Sinful Desire (Sinful Nights, #2)(99)
The way he said it sounded like a poem, like a love song. He swept his lips over hers. She shivered. She shuddered. She soared.
“Hi,” he said when he broke the kiss.
“Hi.” She was on cloud nine. She was floating high above the earth and she didn’t want to come down.
“Do you want company for your trip?”
“I want your company.”
“Good, because I took the liberty to buy a ticket.”
“I can tell. But is this really your seat?”
“Mine’s one row up. When the person who has this seat shows, I’ll convince him or her to swap.” He looked her square in the eyes as he ran a finger over her cheek. “You once told me the things you want from me don’t cost money. Well, the ticket cost money, but that’s beside the point. The point is you told me that you wanted to go for a ride together in your new car. And I’d like to go with you.”
She arched an eyebrow. “You’re joining me for the car?”
He shook his head. “I’m here for the girl,” he said, his voice so sexy, so certain, so full of passion.
Her eyes fluttered closed momentarily and happiness rushed through all the highways inside her body, infusing her heart and soul with joy. When she opened her eyes, she asked, “Are you taking off work for the whole time?”
He nodded. “I told Michael to run the shop without me.”
“Where’s your dog?”
“Colin has him.”
“When did you plan this?”
He looked at his watch. “It’s six-thirty now, so, about two hours ago.”
She shook her head in amazement. “And you bought a ticket, and took care of all that, and figured out what flight I was on in two hours?”
“There was only one flight to Frankfurt at seven in the morning, so I took a chance. Oh, and don’t forget I showered, too,” he said with a grin.
“I like when you take chances for me.”
“I’ve spent eighteen years living with uncertainty. There are only a few things in my life that I know for sure right now. I love my brothers and my sister and my grandparents and my dog.” He stopped to take a beat and hold her gaze. “And I love you. I’m not going to sit around and wait and wonder and question it. I’m just going to feel it. I don’t want to stop taking chances with you, Sophie,” he said, brushing his lips to hers once more. He tasted so good. She wanted the kiss to turn into so much more.
But not right here. Not as the flight attendants began their announcements.
Pressing a hand to his chest, she asked, “So that’s it? You’re mine for the next week and a half? All mine in Europe? You, me, and my emerald-green Bugatti?”
“Yeah,” he said with a casual shrug. “If you’ll have me for that long.”
“I want you all to myself,” she said, dancing her fingers up his chest. “I’m greedy like that.”
“Be greedy with me. I want your greed,” he said, then fingered a lock of her hair, turning more serious. “Sometimes I retreat when things get crazy, but I want to keep coming back to you. I know I’m just figuring this relationship stuff out, and I’m sure I’m not an easy man to be involved with, but I’ll do everything I can for you.” He kissed her cheek, murmuring her name. “Sophie Winston.” Then another time. Softer. Barely audible. “Sophie Sloan.”
She wrenched back, and widened her eyes. “What did you just say?”
*
What had he just said?
“Um…” he started. “Your name?”
She shook her head and pointed to herself. “My name is Winston. Not Sloan.”
He shrugged, trying to cover up his unexpected gaffe. “It was a slipup.” Then he thought, Fuck it. He was on a plane with her, headed to Europe. He might as well tell her the truth. “I was trying it on for size.”
Her lips quirked up. “You were? How did it sound?”
“Hot. Sexy. Perfect. Beautiful. Like you,” he said, keeping his gaze pinned on his gorgeous woman. “Did you like how it sounded?”
Her eyes sparkled. “I think I did.”
“Someday,” he said, threading his hands in her hair and pressing his forehead to hers. “Someday, I want to make you Sophie Sloan. Someday soon. Is that too much? Have I said too much?”
“Oh God, Ryan. You’re crazy. You’re here on a plane with me, and I have never been happier in my life. All I’ve ever wanted is a love like this and you’re here. With me. Don’t you get it? You’re all my fantasies come true.”
He kissed her nose. “Look what you’ve done to me. You’re everything I never knew I wanted, and now I can’t live without you. Hell, I couldn’t even let you leave the country without me.”
Then, the flight attendant told them to fasten their seat belts.
*
The dress, the woman, the car.
Any one of them would be amazing. Together, they were a triumvirate of beauty.
He snapped a photo because he wanted to look at this image again and again—Sophie Winston wearing a sapphire-blue pin-up dress and fire-engine red lips as she stretched out her lush body on the shining, emerald-green hood of her sleek, stylish, million-dollar car. They were parked on the side of a road somewhere outside of Rüsselsheim. Trees canopied them from the hillside.