By the time he got up, I was sated and boneless, lying there panting as I watched him move toward his discarded pants. Once he had them, he reached for his wallet, pulled out a condom, and rolled it on before coming back to the bed.
“You okay?” he asked, his voice deep and husky.
I nodded. Too far gone for any inhibitions to hold me back, I spread my legs and beckoned him to me. He came without hesitation, positioning himself over me and sliding in as his mouth sealed over mine once more.
Moans spilled from my lips between kisses, my legs hooking around his hips to drive him closer as my pelvis rolled along with his. I got lost in the rhythm, swept up by the current of blissful sensation as we made his fantasies come true and then some.
I had no idea how long we’d been at it, or how many orgasms I’d had, when he finally surrendered and came with a loud roar of my name. When it was all said and done, he disposed of the condom and tucked me in against him, holding me close and stroking his fingertips along the length of my arm as I drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, I woke up alone. A pang of disappointment shot through me when I realized he wasn’t there. I hadn’t even opened my eyes yet, but I knew he was gone. The bed felt empty. The room was too quiet. There was no one but me in here.
A soft sigh escaped when I finally cracked my eyes open to confirm what I’d already known, but then I remembered how awkward morning-afters could be, and I was suddenly grateful to him for booking it.
At the very least, he had allowed me some time to sort out my feelings about last night before I faced him again.So how do I feel about last night?
I rolled over to get comfortable, and a scrap of paper on Parker’s pillow caught my eyes. Frowning as I reached for it, I realized it was a note he’d left for me, scrawled on the back of the quote he’d read from Romeo and Juliet during his speech.
Even though I knew he’d probably just used it because it had been convenient, it still made my heart skip a beat. There was other paper in our suite, the notebook hotels always left for guests to use.Did he leave me the quote for a reason?
Stop overthinking it.
Shaking my head at the thought, I turned the paper over to read the note instead.
The actual message he’d left me wasn’t nearly as romantic, which was a relief. In bold, masculine handwriting, it said:
Bella,
I’m downstairs at the big wedding breakfast. Couldn’t miss it but didn’t want to wake you up. You can come down if you want, or I’ll make excuses and bring something back for you when I come up. Your choice. If you don’t show, I’ll bring you something that can wait until you’re up.
P.
I exhaled slowly, blowing out the breath I’d been holding since I’d seen the quote. Falling back on the bed, I turned my options over in my mind.Stay up here and probably end up overthinking everything anyway, or go downstairs and eat delicious food.
It wasn’t even really a choice. Plus, it would be rude not to go. These people had been nothing but nice to me and post-wedding breakfasts were a big deal. It was also a meal they’d already paid for, so there was really no two ways about what the right thing was to do.
Rolling out of bed, I grabbed a quick shower and got dressed, deciding that I didn’t have to think about what had happened last night after all. What had happened, had happened. And I was glad it had.
While it was going to be difficult to look him in the eye now that I knew what he was packing under his clothes, it was better that we’d just done it. It was out of the way now, and hopefully, that meant we’d be out of each other’s systems.
We were both fully consenting adults, and it had been nice.Oh, okay. So I’m not kidding anyone. It was better than nice. It was fucking amazing. But still.
As long as it didn’t happen again, we’d be fine.I hope.
All I had to do was be perfectly clear about the fact that we were still nothing more than coworkers. Mind made up, I pulled a shirt over my head and jammed shoes onto my feet once I’d wiggled my way into my jeans.
Leaving my hair to dry naturally and with only the basic makeup on my face, I left our room and joined the main table on the patio where the breakfast was being served. Parker grinned at me when I arrived, but he was busy munching down what seemed to be an entire plate of bacon and pancakes.
There was no space on the side of the long table where he was sitting with the guys, but Agatha, the bride, waved me into an open seat across from her. Although I’d witnessed her wedding yesterday, she and I hadn’t had much of a chance to talk.
She seemed nice enough, though. So were all the other guys’ fiancées who were sitting around her. Having chatted to most of them by now, I felt okay about going to join them. It was only when I sat down that I realized I’d spent most of my time in Italy with Parker and only Parker. For both work and play, he and I had stuck together.
The girls had all been kind to me at the wedding, though. I smiled as I took my seat. “Good morning, everyone. Sorry I’m late. Parker snuck down here without waking me up.”
“It’s no problem at all,” Agatha said. She waved one of the waiters closer and asked him to bring me a menu. “I think it was nice of him to let you sleep in. That’s how you know it’s true love, when the guy doesn’t mess with your beauty sleep.”
She giggled, and I laughed, assuming she was joking about thetrue lovething. I didn’t know what he’d told his friends about who I was to him, but surely she couldn’t think we were actually in love.
“It was nice of him,” I agreed. “I’m glad I woke up in time to have breakfast with you, though. The wedding was beautiful. I’d have hated if you left for your honeymoon before I could thank you properly for everything.”