Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 98345 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98345 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
“So am I.”
“Phillip!”
I laughed at her reaction. It was so easy to rile her up, to make her skin flush pink and hot.
That’s when I caught sight of her tattoo. A tiny outline of a sun on her hip, so small you wouldn’t see it even if she wore a bikini.
“A sun?”
“Sunshine, a nickname.”
I arched a brow. “From a previous boyfriend?”
“Yes,” she said with a mischievous look in her eyes. “A bulky biker named Stan. Watch out, he’s going to come for you now that we’ve slept together.”
I kissed her tattoo and then traced it with my finger. She couldn’t stay still while I did it, so I did it again. “I’ll take him on, no problem.”
She smiled. “He’ll tear you apart limb by limb.”
“Oh no.”
“It was nice knowing you, though. The sex has been . . .” She stuck out her bottom lip and tilted her head back and forth like she was only mildly impressed. “Decent.”
I knew she was teasing me, and yet my pride still sat up and took notice. “Decent?”
“Eh, the couch thing was nice, and that little session in the shower was sort of exciting . . .”
“Casey.”
She feigned guilt. “Oh no, have I hurt your feelings? It’s not your fault. I’ve just had some really wonderful lovers. Experienced. Really limber. Big. I mean, you’re impressive and all . . . but—”
I yanked her down so she fell flat, pinned to the center of the bed. Our room service got shoved aside and forgotten. For all I knew, it was spilled on the floor.
She squirmed back, playfully trying to get away from me before I latched my hands onto her ankles and pulled her toward me. Her robe splayed open as I held her down, coming over her so our eyes locked for a moment. Her gaze shone with longing. I knew she was right there with me—feeling this.
I worked the tie open on her robe as she laughed.
“Phillip!”
“Should I tease you the way you’ve been teasing me?” She was laughing, but the moment I slid her thighs apart, her breathing hitched.
“Don’t you dare.”
“All that talk about past lovers . . . I bet you can’t name a single one who turned you on like this.”
I thought she’d have some witty retort, but she went silent as I slid down her body, stringing kisses down her stomach, passing over her tattoo again, claiming it. Past boyfriend, my ass.
I settled myself between her thighs, making myself right at home as she writhed and moaned. I licked her, and she arched off the bed, begging for more.
I’m turned on now, alone on my balcony, thinking back on it.
“Jesus,” I hiss under my breath.
I’m a schoolboy.
When Casey left sometime after 2:00 a.m., insistent that she wanted to go back to her suite to sleep, I walked her back and kissed her goodbye and stood aside as she shut her door, using it like a heavy axe, hoping it would cleave the magic that had spun around us over the last few hours. It didn’t work, and I’m annoyed that my feelings for her have carried over into today. I slept like shit after she left, tossing and turning, indecision keeping me awake. A part of me wanted to go knock on her door and continue where we’d left off. The other part of me won out, though. Barely. I might not have chased after her, but I’ve yet to get up and shower, or dress. I can’t seem to get my shit together today.
I’m surprised by the guilt gnawing at me.
I made it perfectly clear last night that I had no intention of giving Casey an interview, and though I thought that would be enough to clear my conscience, it wasn’t. Everything we did was hot and consensual, yes, but there’s no doubt that feelings could get twisted. More than that, I was in a position of power over Casey last night. She needs something from me. It was a game, and now that game is over. It has to be.
Vivienne is my future. I haven’t relinquished hope that she and I will work out in the end. She’ll come to her senses and beg for me to come back. I’ll put on a show like I’m really debating it, but I will go back in the end. She and I belong together in a way Casey and I never will. Vivienne and Casey are polar opposites, down to their very core. Their work, their lifestyles, their personalities—Vivienne is exactly like me. She thinks four or five steps ahead, always. She leaves nothing up to chance. Casey scares me—her authenticity, her vulnerability . . . all of it. The simple fact that she doesn’t have a place to live right now, that she’s okay with stowing her things in a storage unit and hopping from hotel to hotel rather than immediately signing a new lease and getting her life in order. I would have had a plan in place weeks ago. I’d know exactly what to do and how I was going to do it. Yet she seems perfectly fine with her circumstances. Enough to board a cruise for two weeks!