“I’m okay. It hurt a little.”
He pulled me closer, our bodies melding together, and met my lips. After we parted, I rested my head on his shoulder. I closed my eyes, letting myself fall asleep to the feel of his fingers dancing along my hip.
Chapter Twenty
Hope
We’d had an amazing daytogether. We went to the zoo, wandered through the stores downtown, and then ate lunch. We stood hand in hand as we waited for the elevator to lift us to our floor, then we both wandered down the hall to the apartment door. I watched Carter slide the key in the lock, then he held the door open for me to walk through, coming in behind me.
“I’m going to go change,” I said, giving his hand a squeeze and heading to my room.
“All right, I’ll order the pizza.”
We parted ways, and by the time I had changed and made it to the couch, Carter was already relaxing with his feet up on the coffee table. He wore black sweatpants and no shirt; my eyes trailed over his hard muscles. I grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge and pulled a fifty from my purse. He had paid for the entire day; there was no way he was paying for dinner too. I set the water on the table and held the money out for him to take. “What’s this for?” he asked, looking up from the magazine he was reading.
“Dinner. Please take it.” I shook it, waiting for him to accept it.
He ignored me, burying his face back in the magazine.
“If you don’t take it, I’ll have to force you to take it. Please, Carter.”
He chuckled to himself. “How are you going to do that?” He continued reading and ignoring me.
I sat down beside him, not saying anything, studying his face. “Carter, come on.”
“Hmm.” I scooted over closer to him, holding the crinkled fifty-dollar bill, and rested my hand on his abs.
“What are you doing?” He continued reading. I slipped my hand into his pants, dropping the fifty there, and went to remove my hand, but he was faster. He dropped the magazine and placed his hand over the top of mine. I looked down to where our hands met. His other hand coming up to my chin, he tilted my head back so I was looking at him. While his eyes studied mine, he leaned down and brushed my lips with his. “Don’t start, cause if we start, I can’t promise I’ll be able to stop.”
Looking up into his eyes I whispered, “Maybe I don’t want you to stop.”
A loud knock interrupted the moment. I felt his hand loosen around mine, and I pulled my hand from his pants. “Get the door,” he said under his breath, sitting back against the couch.
“I, um, need the money,” I said, biting my lower lip.
He gave me a sexy smirk. “Go ahead,” he said, holding his hands up in front of him in an innocent gesture. I looked down to his lap, where I could see the firm outline of his hard cock through his sweats. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I got up from the couch and went to my purse before heading to the door. With pizza in hand I returned to the living room and set the box on the table. I went to sit down and that was when I saw a white envelope with my name on it laying where I had been sitting on the couch. “What is that?” I asked.
“It’s for you, open it,” he said while grabbing a slice of pizza from the box.
I studied him for a moment and then I carefully picked up the envelope. Peeking inside, I saw a single slip of paper. I pulled it out carefully and gasped at what sat there. A boarding pass in my name to the Dominican Republic. “What is this?”
“We are heading to the Dominican Republic for the weekend. I wanted you to come, so I purchased you a ticket.”
“Carter, I can’t go. I have to work,” I said, looking down at the ticket in my hand. “Plus, I can’t afford to pay you back for this. There’s no way,” I said, shaking my head and holding the ticket out to him.
“What if I told you I’m paying for it and that I got you the weekend off?”
I couldn’t look at him for fear I’d cry, so I just kept my focus on the ticket in my hand. “I don’t know what to say.”
He stood and walked over to me. He reached out, his hand caressing my cheek. “Say yes,” he said, looking into my eyes. “Just say yes.” He stepped away from me and walked into the kitchen.
I looked again at the ticket, then stood and went to follow him, but he returned holding two napkins in his hands. I looked up at him and into his eyes, thinking for a moment. “Yes, but on one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“That you let me pay you back when I can.”