Because this was my appointment that he’d interrupted. I disliked how he’d put Petra in this awkward position, but she’d handled it well.
“Nice meeting you, Vance,” he threw at me over his shoulder. I nodded, glad he was going, but my relief was short-lived. He abruptly pulled to a stop, and his gaze settled on Emery. “You didn’t tell me your name.”
Her eyebrow lifted along with the corners of her mouth, but I wouldn’t exactly call it a smile. She said it with a teasing lilt, but she may have been serious. “Maybe I like it better if you don’t know.”
Leitner’s shoulders straightened as surprise washed through him. He was used to getting whatever he wanted, and her refusal had set him back. But as expected from a professional driver, he adjusted and recovered at lightning speed. He flashed a sinister smile and looked at her like she was a race he wanted to win.
Unease tightened my chest. I’d never been possessive before, but this girl was giving me all kinds of firsts. Emery was my girlfriend, and I didn’t want another man looking at her as a conquest.
She was only mine under a fake label, but I was going to have to change that.
After dinner, it was finally late enough for us to have a shot at sleeping through the night, and Emery disappeared into the bathroom to get ready for bed. I sat on the velvet couch in the main room and scrolled through work emails on my phone to keep my mind off the woman next door, or how the couch wasn’t big enough for me.
“I’m finished,” she said.
I turned to catch a glimpse of her before she crawled into the bed. Her t-shirt was baggy and long, and her shorts weren’t, and for a split second I thought she was only wearing the shirt. Her long, bare legs were enticing, and lust flared inside me, hot and urgent. I wanted those legs wrapped around my hips and my hands up under her shirt.
Stop it.
I focused on accomplishing my goal of walking past her without looking as I made my way to the bathroom. I brushed my teeth at the sink that had become mine, since her stuff surrounded the other one. She’d left her overnight bag open, and I could see the silver wheel of pills inside, several days’ worth punched out and consumed.
My gaze snapped back to my reflection in the mirror.
I didn’t need to know she was on birth control. I’d made the conscious decision not to pack any condoms as a last-ditch effort to stop myself if the opportunity presented itself. I’d never been great at self-control, and she was so fucking tempting—even when she wasn’t trying to be.
I was halfway through the bedroom when she spoke, her word breaking the tension in the air and causing me to halt. “Vance.”
It was a strange reversal of our meeting, but not equal. When she’d come into my bedroom, I’d been naked except for a sheet, and she’d been fully clothed. Now she was in bed, and I was the one intruding, except I felt just as vulnerable as I did then. Her gaze slipped down over my bare chest and provocatively traced the waistband of my underwear peeking out above my drawstring pants.
I stared at her with breath held in my lungs. She’d washed the makeup from her face, and her hair spilled around her shoulders in soft waves. She looked so small and all alone in that big bed.
She tried to sound casual, but her voice was tight as she gestured to the vacant side. “There’s more than enough room for you.” When I didn’t move, she tilted her head and gave a shy smile. “Don’t sleep out there. We’ve already slept together on this bed.”
After the kiss we’d had, sharing a bed would be playing with fire. But it’d be another first for me. The only time I spent a night beside someone else was when I was too tired from fucking to get out of bed.
I liked the idea of being near her, the challenge of resisting what I wanted to do, and not having to spend the night on the couch. “You don’t mind?”
She shook her head. “Besides, what would the housekeeper think if she sees the sheets on the couch?”
“She’d probably think we had a fight.”
Emery grinned. “So, let’s not fight. Come to bed, darling.”
I matched her smile. “Well, if you insist.”
Emery was gone from the bed when I woke. It was barely six in the morning, but she must not have been able to sleep any longer. I heard the shower running and pictured her beneath the rainfall showerhead. The water sluiced over her bare skin, making her glisten.
As it was a habit in the morning, I pushed a hand beneath my underwear and gripped my cock. It was normal to have a semi, but today I was rock fucking hard, and pleasure zinged up my spine as I squeezed.