, can’t he? I think I’d bust in my pants if she let me buy her a coffee at this point.
I clasp her around the waist and drag her closer in my lap, inhaling the sweet, simple scent between her pert tits, the sexy pair of them cupped and plumped by the corset dress. And I pray to the gods of stamina not to let me down tonight. Not to let me pop the second I get balls deep.Please let me last.
“It’s beautiful, Tripp,” she breathes, looking at me. “The whole boat, really. It’s stunning.”
“The only stunning thing I see here is you,” I say, meaning every word. “I don’t think you’re aware, Vida, how easily your face puts everything I own to shame.”
Her eyes soften, his gentle fingertips brushing down the side of my face. “I’m sorry for what happened on deck with your friend.” A line of worry appears between her brows. “I’m sure he said something about me, but Tripp, I canhandlethings like that. You really don’t have to defend me?—”
“Vida.” A terrible sense of foreboding rises in my stomach.The bet. The bet.Why did I make that fucking bet? Should I tell her? No. Not tonight. We just revealed our feelings for one another, and I don’t want to ruin this deep intimacy between us. I’ll tell her tomorrow. Once I explain why I did it, she’ll understand. “Everyone loved you tonight. You were magnificent just being yourself. He was an anomaly—and it was anhonorto defend you against that. Iwantthat right.”
After a small hesitation, she gives me the cutest lopsided smile. “That was a pretty mean right cross for a rich boy.”
Affection tumbles through my chest. “What, you think because I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I don’t know how to brawl? Lacrosse is a full-contact sport, angel. I’m the captain because I flatten anyone who gets in my way.”
“Scary,” she whispers.
“To everyone but you, maybe.”
“You scare me, too, but in a different way.”
I tilt my head in concern. “What way?”
“I don’t know what my future holds anymore. I couldn’t imagine myself rearranging it for anyone, but then…you.”
My heart beats erratically in my ears. “Me. Exactly. That’s what your future holds.”
“I’m starting to think you really mean that,” she whispers.
“I’ve never meant anything more in my fucking life.”
She studies me in breathless surprise for a moment before wetting her lips and scooting closer in my lap, her pussy nudging up against my erection. The one I’ve had since she showed up in that dick-tease dress and informed me I’d be punching her V-card tonight. Her breath stutters when she feels it, her tits swelling in the neckline of her dress on a deep breath.
“Tonight…” she starts, trailing off.
I grip her butt in my hands and tug her flush against me, watching twin spots of pink appear on her cheeks. “Yes?”
“D-do you want me to…fight you off? Or?—”
“What?” Alarm belts me in the jaw as my spine snaps straight, my hands flying up to cradle her face. “No. No, no, no, Vida. Not tonight. Tonight is about you.”
“But I like what we do.” Her pupils throb wider. “Ireallylike it.”
Put me to death if this girl is all a dream.
