Chapter 10
Lily
Only a minute ago, I had been on the phone with Aubrey, every hair on my body standing straight from the sound of the knock. A noise and visit I hadn’t expected.
Both terrified me.
I silently tiptoed to the door. When I reached the tiny peephole, I forced myself to suck in all the air I could hold and aimed my eye to the round opening.
Relief flooded me as I took in Brady’s face.
But had it?
Although he wasn’t who I’d expected, his presence came with a whole other set of problems.
After our conversation in the galley, I’d had a feeling he was going to approach me at some point during this trip. And as he was an owner of the hotel, I wasn’t shocked he had access to my room number. What shocked me was that he’d waited almost no time at all to come here.
But maybe that wasn’t shocking for a man, like him, who went after what he wanted.
Who wasn’t afraid of anything or anyone.
But was this what I wanted?
What I … semi-feared?
It would take every ounce of willpower, while staring at this breathtakingly gorgeous man, to stay strong. To stay hidden in the doorway. To say whatever statement I could conjure up that would make him walk away.
Not because I didn’t want him to touch me.
Because I knew it would be the worst thing for the both of us.
“Lily …”
The look on his face was hungry, feral, like he was about to pounce at any second.
It did things to my body.
Throbbing things.
Goose bump–like things.
Since the text had come through in the lobby, I’d been deep inside my head. Anxiety had been eating at me, to the point where the vodka didn’t help. Neither had the nap or the conversation with Aubrey.
Brady was the only thing—the only person—who had halted my thoughts in the past and calmed my nerves.
I’d lost myself in him.
“Lily …”
And why should I deny myself of that?
Edinburgh was one.
Tampa would be two.
And then there would never be a three.
Once my contract was up with the Daltons, when Aubrey returned from maternity leave, I would find a different job, somewhere else, that would keep me in the sky for as many hours as possible.
“Answer me …”
But if I could just have this night, the mental freedom that it would bring, that would carry me over.
The same way Scotland had.
“Lily—”
“Yes.” I opened the door an inch. Then another inch. “Before you say anything else”—I swallowed as the bursts of electricity he was causing to flicker through me set my stomach on fire—“that yes was my answer.”
His hand lifted from the frame and slipped through the small opening. Half of it landed on my face. The other half was on my neck.
His grip was tight.
And then it tightened more.
“You’re giving yourself to me …”
Why are those words so incredibly sexy?
Why do they make me even wetter?
And why do they confirm that I made the right decision even if I could possibly regret it later?
“For the night, I am.”
The second that statement left my mouth, the door opened more, just wide enough for him to enter, and once he stepped through, his other hand was on me, and I was suddenly against the wall.
In the air.
Within his arms.
“Is this what you want?” His tone was as rough as his tongue had been when it was on my clit.
That memory. I could still recall it as though it had happened seconds ago.
“Yes.”
Once my lips closed, his mouth moved to my neck, the spot right below my chin, and he stayed there, against my throat. “Say it again, Lily. I want to feel your fucking answer.”
My eyes closed as my body turned to pudding—my muscles jiggly, my limbs barely holding steady.
Most of all, my mind was focused solely on one thing.
Brady Spade.
A man who made me feel so incredibly confident, powerful, and in control of what I wanted.
Most of all, he made me feel safe.
“I want you,” I whispered.
A low, deep grumble came from his chest. “I should fuck you against this wall.” He pulled me off the plaster and carried me toward the bed. “But I’m not going to. I need to touch you. I need to see every goddamn inch of your body. And do you know what I’m going to do then?”
“What?” The syllable came out as a moan.
“I’m going to punish you.” He set me on the bed. “Six fucking months—I say that earns you quite the spanking.”
“Brady—”
“You had full access to me, every means to reach out. You didn’t.” His stare dropped down my body toward my bare legs. “My tongue is going to remember that, Lily. When it’s on your pussy, licking you, and you’re fucking begging me to come—that’s when I’m going to recall every one of those months of no contact. And that’s when you’re going to get punished.”