CHAPTER NINETEEN
RILEY
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Colt drives me home early the next morning. I’m aching in places I’ve never ached before. That’s saying something for a woman who works with her body every day.
What an incredible night.
This morning, not so much. There’s a somber mood as if our dog just died, and I know we’re both feeling strange about him returning to the United States.
Colt pulls into my drive, and we immediately turn to one another.
“I’ll walk you inside.”
“You don’t need to.”
I can’t believe I slept in his arms all night. Yes, I was physically exhausted after multiple orgasms, but I’ve never slept well with men. Normally I roll over and over, sleep lightly and wake up with bags under my eyes.
This morning, I woke and found this beautiful man watching me. He smiled and ran the back of his fingers lightly over my forehead, saying, “Good morning.”
“Morning.” I’d broken out into a stupid smile. “I still can’t believe you’re here.”
Then I’d melted into his chest, and we’d kissed lazily.
As he cupped my face, I mindlessly played with the leather bracelet, his eyes roaming over me as if remembering every inch.
Like I was doing, also.
Then he wrapped his arms around me, and we just lay there staring at one another, while he peppered sweet kisses on my lips.
His gaze dipped to where I fiddled with his bracelet, and when he looked back at me, the intensity of his stare had my breath almost hitching.
I knew in that moment I mattered to him. Perhaps it would last only for today, and then we would forget one another, or maybe it was more. But I felt it on a visceral level.
Neither of us said anything, simply held the space where we existed as one in the intimate moment.
Then we had to get up.
Now, as Colt climbs out of the vehicle and circles around, I’m almost too tired to move, so I just stay in the seat. Or maybe I don’t want to say goodbye.
Last night was the best night of my life.
Well, there was that one moment when I exited the bathroom and found Colt pacing the floor with tissue hanging off his dick.
I couldn’t help my smile.
“This isn’t funny, Riley.” He strode towards me. “Are you on birth control?”
“What?” I flinched. “Oh, no. I’ll get the morning-after pill in the morning.”
“Right. Right. Okay. You have that here? We call it Plan B.”
I nodded. “Yes, we aren’t a third-world country.”
“Good.”
“Don’t stress. I stopped taking birth control after...well, my ex. He cheated. I’m off men.” I’d shared, wondering why I was explaining myself. “Except for last night.”
His eyes narrowed as he rubbed his jaw. “What a fucking idiot.”
I smiled.
“I’ll take you in the morning.”
We had swung by the pharmacy on the way home, so I had the packet in my hand. Colt glances at it when he opens the car door.
“I’ll take it the moment I get inside,” I reassure him, reaching for my purse and climbing out.
“Thank you.”
We walk to the door, and I desperately hope my neighbors don’t see my walk of shame. Then again, I’m in a Balenciaga gown, so fuck them.
Colt, on the other hand, is freshly showered, wearing a pair of navy pants, a check shirt and loafers, looking every bit the hot billionaire that he is.
He rakes his fingers through his hair, which I’ve noticed he does when he thinks deeply.
“Well...” I smile up at him, taking in for the last time his broad shoulders, rough jawline, and gorgeous green eyes. Now I know the feeling of his roped muscles under my fingertips, the taste of his sexy mouth, the way it feels to have him inside me.
It seems wrong that he’s leaving.
I could spend forever staring into his gorgeous face, talking to him.
After he leaves, we can’t keep this online relationship up. It will end up with one of us getting hurt. I suspect that it would be me.
“I guess you have the jet parked somewhere. Hope you don’t get a ticket,” I joke.
Colt closes the gap, taking my face, and kisses me. He tastes of the coffee he drank earlier, and I draw in the scent of his musky aftershave I watched him spray.
All things I never got to experience as we chatted online.
“No regrets.”
“No regrets.” I shake my head, smiling, soaking up the heat from his body. “I dropped into your DMs to harass you and got a night of amazing sex out of it.”
Colt tucks a lock behind my ear. “Don’t do that.”
My heart starts beating, wishing he’d let me make jokes and say goodbye. This is far more overwhelming and emotional than I ever thought it would be.
“It was more than that.” He glances away, then draws a breath. “I wasn’t...” Green eyes return to me. “If you lived in the States—”
I hold up a hand. “Don’t say it.”
I turn away before I can’t and say something stupid like asking him to stay.
“Riley.”
“No. Let’s just say goodbye and I’ll chat to you tomorrow, like it’s any other day.” I shake my head.
Colt turns my shoulders, cups my face, and kisses me so passionately I can’t breathe.
“Tell me it meant something. I need to hear you say it,” he demands.
“Why?” I whisper, his forehead resting on mine.
“So that I can take a piece of your heart home with me and keep it forever.”
Tears prickle, threatening to escape down my cheeks. I don’t want to admit anything, but this was it. Our last seconds together.
I don’t want regrets, and if last night taught me anything, it was that being in real life with someone was a million times different from online.
I need to say it here.
Now.
I need to tell Colt what it meant to me.
What he means to me.
But without losing the part of me he wants to steal. Although there’s a strong chance I already have.
“It was the most incredible night of my life.”
His eyes shimmer in response, his hand tightens on my hip. Then I jump as he abruptly lifts his arm and slips off the leather bracelet.
Taking my wrist, Colt slides on it. Tightening it.
“I want you to have this.”
“Colt, no.” I resist, but he holds it tight, staring so intently into my eyes as if trying not to let me go.
But he does.
He takes a step back, curses, then turns and walks away.
I cover my mouth to silence my sob.
I can’t, won’t, break down on my doorstep and let him see me cry. Spinning, I open the door and dart inside, shutting it behind me.
I hold my arm to my chest, feeling the leather.
I will never forget you, Colt Winters.
Never.