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Then Aleck and I say goodbye to Preston and Sondra.Mr. and Mrs. Bell.They are enchanting. She has her face buried in his neck from the exhaustion of the day, and he runs the tips of his fingers up and down her bare arm and shoulder.
Jealousy scorches my insides and ripples through me like the aftershock of an earthquake. She’s being adored by her new husband, deservingly so, while I’m heading upstairs to be pummeled into every surface of my suite by a man who, come tomorrow, wants nothing more to do with me.
“I love you, babe,” I whisper into Sondra’s ear.
“I love you more.” She tightens her arms around my shoulders before releasing me. “We’ll be heading up soon ourselves. I’m so tired.”
“Get some sleep,” I say.
“We’re all having breakfast before checkout, tomorrow.” She smiles, glowing with happiness even through her exhaustion. “Meet us in the lobby at nine? Checkout is at ten.”
Aleck slips his fingers between mine, holding onto my hand. “We’ll be there,” he says. “And I extended our checkout to noon. Take your time.”
“Of course you did.” Sondra smiles. “Thank you, Aleck.”
He nods, shaking Preston’s hand with the one not connected to mine. “Congratulations.”
Preston slaps his hand over Aleck’s shoulder. “See you at breakfast. Love you, brother.”
I still at the sound of Preston telling Aleck he loved him. I’m sure Aleck won’t say it back. Has he ever said it toanyone? Surely to his parents. Aleck smiles warmly, then takes the lead, walking me through Candlelit Hall to the lobby.I didn’t think so.
Our walk to the suite is void of words but charged with crackling energy. It brings back the memory of the time we ascended to our suite before the first time he devoured me on the kitchen island after Fat Billie’s. Only this time, we aren’t strangers.
Or were we?
The tension between us almost chokes me. The second the door to the elevator slides open, I stepped through them to escape the suffocating walls that are closing in.
I only get two steps before Aleck’s strong, authoritative hand wraps around my wrist, stopping me. He pulls me against his body, his eyes are soft, but something dark lays behind them.
Without saying a word, he hooks his arm under my knees, his other arm curling around my back, and he scoops me into his arms.
An abrupt giggle leaves my throat, surprising me with his sudden lightheartedness.
Aleck gracefully juggles me and the door, which sends a pang of irritation through my veins. On mybestday, I struggle with that damn keycard. Not surprisingly, Aleck does it effortlessly while holding an entire human being.
He walks me through the threshold of our suite, and I can only stare at him. Downloading all of him to memory in the likely event he and I would never be this close, thisintimateagain.
I take in all of him. His thick stubble that blankets his strong, square jaw. His perfectly shaped and proportioned earlobe. The way his slightly grown-out hairline curls at the ends over his tanned skin. His broad shoulders. His thick, hard biceps, now bulging because he’s holding me.
Aleck is perfect.Aesthetically, anyway.
He drops the keycard on the island, where I thought he would set me, but he holds me tightly and continues to my bedroom.Ourbedroom.
I thought he would set me on the bed, but he doesn’t. He walks us into the bathroom and sets me down next to the walk-in shower. He reaches in and turns on the water, adjusts the temperature, then begins to undress me. He bends to one knee then slides off my heels, one-by-one. Then, he unlaces his shiny dress shoes, and stands, stepping out of them next.
He slips the thin straps of my dress off my shoulders, letting it fall to the floor, leaving me in only a white lace thong.
A growl from the back of his throat lights a fire between my legs, and I reach for him. But he stops me. He grabs my wrists gently, laying my arms by my sides, then proceeds to remove his clothes, his lavender tie first. Something about a man loosening his tie with his gaze digging deep into his prey, feral and hot, is enough to make me drop to my knees. But I only watch while the magnetism in everything he does makes the throb between my legs more intense.
Next, his shirt. The buttons pop loose, one-by-one, revealing more and more of his granite-hard chest, dusted with thick dark hair, then his abs, then the thin stripe of hair below his navel, leading to the part of him that has owned my body since he first entered me.
I reach for him again to speed up the process, but he grabs my wrists, this time more firmly, gritting his teeth. He lifts me by my hips, setting me inside the shower under the hot stream of water, his arms and chest getting soaked in the process. But he remains as unaffected by it as he seemed about our last night together.
His eyes drop to my bare breasts and his jaw ticks. His gaze travels down my stomach to my thong.
“Take it off,” he says, his tone hard and raspy.
I do as I’m told, dropping it at his feet daringly.
