Chapter Thirteen #2
Alec breaks away to kiss in a frenzy down my body, pulling my hand away and guiding it to his hair.
Before I can even get his name out, his mouth is there, open and urgent, sucking my soul out of me.
When I rock my hips up into him, he lets out a desperate, encouraging groan.
For a few perfect seconds, I make good on my fantasy, fucking that sweet, plump mouth, and at the feel of his kiss, the view of his face between my legs, my back arches away and an orgasm slams into me, twisting me so sharply Alec has to press a firm hand down on my hips to keep me planted on the bed.
I let my legs fall loosely to the side, spent, and he presses his forehead to my hip as his free palm slides up my side to my breast. It’s only a couple of dizzy seconds before I realize what he’s doing, and I push up onto my elbow to watch his hand move, faster and faster.
I sink a hand into his hair and his fist stills as he comes with a quiet groan.
For a few still seconds, we catch our breath. “I wanted to,” I manage, finally, figuring he knows what I mean.
“I know.” His hair slips through my fingers, silky, and he turns his face, kissing my thigh before reaching for the shirt he dropped on the floor, cleaning us both up. “I don’t have a ton of time and knew if I let you, I would want it to take longer.”
After helping me to my feet, he kicks his clothes all the way off, bending to remove his socks, and then leads me into the bathroom. Alec leans in, turning on the shower. “Come in with me.”
He steps in, guiding me in after him, and the water is lukewarm and perfect for my overheated skin. But when he tilts his chin up, letting the stream of water soak his hair, I pretend to pout. “I liked the idea of you going to your thing tonight with your hair all messed up.”
Laughing, he cups my hand and squeezes shampoo into it before guiding it to the top of his head. “I would have smelled like sex.”
“And?” I scrub as he lathers me up with body wash.
“And I’m supposed to be getting a quick bite and change before meeting up with Yael at six.”
He really is in a hurry.
“You think she doesn’t know you came back here for this?” He’s quiet in response, and I realize my mistake. “Yael doesn’t know I’m staying here, does she?”
“I’m sure she suspects, but it’s one of those things with us. A don’t-ask-if-you-don’t-want-to-know sort of thing.”
“Mmm.” I tilt his head back into the water again, rinsing the shampoo, and then reach for the conditioner. “That reminds me, actually.”
His attention seems to be on getting my breasts as clean as possible, thumbs circling and circling…
I lean in, whispering, “You are doing a very good job at that, but I did shower only about an hour ago.”
Busted, he relents with a laugh, leaning back to rinse his hair again. “What were you going to say? Reminds you of what?”
“Does Sunny know I’m the one you’re talking to?”
“Yes,” he says, and turns me so that the water rinses the suds from my skin. “I mentioned I ran into you. I mentioned you were working on the story. And I’m sure even if I hadn’t, Yael would.”
“True.” I chew my lip. “What did Sunny say?”
“I mean, we didn’t talk about our run-in at length because—”
“That would be an awkward conversation.”
“Right.” He begins quickly lathering up his skin and I help, only in the sense that I basically slide my hands around and around the muscular bunching of his shoulders. “But she thought it was weird and great.”
“ ‘Weird and great’?”
“Those were her words,” he says, laughing. “She says hello. Wanted the full Gigi update. I told her to call you sometime.”
“I like that plan.”
I stare at the way he quickly rubs soapy hands down his chest, his abs, his cock. Legs and shoulders. When washing me, he was slow, nearly reverent. He catches me watching. “You’re looking at me like you’re going to eat me.”
Very serious, I nod. “I feel I should return the favor.”
Laughing again, he reaches behind me to shut off the water.
Steam rises around us, and water drips like crystals from his eyelashes.
Alec licks his wet lips. “I promise you can eat me later.” He kisses me then, warm and sliding, and when he moans quietly, it sucks me into a spiral of want.
But too soon he pulls away and glances at the watch I am genuinely hoping is waterproof.
“Shit. I have forty-five minutes to get to Santa Monica in a tux.”
I sit cross-legged on the bed, watching him as he gets ready. Alec pulls a suit bag out of the closet and drapes it over a chair, unzipping it.
“I’m excited,” I sing.
He leans down, pulling the suit free. “Why?”
“I get to see you in a tuxedo.”
He slants an amused look my way. “That’s exciting?”
“Don’t play dumb with me. You’re gonna look like the world’s hottest cake topper.”
Alec laughs at this. “I only brought one, so Elodie had better not spill wine on me.” He steps into the trousers, then shrugs on the shirt. “It started out as a joke,” he says, buttoning. “But she’s spilled her drink on me on three separate occasions.”
“Is this woman trying to get you to take off your clothes?”
“She’s notoriously clumsy.”
I laugh, picking a thread from the duvet. “That’s cute.”
“You’re not bothered by that, are you?”
I look up at him, wide-eyed. He’s turned to face me. “By what?”
“Elodie,” he clarifies. “And our…”
“Your flirty public dynamic?” I guess. He nods, returning his attention to his buttons. “No—I mean, I know it’s part of the promo. Also, I assume if you wanted her, she would be in this hotel room, not me.”
He grins. “Very true.”
“Whoever you end up with,” I say, watching him carefully tuck his shirt in, “is going to have to be very chill about those things.”
He hums in agreement, reaching for his cuff links on the bedside table.
“Need help?” I ask, feeling naked and lazy watching him get ready for a night of nonstop schmoozing after a long day of work.
He grunts out a no and then lifts his chin, indicating the flat bow tie on the hanger. “I can’t do those, though.”
“A tie?”
Alec responds to my sarcasm with a playfully flat look. “A bow tie.”
Standing, I pull a discarded dress shirt from where it’s draped over a chair, tugging it on and buttoning it haphazardly. “Let me make myself useful.”
When I look up, Alec is staring at me. “Are you trying to make it harder for me to leave?”
The obvious yes is perched right on the front of my tongue, but in fact I have no idea what he’s talking about. “What?”
“Wearing my clothes when I need to leave?”
Ah. Even Alec is predictable in such delightful man ways. “It would be easier for you to leave if I was naked?”
He smirks down at me. “No.”
“Okay, then.” I pull up YouTube and type “tying a bow tie” into the search bar.
“What are you doing?”
“Tying that.” I lift my chin to his neck. “I just need to look up how to do it on YouTube.”
“Yael can do it when I get there.”
“But then you’ll deprive me of the chance to stare at your throat for a few minutes.” I’m not looking at his face, but I know he’s smiling. Threading the tie through his collar, I look down at where I’ve propped my phone on the bed and carefully follow the steps.
My first attempt is… not great. I try again.
Alec puts his palms on my waist, bunching his shirt up over my hips until he finds bare skin. “I wish I could bring you with me.”
I frown at my hands, thinking this would be significantly easier if I had four of them. “I love that sentiment, but I promise you, I am fine with missing it.”
“I know.” Patiently, Alec stands in front of me, smelling like soap and toothpaste and emanating warmth like the sun. “What are you going to do tonight?”
“I was thinking of being deeply lazy, but my parents got back from their trip this morning,” I say. “I’ll probably go over there for a bit.”
He stills, and I look up when I feel his attention on my face. “What?”
“Your parents are back in town?”
I stretch, kissing his chin. “Alec, you don’t need to meet my parents.”
He doesn’t seem so sure. “Shouldn’t I say hello?” He bends to grab his phone and opens his calendar. “We could do dinner with them on… hmm… lunch on Monday?”
I step back, inspecting my handiwork and needing a second to push down this weird ball of anguish.
I let myself be distracted from the mess inside me with the simpler mess in front of me.
Without question, Yael is going to retie the bow tie when she sees it, but I’m not sure I can do better than this.
“Seriously, you don’t need to make time for that,” I say, and pat his chest. “I’ll tell them you said hi.”
When he leaves, I know he’s reading something else into my answer—that I don’t want him to come over, that I’m hiding him.
But the fact is that my parents are hilarious and welcoming and warm, and Alec is charming and adoring and funny; they would love everything about him.
But I’d like to have at least two people left in Los Angeles who aren’t mourning his absence when he leaves.