Chapter 15
JAKE
F uck my life. There was only one bed.
It sat there in all its starched-sheet glory, taking up the entire room, daring me to think of anything else but Olivia laying on it naked and panting as I licked the raindrops from her body.
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to shake the image from my head. Then, with silent resignation, I stepped inside and tossed the bags down in a wet heap on the floor, my jaw tight as I tried to get control of my thundering pulse and my thickening cock.
I hadn’t been able to keep my hands off her. Again.
At first, I had just wanted to make sure that Thomas backed the fuck off. He had always wanted whatever was mine. And when I saw the way his eyes had shamelessly roamed Olivia’s body, it was like something primal in me had taken over. I had to make him understand she was off limits.
Not because she was mine. She wasn’t. She couldn’t be. But there was no way in hell a predator like him was going to put one goddamn finger on her.
But then, just like the last time, once I’d touched her, I couldn’t stop. Her skin was so soft, her curves shaped perfectly for my hands. And when she leaned back into me and traced my fingers, I couldn’t resist another fleeting taste of her.
Truth was I’d been aching to get my hands on her since I first saw her.
Somehow, I’d gotten myself under control, determined to drive all night with the windows down or the air conditioning blasting. I was ready to do anything to ignore this all-consuming desire to cover her body with mine and bury myself inside her.
“I’m going to see if there’s an épicerie open. Are you hungry? I can bring something back.” I turned back around to gauge Olivia’s reaction.
“No, don’t worry about me.” She shook her head, slowly drawing her eyes away from the bed to meet mine. “Are you sure you want to go back out in the rain?”
Yeah, I was pretty fucking sure that a little rain was better than the storm that was raging inside me, threatening to burst if I stayed in that room with her. “I’ll be back.”
I took off down the hall with my bullshit excuse knowing full well there wouldn’t be food downstairs or any épicerie open. The rain was coming down in torrents, so I paced around in the lobby of the hotel, catching worried glances from the receptionist.
“Can I help you, sir?” he asked.
“ Non, merci .” When he continued to stare at me like he was afraid I’d wear a hole in the carpet, I hid in an empty corner of the dark dining room, took out my phone and dialed Jin’s number. To my surprise he picked up after the second ring.
“Dude, it’s five in the morning,” he mumbled, his voice heavy with sleep.
Right, I’d forgotten about the time difference. “Shouldn’t you be heading out to the meeting soon?”
“It’s at ten.”
“I thought you might want to rehearse what you’re going to say.” He’d already called me to go over his talking points, but right now I’d rather listen to Jin going on about tariffs and import volumes in Mandarin than go back to that room.
“No, I would like to go back to sleep,” he groused. “What are you doing? Where are you?”
In hell. “I’m in Beaune.”
“What? You’re breaking up.”
“Beaune! In Beaune,” I shouted. Lightning crashed outside, illuminating the room.
“Boning? And you’re calling me now? In that case, you’re not doing it right.”
Christ, I was surrounded by juveniles. “Why do I even bother? You know what, just call me after your meeting.”
I shoved the phone in my pocket. For a quick second, I considered sleeping in the car. If there wasn’t a possibility of being swept away in the downpour, I might have done it. Instead, like a man condemned, I trudged up the stairs and stood outside the door.
Had enough time passed? The last thing I needed was to walk in on her changing. I groaned at the image that conjured up in my mind and cracked open the door, squinting. “Is it okay to come in?”
“Yes, just brushing my teeth,” Olivia called from the bathroom. I stepped in warily. Her open suitcase lay by the bed, a scrap of pink, lacy fabric peeking out of it. Those goddamn panties. They were out to get me.
“Did you get what you needed?” Olivia asked over the sound of running water.
“No, everything’s closed. Big surprise at midnight in a small town.”
“I think I have some almonds in my purse, if you’re really that hungry.” Oh, I was hungry all right, just not for a bag of almonds. The bathroom door clicked open and, though my brain was screaming , don’t look, don’t look, I did. And regretted it immediately.
She wore a pair of tiny shorts and a camisole top in a thin cotton that barely hid the outline of her nipples and gave me tantalizing glimpses of the exposed skin at her waist. I stood there staring at her dumbstruck, unable to pull my eyes away, as she lifted her arms to unwrap the towel from her hair and shake her fingers through the went strands in a way that made her tits bounce and strain against the fabric.
My entire body tensed, and I snatched up the remote control, praying that the hotel had the British Parliament channel or C-SPAN—anything that would get my mind off the idea of tossing her on the bed and finding out what was under her tiny pajamas.
“I don’t think the TV works,” she said as I punched uselessly at the buttons on the remote. “Do you want to use the bathroom?”
She climbed onto the bed and then crawled to the side against the wall. I just stood there, with my mouth practically hanging open, as she pulled the covers down and asked, “Which side do you prefer?”
“You take the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.” I tossed a pillow on the armchair.
“Don’t be silly, it’s a big bed. There’s plenty of room. See?” She laid down and patted the place beside her. The sight of her laying there waiting for me was too much. There was no way I’d keep my hands off her if I stayed here.
“No, there’s not. Look, I really need to get some sleep, and I’m not going to be able to with you right next to me. I’ll sleep in the car.”
She stared at me as if I had lost my mind. “Are you serious? But you were ready to drive all night. Now you’re suddenly exhausted?”
“Look, Olivia.” I dragged my hand through my hair. “If I get in that bed with you something’s going to happen that I’ll regret later. I promised your dad I’d look out for you this summer, and right now I pose the biggest threat to you, okay? So I’m just going to go somewhere else.”
“I’m not a kid, Jake. You don’t need to look out for me.
In fact, I’m sick of people trying to make decisions for me.
I know what I want.” She sat up and crossed her arms. I’d never seen her angry or quite so determined.
She might think she knew what she wanted, but she didn’t realize how messy this could get.
I was about to tell her as much, when she continued, saying, “And anyway, you’re the one who initiated things back at the chateau. I seem to remember your hands on my hips and your mouth on my neck. If you don’t want me then why did you do that?”
“I never said I didn’t want you, Olivia.
Christ, I want you too much. That’s the problem.
There isn’t a single day since you’ve been here that I haven’t imagined doing a hundred different things to your body.
But it would be a mistake. I can’t do it.
I shouldn’t have touched you like I did earlier, and I have every intention of keeping my hands to myself for the next couple weeks. ”
Before she could protest, I grabbed my bag and stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind me.