One Weekend in London

7. Rhys

Christ,she’s stunning.

Sadie’s breathtaking beauty, barely concealed by tiny scraps of silk, demolishes my well-honed control. Her lush curves beckon, tempting me beyond reason. I’ve admired my fair share of gorgeous women, but none have captured me so wholly, nearly shattering my restraint with a single glance.

I visually devour her, wholly and completely.

The graceful column of her neck. The perfect swell of her breasts, straining against plum-coloured fabric, made for my hands and mouth. The dip of her waist and the delicate flare of her rounded hips, ones I long to sink my fingers into as I drive into her welcoming heat, giving her every inch of my cock.

My deepest fantasy come to life, I fully intend to make Sadie mine.

Her bright eyes widen, pink suffusing her cheeks as awareness hits. “Wait a minute! How did you even get this number?” Brows bending, suspicion sets in. “Are you some kind of stalker?” She doesn’t give me the chance to respond. “Hells bells, you’re not a serial killer, are you? Because listen here, I may have wanted to tour London, but I have zero—and I mean zero—desire to meet the present-day equivalent of Jack the Ripper!”

As if I’d ever hurt her.

Lounging back in my chair, I rake a hand through my hair, shamelessly appreciating her scantily clad form. She’s made no move to cover herself, and I’m quite enjoying the view.

“I’m no murderer.” I suspect I’d kill for Sadie though. Just as I would’ve for my mum. Without hesitation and in cold blood. “After the undeniable pull between us tonight, did you think I’d let you slip away so easily?”

I pin her with a smouldering look, unwavering in my intent. I don’t wish to frighten her, but my inclination to hide my feelings is non-existent. “After you scarpered from The Opulence without so much as a backwards glance, forgetting your mobile, I might add...”

I hold it up as evidence before placing it back on my desk. “I had my security team do some digging and discovered, among other things, you own a FaceTime equipped MacBook.” I chuckle, impressed with how quickly my team put together a complete file on her. Setting a new record, they exceeded my expectations—in both quality and speed. “Amazing what one can uncover so quickly with the proper incentive.”

Her mouth falls open, incredulity crossing her face. “Well, colour me fifty shades of shocked! With your money, being a fancy hotel owner and all, I assume hopscotching all through my private life wasn’t a hard task.”

Hotel owner? Again, I chuckle.

More like real estate titan.

Evidently, she didn’t take the time to google me upon returning to her room. The realisation pleases me. Mightily. I didn’t peg her as a gold digger; her actions—or lack thereof—combined with her background check, prove me correct.

“So tell me, just how deep did your crew of minions dig?”

I don’t immediately respond.

Instead, I watch as her face shifts from suspicion tinged with annoyance, maybe even a hint of anger, to disappointment. Frowning, she sinks into her chair, too stunned to remember her enticing state of undress. But I absolutely notice, barely keeping my gaze from roving.

“Deep enough to know I’m utterly enchanted,” I answer honestly, refusing to lie. “Thanks to your public social media profiles, I now know all about your small-town roots, your close-knit family, your job at your grandfather’s distillery, and the pet rescue you often volunteer at.”

A substantial cheque will soon be in the post, headed to the States, and made out to Garrison County Animal Sanctuary. The amount should keep them afloat and thriving for the next ten years—at least.

I’ve never owned a pet, but if Sadie wishes for me to—for us to—in the future, I’ll adopt or rescue a hundred. Maybe even more. Old dogs, sick cats, special needs horses, it doesn’t matter. I have the means, and I’ll provide.

For whatever her heart desires.

“I even discovered your guilty pleasure foods, most notably bourbon bread pudding, followed by homemade peach cobbler, and your dozens of mixed-taste Spotify playlists.”

Softening my tone, even as I grit my teeth, fighting to keep the fury that wells in my chest from showing on my face, I add, “I’m also aware of how poorly that wanker, Maxwell, and your former friend, Vanessa, treated you.”

Sadie flinches, her eyes darting away.

Her shoulders curl inward, defeat written all over her. I want to slam my fist into Maxwell’s face at the sight. I may not know the bloke, but I know enough. And what I do know reminds me of my venomous and narcissistic father.

If I ever meet the arse in person...

“Then you’ve probably realised what a disaster I am. Damaged goods, as they say.” Her self-deprecating laugh twists my heart, shredding it from the inside out. “I’m sure you’re rethinking whatever this is between us. Shoot, I wouldn’t blame you for hanging up—”

“Stop right there,” I cut in firmly, leaning closer to the screen. “Look at me, Sadie.”

Slowly, she meets my intent stare, trepidation and fragile hope warring in her downtrodden gaze. I’ll do everything in my power to wipe that look from her face, never once allowing it to return.

“Nothing I’ve learned tonight changes how badly I want you.” Not even close. I don’t give a toss how nonsensical all this may sound or seem. Once more, I know precisely what I desire. And what I desire is Sadie Winslow. Body, heart, and soul. “It only intensifies my need to show you how a true man cherishes a woman.”

Her fingers clench the armrests. “You truly still think you want me? Messy baggage and all?”

“Unequivocally. Now let me prove it. Spend the day with me tomorrow. Allow me to reveal the London delights you’ve yet to experience...” I lower my voice to a dark and heated rumble. “Including how you deserve to be worshipped.”

Teeth sinking into her plump bottom lip, she flushes the most beautiful shade of scarlet before nodding. Surprise and relief swarm me, anticipation following hot on their heels. Her holiday is waning, but I refuse to let her leave before convincing her to stay longer.

With me.

Call me a hopeless, starry-eyed fool, but I know the truth in my bones—in time, Sadie is meant to become mine. The very woman I’d begun to think didn’t exist for me.

“I won’t lie, your timing is kind of perfect, Rhys Kensington.” Pleased with the sound of my name rolling off her tongue, I silently wait for her to continue. “Just minutes ago, I vowed to my family I’d stop letting the past taint my present.” A tiny but utterly beautiful smile curves her lips as she straightens. “It’s high time I quit letting rotten folks turn me sour and get back to living for me.”

“I am extremely on board with that plan.” Rife with possibilities, my mind plots all the ways I could bring her happiness, proving I can be everything she’s ever wanted. “Tell me, what did you have in mind?”

She takes a fortifying breath, her lashes fluttering.

“Well, seeing as my time here’s running short”—like bloody hell it is—“I figured I might as well go all in, you know?” Her cheeks stain an even deeper crimson as mischief dances in her eyes. “And what better way to uncover the city’s hidden gems than by having a smoking-hot local show me around?” An adorable tease, she waggles her eyebrows. “Maybe one with... benefits? That’s if things go well tomorrow.”

Possessive hunger rolls through me in a blistering wave, my cock pressing painfully against my fly, nearly bursting through the zippered seam.

“Define these benefits. Slowly.”

Her tongue peeks out to wet her lips, and I barely muffle a tortured groan, all the blood in my body suddenly heading south.

“It’s like the saying goes...”

Despite her earlier teasing, her voice now trembles with nerves, proving she isn’t typically this forward, a fact that pleases me.

Immensely.

“There’s no better way to get over one man than by getting under another.” She releases a shaky exhale, likely in disbelief she just spoke such words. “Then again, maybe I’m being too crazy and wild. I mean, I don’t want you to think I’m some hussy. I’ve only been with my ex, and—”

If she finishes that thought, I’ll go mad.

“I think,” I interrupt gently, biting back the searing jealousy that scorches my soul over her having been with someone else. Briefly, I fantasise about killing him with my bare hands, erasing his privileged memory of having such perfection beneath him. “That you’re the most enchanting woman I’ve ever met. Bold and coy in equal measure.”

My lips quirk.

“And I’m exceedingly amenable to serving as the man who will kiss, lick, and fuck you so hard and so well you’ll permanently forget your ex’s wretched touch.”

With my filth-laden words effectively hitting their mark, after a few seconds she sits up straighter, emboldened, and inadvertently pushing her breasts together.

I clench my jaw. If she keeps this up...

“Is that so?” She flicks her hair over her shoulder, which I’ve already noticed she often does. “Think you’re up for showing a heartbroken Georgia girl a good time?”

“Oh, I’m more than up for it.”

I palm my straining erection through my trousers, squeezing hard. Her eyes snap downward, and she visibly swallows. I wonder if she’s picturing where my hand is, what it’s doing. I’d give every pound in my bank account to have her fingers replace mine, to have her mouth wrap around my cock, swallowing my throbbing length.

“By the time I’m through with you, beautiful, you’ll have screamed my name so many bloody times you’ll have forgotten every other bloke who’s dared look your way exists. Their names and faces? Wiped from your memory. For eternity.”

She squirms in her chair, likely rubbing her thighs together. Thighs I crave to push apart, wedging first my shoulders and face, then my hips and cock between.

“Awfully confident in your abilities there, aren’t you mister?”

“I don’t make assurances and promises I can’t keep.” My wolfish grin is comprised of pure sin and heady desire. “And with you, I’ll over-deliver every time or die trying.”

“Hmm. We’ll see.” Tapping her chin with her index finger, she smirks, her playfulness something I’m quickly becoming addicted to. “Besides, in addition to maybe finding out if your cock is as big as your oversized ego, I’ve still got a hefty sightseeing checklist to conquer, you know. Ride the Eye, catch a boat down the Thames, attend a second show in the West End—”

“Which we’ll do, along with anything else your heart desires.” I pin her with an unwavering, heated look. “But once night falls, I’ll take you on a different kind of ride.”

Spots of colour bloom on her chest and along her throat, but her smile only widens. “I may be a sheltered country girl, but I know an innuendo when I hear one.”

My mouth waters, imagining her taste. “Not an innuendo. Like every offer I make, it’s an ironclad guarantee.”

Her breathing audibly quickens, and the air in my home office takes on a charge so electric the tiny hairs on my nape rise in response. Fucking hell. I’m tempted to have Mark fetch the car so we can drive to her hotel, where I’d pin her to the wall, caging her in with my arms, and claim that beautiful mouth of hers with my own.

“Pick you up at eight sharp, then?”

My mind is splintering, the primal need to close the miles between my penthouse and her hotel, claiming what I know is meant to be mine, driving me to the brink of madness.

“I’ll be ready and waiting.”

Gaze locked with mine, she reaches behind her back, her fingers seeming to hover near her bra clasp. My mouth goes bone dry as the silk suddenly drifts down to reveal the perfection that is her tits—round and high, dusky-rose nipples drawn into tight points.

“Oh, and, Rhys?”

Dragging my eyes back to hers takes monumental effort. My chest heaves, my muscles screaming and rebelling against the restraint I’m forcing my body to bow to.

The little tease’s smile turns devilish.

“Feel free to skip the underwear tomorrow. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure you look hot and all in your Calvin Kleins, but you may not be needing them.”

The end of my rope has been reached.

“That’s bloody it. Sadie, I’m coming—”

“Tomorrow, handsome. And don’t forget my phone.”

With a saucy wink, she blows me a kiss and abruptly ends the call. Digital pages of her background check fill my laptop’s screen, her absence leaving me aching, throbbing, and harder than I’ve ever been in my thirty-eight years on this earth.

“Fuck me.”

I groan, squeezing my length even harder, the bite of pain doing little to stop the lust racing through me as I lean my head back and stare unseeing at the ceiling. It takes countless minutes of reciting cricket stats before my blood cools from a boil to a simmer and I look back at my laptop.

And that’s when I see his name.

Right there in front of me.

Maxwell Beaumont. The fucking tosser.

I’d love nothing more than to track the snivelling weasel down. His bit on the side too. To impress upon them, in lurid detail, exactly what I think of lying, cheating, betraying scum. The damage they’ve wrought on my sweet Sadie’s heart—it makes me murderous.

Positively homicidal.

No one will ever wound her like that again. Not while I have a breath in my body. Friend, family, foe, it makes no difference. I will annihilate anyone who threatens her happiness.

With extreme prejudice.

But fantasies of retribution slowly fade.

Instead, my mind fills with tantalising visions of Sadie. Golden and gloriously naked atop my sheets, her wrists fastened to the headboard, legs spread wide.

Quaking and screaming with bliss as I taste every inch of her. Writhing and panting in ecstasy as I adulate her with my hands, mouth, and aching cock.

Sleep will be a lost cause when I’m unbearably desperate to live out each filthy daydream. I resign myself to a long, restless night and an even longer day of fending off intrusive fantasies.

But it’s no matter.

My beautiful Southern belle just flipped my world off its axis and sent me into a tailspin of desire. One only she can satisfy—once I’ve claimed her so thoroughly, she won’t ever imagine being with another.

And I will claim her.

Even if I have to upend the stars to do so.

Believe that.