CHAPTER 28 Mine
I grabbed the envelope and kicked my comforter away without a second thought. My hand pressed against the invisible door and pushed it open, but William’s bed was neatly made, and he was not in his room. The faint sound of a guitar filtered in from the other side of the door.
“William?” I called in a soft, weary tone as I walked out of his room, but his apartment was dark, so I followed the sound to his living room.
William was barefoot and shirtless, but he still had on the dark green pants he had worn to dinner. He was reclined against the sofa with one of his legs propped up and his guitar on his lap. “Hey.” He turned to look at me and followed me with his gaze but didn’t stop playing.
“Hey.” I sat on the coffee table in front of him and waved the envelope to let him know I’d seen it.
He placed his palms over the strings, pressed his lips into a tight smile, and started playing Dave Matthews Band’s “Where Are You Going.” I stared at him as he played and sang the song.
By the time he was halfway through it, I stood. He tossed his guitar to the side, grabbing my arm and pulling me on top of him. I straddled his hips and let my weight fall on his lap.
“I didn’t know,” he said, tucking my hair behind my ear and leaning in to press a kiss below it. “I didn’t lie or withhold the information from you because I didn’t ask them to follow you. They are paid to stay out of sight and keep me safe during work events and specific outings.” His hands moved to my waist. “I’d never mentioned them to you because I honestly forget they even exist. Agent Hawthorne is my assigned bodyguard, and I’ve only interacted with him a handful of times. But it’s Alice’s responsibility as my personal assistant to let him know where he needs to be.”
“So why did Agent Hawthorne follow me while you were gone?”
William blew out a breath and rubbed the back of his neck with a shrug. “When I questioned Agent Hawthorne about it at the restaurant, he said the company reached out to Alice to confirm our relationship and asked if the contract should include you, too. Alice said yes because she thought that’s what I would say. But of course, she never mentioned it to me because she knows I don’t like getting too involved in those matters and I’d just left for Vancouver. But I called her earlier, and she said she didn’t think they would follow you when I was gone, that she thought they meant for shared outings.”
I took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. “I’m sorry I assumed the worst.”
“It looked bad,” he said. “I don’t blame you for getting upset. But when your father mentioned it, he caught me off guard, too. You know I would never lie to you about something like that.”
“I know.” I shook my head. “But I should’ve let you explain. And—”
“It was a rough night,” he cut me off gently. His hands moved inside my pajama top and slid up and down my ribcage, giving me goosebumps.
“I’m sorry I doubted you.” Here we were again, me distrusting William and letting my impulsive emotions get the best of me.
“There’s nothing to be sorry about.” William looked … sad. I’d been so focused on my feelings that I completely forgot about the awful and disrespectful things my father had said to William during dinner. “It was all a misunderstanding.”
“I’m so embarrassed about my father’s behavior.” I cupped his face with my hands. “He was unnecessarily rude and I’m so sorry he behaved that way.”
He parted his lips to speak, but his blue eyes darkened and flicked away, evading my gaze. “Then why do I feel like he’s not entirely wrong about some of the things he said?”
I shook my head and placed my hands on his chest. “So you didn’t graduate. Who fucking cares?” My brows bunched up. “You became an amazing, talented actor who’s worked in more films than most people in the industry can dream of. And you’re about to secure a multi-million-dollar deal with one of the biggest movie franchises of all time. Don’t let him get to you. He’s an expert at manipulating and putting others down with his words while pretending otherwise.”
William nodded slowly. His hands squeezed my waist and pulled me closer to him. “So what did he tell you when he set you aside to talk?”
I considered him in silence, wishing I could skip this part of the conversation. Yet, how could I demand full disclosure from him after throwing a tantrum, suspecting he’d lied to me, if I wasn’t willing to be equally open with him about everything?
“He gave me an ultimatum.” My throat closed off as an invisible hand threatened to strangle me to death. God, I didn’t want William to feel like I was now going to become his responsibility. That’s the main reason I didn’t want to tell him. It wasn’t because I didn’t trust him.
I swallowed past the dread and cleared my throat twice before speaking. “My dad gave me two weeks to end things with you, or he’ll cut me off one hundred percent. And yes, that includes Parsons. He’s already paid for next semester, so I’d be on my own next fall.” My hands slid down to his ridiculous chiseled abs, and I circled each of his muscles with my finger as I waited for him to reply.
“You’re letting me pay for your last year at Parsons.” He did a Jedi hand wave in front of my face, and I laughed.
“I say we make our last two weeks count.” I giggled.
William pinched my waist playfully, and I let out a sharp cry. “Someone’s being a bad, stubborn girl.” He groaned with frustration and flipped me so my back was against the sofa, and his warm body crawled on top of mine.
“And here I was thinking I was a good girl,” I stretched the joke.
“Don’t joke about breaking up again.” His hand slid inside my pajama top until he found one of my breasts. “You’re mine, Guille.” He squeezed it gently, flicking the nipple with his fingers until it became hard. “Mine to touch.” He pulled down my pajama bottoms along with my underwear and let it bunch below my knees. His fingers teased my entrance, and he cursed under his breath when he found me soaking wet for him.
My neck fell back on the sofa and my eyes shut for a few seconds when I felt his fingers touching me. But I needed more. I unzipped his pants and pulled them down, quickly helping to get them off his legs with my feet and letting them fall to the floor.
“Mine to fuck.” He moved inside me in a quick thrust that filled me all the way to the hilt, the stretch making me whimper from the sudden but perfect friction.
“William,” I said between gasping breaths. My fingers brushed through his soft golden hair, and I held on to it as he made his point clear thrust after punishing thrust.
“And I—take care—of what’s—mine.”
William was not letting me think straight. Beneath the heavy layer of pleasure clouding my thoughts, his words were making me want to cave to his desire to take care of me in every single way, including financially. I wanted to please him in that sense, but I didn’t think I could, even if I could pretend to be okay with it to avoid any arguments.
William pulled out and flipped me over onto my belly, only to thrust back inside. Harder this time. “Get on your hands and knees.” I did as I was told, and he didn’t slow the pace for a second. “That’s my girl. Now tell me you’ll let me take care of you,” he said, bunching my slightly damp hair in his fist, making my neck arch to the side so he could kiss me. He devoured my mouth in a slow, deep kiss and broke it off moments later, his lips an inch away from mine. “Say it.”
“I—I can’t,” I said, the words coming out choked with a moan. “Not your—respon—responsibility.” How was I even putting words together into a sentence? I didn’t know. I was so out of breath, and my limbs and my lips were going numb with pleasure.
“That’s not it.” He released my hair and buried his fingers in my hips to pump harder and faster into me.
My silence frustrated him, but it wasn’t 100% intentional. I couldn’t freaking think! He pulled out with a groan and flipped me over again to have me sit on top of him. The way William moved me around so easily to his liking, always present and focused on my pleasure, was one of the hottest things I enjoyed about our sex life.
His hands moved to my waist and rocked me back and forth with such power that I couldn’t keep my eyes open.
“Eyes on me,” he ordered. I opened them and was met with his intense, icy-blue gaze full of need.
My mouth dropped open, and my release was curling up my spine and about to explode behind my eyes. My vision was blurry, and I couldn’t hold back from yielding to his wishes any longer. “Oh, fuck. Don’t stop.” I was so close to the edge that I feared he would stop just to teach me a lesson.
“Be nice and say please.” He pistoned up and down as he continued to sway me back and forth.
“Please … don’t stop!”
“You’ll let me take care of you.” His words were a rough, authoritative command. “Say it.”
I found my release and ran my arms around his neck as wave after wave of pure, unadulterated pleasure crashed against the very core of my being. Moments later, William came, and his harsh, jerky movements unraveled me for a second time.
So, in an act of love, passion, devotion, and impulsivity, I pressed my lips against his ear and said, “I’ll let you take care of me.” If my plans to earn a scholarship and find a way to cover the remaining costs myself go south.
But I didn’t say that.