“I like to be balls deep in Winter at this time of year too,” he says, an almost grin there before it’s wiped away.
It’s tight like this, raw and merciless. A frantic, dirty fuck for just getting off. With his cut abdominals rubbing my clit, it’s not long but I reach another peak. I spasm around his thick shaft, feeling him swell inside me as I obliterate apart. He drinks in my cries and moans, our lips hovering against each other with barely-there kisses. My fluttering walls trigger his release, his breathing labored and hot as he unloads inside me, our joint orgasm a delicious bite of sweet, rising pleasure.
“LucaLucaLuca,” I chant as his grip on me tightens.
“Fuck,” he curses, sweat slicking our bodies as he twitches inside me.
Our mouths meet in a soft, searching kiss, my hands scouring over his flexing back muscles. My legs fall to either side of his hips as he rides out the last of his release. For a whole minute we kiss tenderly, touching and teasing.
All too soon he goes to dispose of the condom, and I use a damp towel to clean up. While I throw my clothes back on, I toss him the signed contract. When I read it through last night, I noted the section relating to the six-month minimum employment period. I can’t leave Chateau Balthasar before then, and I hope to god I never want to. If I do, then it means our relationship has failed even though I was assured I’d get to keep my job.
“Brecken got confirmation late last night that Elias signed the contract.”
“For real?”
He nods, happy.
“Congratulations!” I say, excited for him.
“You’re a part of this now. Our first acquisition with Winter on the team,” he says softly. It’s not in a treasuring kind of way, because there’s no way those kinds of emotions are arriving yet. It’s more of a gentle warning, an understated premonition of how it will be going forward, which is me, working alongside Luca.
All the same, emotion, emotion of the heart, something I’ve pushed away out of necessity rears her unwanted head.
“That’s too generous,” I point out. “You were always going to buy this place.” The building next door has been sold for two months now, no doubt bought by the Wolffords for a big expansion. The one on the other side of that, too. Luca and his father had this planned for ages.
Throwing a button-down shirt over his shoulders, Luca watches me quietly as I back out of his room. “Now that you have the hotel, I’m going to find Elias and resign in person. I’ll be back soon.”
“Okay.”
Scooting out of his room, I go and find my coat and boots, wrapping up before I head back outside.
There are only two places Elias will be at this hour, so I try his office first which is just down from reception. Ready to get this over with I knock three times, waiting for his voice.
“Yes.”
I step inside, my eyes immediately going to him and then the window that he gets to enjoy, unlike the rest of the staff stuck in the basement.
“Merry Christmas,” I tell him.
“Merry Christmas,” he returns in a monotone voice. Personally, I expected him to be happier after the sale of his hotel, but maybe it’s bittersweet. It’s been in his family for three generations.
“If you came to enquire about a promotion, Winter, the answer is you’ll have to wait and see. The VIP guests,” he says, raising a brow which I can only deduce is because Luca tricked him, “have yet to leave their review.”
“Actually, I came to resign.” From my coat pocket, I retrieve a letter and hand it over. “I’ll take my two days’ leave and finish on the twenty-eighth.”
Stunned, he asks, “Why?”
“I have a job offer in Aspen. A much better one than I’d get here.”
Now that he knows who was really behind the sale, he puts two and two together. A cruel smile twists his face, his creepy eyes never leaving mine. “I see. The VIPs got the royal treatment did they?”
“Mr. Wolfford values my skills and experience, my talents,” I argue, just as Elias grunts at my word choice.
“Clearly,” he intones.
“Goodbye,” I dismiss, turning away.
“Congratulations on your promotion, Winter. You earned it.”