Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
Rowan
“Will you please tell me where we’re going?” I ask, dragging my suitcase behind me through the house. Colt stops me and grabs the case from my hand, hefting it under his arm like it weighs nothing. “A hint even?”
“Something tells me you haven’t had many surprises before,” he teases, “considering how terrible you are with the concept of them.”
Not true; I had a surprise party when I was nine. I didn’t have to bring my passport for it, though.
We stop on the way out of the house to say goodbye to Macie. I give her approximately three hundred and forty-five hugs, with a big smooch on the cheek just in case, and we load our bags into a big black Escalade, similar to the one we took the night of our first kiss.
My first kiss.
A pleasant shiver runs down my spine at the thought of that moment. I don’t let any other parts of the night revisit me, just that one. The best one. My favorite one.
I climb into the car, taking the seat next to Colt’s, and I stare him down. Maybe if I stare long enough and hard enough, he’ll crack and spill the details on this mystery trip I had to pack two fucking suitcases for.
At least, that’s my hope.
“I’m not telling you, Rowan,” he laughs, putting his hand over my eyes to cover them. “Quit looking at me like that.”
I throw my arms over my chest and put on my best puffy bottom lip, pretending to pout, but he still doesn’t break. The man is made of impenetrable steel.
We drive for what feels like an hour until we pull up to the largest airport I know of in the city.
I expect us to get dropped off at the front doors, but the car keeps moving until we pass a massive fence covered in warning signage, and I’m almost certain we’re going to be arrested. This is illegal, isn’t it?
“Mr. Fowler! Great to see you again!” An employee says as the car slows to a stop.
I look up in surprise as Colt greets the young man, taking in the massive hangar before us.
One plane sits idle at the center, looking like it’s ready to taxi out onto the tarmac at any moment, and two others sit parked on either end of the massive space. At the side of the centered plane, a set of steps is lowered and several people stand waiting – I assume for us.
The driver of the Escalade steps out of the vehicle and moves to the trunk to unload the bags for us as Colt helps me out, taking my hand.
“Colt. You own planes.”
“Ever been on one?” He asks, completely ignoring the shock on my face.
“No, I’ve never been on a plane!” I whisper. “Where are we going?”
“On a plane,” he replies with a smartass look on his face.
Putting a hand at the small of my back, he leads me toward the steps, where a beautiful woman waits, wearing a smile and a uniform that suggests she’s a flight attendant of some kind.
“Miss Caldwell, welcome aboard!” She tells me.
“Oh, I— thank you.”
Colt leads me to the massive cabin, which is laid out like a fucking stretch limo or something. The seats are a light colored leather, arranged in pairs on either side of several wood tables that are built into the floor.
There are several TVs that look like they can be adjusted according to whichever seat their viewer is using. I don’t even have words for what it feels like to walk through this plane. It’s like microdosing being royalty.
As we get settled into our seats, that same nice woman strides over to us with that big, radiant smile on her face and asks, “Can I get you started on some beverages, Mr. Fowler? Champagne?”
“We’ll stick with sparkling water, thank you, Alice.”
The woman nods and leaves us while she gets the drinks – from where, I have no idea. Is this what every plane looks like? This thing is like a flying apartment!
Colt tells me nothing as we soar through the sky and I watch the world beneath us fly past in vibrant hues of green, spring finally waking up to greet us. It’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life.
The mountains below still have a dusting of snow on top of them and some places remain coated in white, but most of the world is opening up, becoming warm as it comes back to life with the greeting of spring.
The clouds that pass my window are enough to make me cry – they’re like cotton candy floating in the air. It’s like I could reach out to touch them, pluck a piece away and let them melt on my tongue.
Even as the sun dips down below the horizon, the city lights shine up at us like a rainbow of glitter over a sea of darkness.
A hand brushes between my shoulder blades and I hear Colt’s voice in my ear. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Colt, it’s incredible,” I breathe. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“I used to fly away and back just to watch this,” he confesses. “The world is such a massive place. There’s something really special about seeing the different phases of its life and how small we really are, in the grand scheme of things.”
I reach a hand over to squeeze his knee. “Thank you.”
“This isn’t your surprise, you know,” he teases.
“I don’t care.”
His lips press gently to my cheek, and I can feel him smiling against my skin.
I fall asleep for a few hours, until I hear the pilot speaking to us over the intercom system.
“Lady and gentleman, we have begun our descent into Milan. Please be sure your seatbelts are fastened until we make our arrival at the terminal.”
My head whips in Colt’s direction. “Milan? As in—”
“Benvenuta in Italia, Rowan,” he tells me with a smile.
I can feel the flush rising to my cheeks, bringing a flaming heat with it.
I should be panicking – I’ve never left the state before, let alone the country.
I don’t speak any other languages, I don’t know the laws here or if certain things are disrespectful.
Aren’t those the basics to going to someone else’s country? Oh, god.
The bumpiness of the landing sends up a giggle from my throat, and I’m almost certain I’m losing it.
Instead of the panic I know I should be feeling, I’m overwhelmingly happy, and the way that Colt is staring at me – with those beautiful eyes of his sparkling and a wide smile on his face – it’s just adding to that happiness. I’m practically freaking giddy.
Another large black SUV is waiting for us as we leave the terminal, hand in hand, and a member of the staff – Colt’s staff - loads our bags into it as we climb in.
That same person drives us through the city to an absolutely enormous building that looks just as historic as the rest of the city we’ve driven through.
I don’t think my jaw has left the floor once since we landed, and it’s making my mouth go dry.
Colt strides casually toward the front desk when we enter the building, and I realize then that we’re in a hotel. It may as well be an art museum – this place is breathtaking.
Just a few minutes later, we’re stepping onto an elevator that takes us up so many floors I lose count, and my footing a little bit, until it finally stops at a penthouse suite.
I’ve never actually seen one of these in person, only on TV. I never realized how huge they really are inside; this is essentially a luxury apartment sitting on top of a hotel, with a view that is almost enough to make me think I’ve died and walked right into heaven.
“Oh my god,” I breathe as I walk around the room.
“It’s a beautiful city,” Colt says.
Without hesitation or second thought, I take a few long strides toward him, then grab his face in my hands and take his mouth in a hungry, desperate kiss. One of his arms snakes around my waist, the other tangling in my hair at the back of my head.
“You brought me to Italy?” I breathe.
A warm, affectionate smile plays at his lips and he brushes my hair from my face. “I brought you to Italy, baby.”
My mouth meets his again and he pulls me close to him until our bodies press together and the warmth of his body melts into me.
“Take me to bed,” I tell him.
That warm smile quickly turns feline and he tosses me over his shoulder, planting his hand on my ass with a smack as he carries me toward one of the bedrooms in the penthouse.
He gently sets me down onto the bed before climbing on top of me and taking my lips again with his as his hands start to explore my body, slowly carving out every curve and setting my skin on fire with his touch.
I let out a soft moan as his mouth meets my neck, trailing kisses from below my ear to my collarbone. He pulls the zipper down on my hoodie painfully slowly before peeling it off of me, his lips barely leaving my skin in the process.
Tears prick at my eyes as he slides my joggers down my legs, leaving me with nothing but my lacy panties to cover me.
As I let out a quiet sob, he slides himself back over me, his heavy chest pressed against mine as his hand strokes my hair.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s stupid,” I laugh at myself through my tears. “And you’re gonna get mad.”
“Rowan, I would never get mad at you.”
“You will.”
“No,” he says with a shake of his head. “Tell me what’s upsetting you.”
“I just— I’m not convinced this is real,” I admit, tears falling from my eyes. “I don’t deserve this. You’re— Someone like you doesn’t fall for someone like me.”
“And who do you think someone like you is?”
“Just…some girl. Who doesn’t matter, in the real world. Some sick girl who is too hard to love.”
“Oh, baby,” he sighs, then presses a kiss to my lips.
“There isn’t a single thing about you that is hard to love.
You are all of the good things in this world, wrapped up into one tiny, stubborn and annoying-as-hell package.
You are perfect.” He dusts the lightest kisses over my cheekbones to clean away my tears.
“You are a goddess, baby girl. Let me worship you.”
My breath catches as his mouth trails along the plane of my stomach.
One of his hands reaches up to squeeze my breast, holding it tightly, and I let out a moan through the tears that are still finding their way to my eyes.
His free hand moves to my panties, working to slide them off of my legs, then he drops them to the floor as his occupied hand pinches at my nipple, making me whimper.
Before I can blink, his mouth is on me, tongue lapping over me and I gasp at the electric shock of his movements as he swirls his tongue over my clit.
“Colt,” I breathe.
His tongue moves in slow strokes at first, loving and gentle, then he pulls me into his mouth, sucking as the warmth of his breath dances over my skin.
When he releases me, his tongue goes back to those beautifully-made strokes, deeper this time, until it’s practically inside me.
I moan and slowly start to rock my hips against him as I reach for the pillow beneath my head.
I need something to grab onto, to keep me grounded, or I might just float away if he keeps this up.
As his tongue meets my clit again, he carefully slips two fingers inside of me, curling them around my most sensitive spot as he moans against my body. I feel like I might fall off the edge of the Earth, only to wind up lost in an orbit I might never come back from.
“Oh, god,” I pant.
“’Dio mio,’ baby. You’re in Italy,” Colt reprimands from his post between my legs. “Use the language.”
A long, desperate moan slips from my lips and my body bucks against him.
“You need more?” He teases.
“Yes!”
He withdraws his fingers and I think, just for a second, that I might kill him – until I hear the rustling sound of fabric over skin.
His pants drop to the ground and he presses his body against mine again, looking me in the eye as his cock finds home between my legs and slides inside. I groan at the still-unfamiliar fullness that I find myself so thankful for as he releases a low growl into my ear.
“That’s my girl,” he breathes. “You’re doing so good for me.”
Our eyes stay locked on each other as he presses into me, moving in perfect rhythm with the rolling of my hips.
My hands fly up to cup his face, reminding me that he’s real, this moment is real.
There’s not a single point in my life that I thought would lead me here.
I never honestly thought I would find someone to make me feel like this.
I was always too much or too complicated or too…
anything. Somehow, Colt doesn’t see that when he looks at me, and I’m not sure how I got so lucky for that to happen.
Somehow, he drives himself deeper into me, and I close my eyes as I cry out against the feeling. His hand grips my jaw, giving it a squeeze and he growls, “Eyes on me, baby.”
I do as he says, opening my eyes to lock onto his again, and he beams at me with what I can only call pride.
“There’s my good girl,” he praises with a wink.
I shudder with a moan as I buckle against him, opening my mouth to speak, but no words will come out. As I near the edge, his thumb meets my clit, giving me pressure and movement that comes up behind me and kicks me off that edge at warp speed.
I scream out his name as my body tightens around him, pulsing with the orgasm rushing through me. At the height of it, Colt’s mouth meets mine. Our tongues dance together until his own orgasm claims him, making him slow to a few needy thrusts as he empties himself into me.
It takes a minute for me to realize that I’m still rooted to the planet, not floating through space.
Not even ten minutes later, Colt holds me tightly to his body while he strokes my hair; he seems to really like doing that, and it makes me feel so cared for every time he does it.
Three little words climb up my throat, threatening to force their way out, but I swallow them back down, sending them to him in a thought, instead.
I love you.