Wherever It Leads(30)

“Feeling you want me, watching you react to me was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t tell you what it gives me to know that I gave you those feelings.”

I feel the grin stretch across my lips and I see it reflected on his face. I can’t help it. I don’t want to help it.

His chest rises with a deep inhale. “And another thing—your tough little girl attitude is not lost on me. I saw it on your face the day at the supermarket. Your vulnerability is tucked away in your green eyes, a piece of innocence that you protect with your attitude. That drew me to you just as much as your banging body, and that’s something I want to protect. And that’s why I wanted you to see tonight that this wasn’t about me. I didn’t bring you here to use you for entertainment. I brought you here to . . .”

My heart lurches, beating so hard I think it’s going to slam right out of my chest.

“I wanted to get to know you too, you know?” He peers at me through his thick lashes. “And as much as I wanted to press you against the wall and bury myself inside you, I wanted you to realize, to know without a doubt, it’s not just that. I don’t just want to f*ck you.”

“But you will f*ck me, right?” I ask, my voice breaking on the last word as I fight a smile.

“Definitely.”

I suck in a breath, already anticipating it but knowing it’s probably not going to happen tonight. He seems determined to have barriers tonight. Fucker.

He reaches across the sheets and wraps an arm around my waist. Rolling me over to face away from him, he slides me across the mattress and into his chest, my back to his front. He brushes my hair off my shoulder and waits until my breathing evens out.

“Do you understand what I’m saying?” he asks.

I nod.

The stillness extends throughout the room, everything absolutely quiet. I can hear his heart beat, the rhythm steady and strong. If I listened closely enough, I’d fall into a deep sleep.

“I know I probably seem insecure,” I say quietly. “I just haven’t had someone do that to me before.”

“Do what before?”

“You know? Just . . . put me before them.” I stifle a sad laugh. “Every man I’ve been with has made sure, regardless of anything else, they got off. And you were just so focused on me. I was just a little confused.”

I feel his throat move as he swallows. “I don’t want to talk about you with other guys.”

“Okay.”

“I wanted to take care of you. I wanted you to feel how much you turned me on.”

“I definitely felt that.”

“Good. And I like that you’re a little insecure. It just means you’re real.”

He tugs the blankets over our bodies. I don’t pull away. I’m too tired and it feels entirely too good being in his arms, my head tucked under his chin, his arm around my waist, to consider pulling away.

“Hey, Fenton?” I whisper.

“Yeah?”

“For the record,” I yawn, “I didn’t fall in love with you tonight.”

He chuckles, the sound rumbling through me. “Good to know.”

My eyelids grow heavy and drop closed. I drift off to sleep wrapped in the arms of Fenton Abbott.





I curl my legs under me and take a sip of my coffee. The sun is shining bright, but the tint on the windows keeps most of the heat out. The city looks deader in the day than it does in the middle of the night, which is amusing. But it is Las Vegas.

The clock on the far wall strikes eleven. Any normal weekday at this time, I’d be working at the bookstore. Today isn’t normal though. Nothing about any of this is normal.

I woke up an hour ago, completely spent from the previous twenty-four hours. Between the traveling, the excitement, and the time with Fenton, I was wiped.

Sleeping against Fenton was its own version of heaven, his arm clenching around me the entire night. It was oddly intimate and comfortably distant. Physically, we couldn’t be any closer, but emotionally—we still barely know each other. Still, I drifted off and didn’t even wake up when he left at some point between then and now. I searched the suite for a note or an indication of what to expect today but there was nothing. He was just gone, nothing left behind besides his scent all over me.

Inhaling a deep breath, I can still catch notes of his musk and cologne on my skin.

My fingers strum against the mug. I’m not sure whether to wait here for him or to go on about my day until I hear something. If I had some sort of timeline, that would help. But I don’t.

I’m rolling around the idea of heading back down to the pool or to the little shops in the hotel when my phone buzzes on the table. Grinning, I lean forward and pick it up from the exact spot I occupied hours before.

“Hello?”

“Well, your father heard from Senator Hyland this morning,” my mother says immediately.

I jolt up from the sofa and begin to pace the floor. “And?”

“He’s trying to start a dialogue with the Nekuti group. The US won’t negotiate with them because it’s against the law, but Hyland is trying to get them to talk.”

“That’s great!”

“I think so. Hopefully we can get them to demand a ransom. We’ve been talking to some people to be able to come up with the money if that happens. It couldn’t come from a US bank, but apparently there are ways to get around that.”