2. Cee
two
Cee
What was I thinking, asking him to play cards?
I mentally facepalm my forehead. Of course, he wants to get the information and get out of here, while I could spend the rest of the day gazing at his chiseled jawline and muscular body.
“How long does it take, anyway?” I open the package and shuffle the cards, needing a distraction.
“How long does what take?” His eyes narrow, then drop to my hands as I bridge the cards while shuffling. “You’re pretty good at that.” His compliment warms me, and a hint of a blush heats my cheeks.
“Thanks. I played a lot of solitaire growing up.” I shrug like it’s no big deal to admit I basically had no friends when I was younger. If Sloane hadn’t befriended me in middle school, I’m not sure I’d have any friends at all.
“Same,” he says, surprising me. “But what did you mean about how long does it take?” His eyes search my face with a mixture of confusion and hunger.
I’m used to the look of hunger on a man’s face.
I’m not na?ve. I know how I look—I inherited my good looks and curvy body from my mother.
Thanks to her status as a mistress in this town, I’ve become a joke, and every guy thinks he can just use me for sex.
But the joke is on them—I vowed to myself I wouldn’t have sex until I meet the man I can trust with my whole heart.
But for some reason, when Rhys looks at me that way, I want to break that vow.
“Sex. How long does it take to have sex?” I bite my lip and watch as he clenches his jaw and tightens his grip on the armrests.
“Forget I asked.” I set the cards on the table, then reach down my t-shirt and into my bra, his eyes tracking my every move, and pull out the flash drive Sloane gave me to pass along to him.
“Here.” I thrust my hand forward, shoving the flash drive at him.
“Sloane said she’ll have more information in a few days. ”
His eyes linger on my hand and the flash drive I’m holding. “Did you just pull that out of your bra?” His gaze snaps to my face, and his hand closes over mine for a split second before he takes the flash drive.
“Where else was I supposed to hide it?” His eyes flash with full hunger at my words, making me realize exactly where else I could have hidden it.
“I mean, my bra was the most convenient hiding place.” I shrug, causing my large chest to rise and fall, drawing his attention.
A strong throb pulses through my core, dampening my panties from just that look.
Shoot, I need to change the subject. “Um, what were we talking about?”
“Sex.” He says, licking his lips as he stares at my mouth.
“Right, sex.” I cringe inwardly, out of the frying pan and into the fire, as the old saying goes. “Moving on.” I make a move to stand, but he wraps his large hand around my wrist, stopping me.
“Fifteen minutes. I heard it takes fifteen minutes. Unless you take your time, licking and sucking every part of the body.” His light blue eyes lock onto mine, leaving me feeling stripped bare by this man I don’t even know. My heart races—I did not expect that response.
Wait? Did he say he heard and not that he knows?
Before I can question him, my phone alarm goes off, breaking the spell.
I’m the first to look away. He releases his hold on me, and I grab my phone from the table and turn off the alarm I set for thirty minutes when I arrived at the hotel room a few minutes before he did.
“It’s been thirty minutes. That’s probably enough time for people to think we had sex. ”
He mumbles something unintelligible and stuffs the flash drive into the front pocket of his leather pants--my eyes land on the impressive bulge, and I let out a soft moan.
“Keep that up, and we’ll find out exactly how long it takes to have sex.
” His words vibrate through me, and part of me wants to see how far I can push him, but then I remember that’s not what we’re here for.
I’m doing a favor for my best friend. That’s all.
“We should probably exchange phone numbers so I can text you when I have more information.”
He pulls his phone from his back pocket, unlocks it, then hands it to me. I take it, enter my information, call myself, then hand it back to him. He glances at his phone. “You listed yourself as Hotel Hottie.”
“Yup, Mr. Afternoon Delight.” I giggle as I bring my hand to my neck and start pinching my skin. If there’s a corrupt cop in town, I don’t want to get caught. I need to make our little afternoon rendezvous look real—what’s more convincing than a few hickeys on my neck?
“What are you doing?” He stands, grabs my hand, and pulls me up. “Why are you pinching your neck like that?”
“I don’t know about you, Rhys, but I don’t want to get caught passing along information. Hickeys will definitely make it look real.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me?” His eyes drop to my neck, then back to my face. “It looks like I pinched you, not pleasured you.”
“Do you have a better idea of how we can look like we spent the last thirty minutes in this hotel room, other than criticizing my ability to give myself a proper hickey?”
“Actually, I do.” His arm snakes around my waist, pulling me tight against his body. Before I know what’s happening, his lips are on my neck. It isn’t long before I feel the firm pressure of his mouth as he sucks the sensitive skin between my neck and shoulder, just above the neck of my t-shirt.
“Mmm.” I let out a moan, my toes curling in my sandals as his tongue licks a path higher, drawing the same firm suction from his mouth as at the first spot.
It isn’t long before he’s worked his way around both sides of my neck.
I’m afraid to look in a mirror, afraid I’ll look like a leopard with all the marks he’s left on my neck.
Too soon, he lets go of my waist and steps back to survey his handywork. “Now that’s what I call a hickey.” He smirks, but it dies when I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him down to my level. “My turn,” I say as his eyes widen in surprise.
My lips latch onto a spot on his neck. I apply a little more pressure than he did to me, drawing his skin into my mouth and suckling it with a moan.
His head drops back with a groan, giving me more confidence than ever.
I lick a path up his neck, as he did to me, to the next spot, only to have him grab my wrists and gently push me back as he rises to his full height.
“Enough.” His breathing is heavy as he stares at me, the hunger shining even brighter than before. “I’ll pass this information on to Reaper. Contact me if you have any more.” And just like that, he walks out the door, dismissing me.