Black Ties and White Lies(76)

“I have.” The deepness in the tone of his voice and the intense look in his eyes has my stomach dropping. No one has even been able to make me melt into a puddle just by one look except him. He’s able to say so much without ever uttering a word, yet still leave my mind racing with what lies behind his fervent indigo gaze.

My thumb runs over the metal, the feeling of something on the finger foreign. “Is this a proposal?”

He lifts my chin, making me look away from the ring and look at him. “I will get down on one knee right here and do the proposal thing if that’s what you want, Margo. I have plenty of elaborate and extravagant ideas of ways I could ask you to marry me. I’ve thought of how I’d ask you countless times as I’d carried this ring in my pocket, always wondering when the time would be right to ask you. But none of it would be as special as you deserve. Truth be told, I fucking hate saying this, but I don’t want to take the special feeling away from you when someone gets down on their knee and asks you for real. You’ve agreed to be my fiancée for a year, but only for a year. If I were to propose to you the way you deserve, the way I want to, I’d make damn sure no other man could ever compete with it. So I’ve waited on the whole typical proposal thing, only to be fair to the next guy.”

I swallow, trying to hide the tears that threaten to spill from my eyes. “You’re probably right,” I croak, emotion welling in my throat. No matter how hard it is to hear his words, I understand his point. I can’t imagine ever wanting to say yes to another man after the way Beck has unintentionally laid claim to my body and heart recently. I try not to think about the expiration date of our agreement, of the day he won’t look at me with the same heated stare he does right now.

His mouth parts like he wants to say something. For a fleeting moment, I let myself hope for something I know won’t happen. The look in his eyes gives me a brief moment of longing that he’s beginning to feel the same things I do. That the moments we shared last night had meant something to him like they’d meant something to me.

Beck runs a finger over my eyebrow. “I wish I knew what was going on in that head of yours,” he mutters, his voice hoarse.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“Ask me anything, and I’ll tell you.”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask him if things have changed for him. If he feels anything for me, even in the slightest. I almost ask it, but I manage to keep my questions to myself. The truth is, I don’t want to know the truth. Ultimately, I’m riding false hope that I could change Beck. The whole reason I’m agreeing to be his fake fiancée is because of his love to not settle down or commit to one woman. I’m not naive enough to think one heated night between us would change anything. I wouldn’t even dare think it possible if it weren’t for the unreadable look in his eyes. A look that says so much and nothing all at once.

“Do you want to kiss me?”

“I want to do so much more to you. But that’s a good start.”

He closes the distance between us, melding his mouth to mine in a way I could never grow tired of. I run my fingers through the neatly styled tendrils of his hair, using them as leverage to pull him closer to me. I leave every question I have unasked, deciding to soak in the feeling of his lips pressed to mine instead.

Beck rises from his knees, crawling onto the bed and pressing his body to mine. I love feeling the weight of him on top of me, of sliding my hands underneath his suit jacket and feeling his muscles tense beneath my touch.

He stuns me with his kiss, making me desperate for anything he’s willing to give me. The kiss makes me forget a crew full of people wait on the other side of the thin door. I hadn’t been awake when we’d gotten on the plane, but if it’s the same crew from when we flew out for the business trip, there’s plenty of people waiting on the other side.

Beck’s hand finds my left hand, pushing it up the bed while still kissing me. He intertwines his fingers with mine, brushing his thumb over the diamond. “So, is that a yes?”

His lips move from my mouth to my neck. He sucks at the tender skin, making my entire body break out in goosebumps. “You already know the answer,” I tell him, trying to keep my voice steady as he pushes the sweatshirt up, finding me in the same lingerie from yesterday.

“I’m going to buy you many more of these.”

“You’ve already bought me plenty.” I moan as his tongue works over my nipple through the fabric of the bra.

He looks at me, his face between my breasts, with a daunting smile. “I want to see you in every single color possible. Every fabric. Every style. Then I can find out how good they look on the floor.”

My back arches from the bed as his warm mouth kisses over the skin of my ribcage. I’m already wet, my body anticipating exactly where his tongue is heading. “There’s many more where these came from.” Even though I know there’s a crowd of people close to us, when he loops his fingers through the waistband of my pants, I find myself lifting my hips to allow him to strip me of them.

“I can’t fucking wait to see every last one of them.”

I hadn’t bothered putting on any underwear when I’d gotten dressed this morning. There wasn’t any need with the pants I’d picked out and the oversized sweatshirt. Instead, I’d stashed my panties in the bottom of one of the bags and went without.