Carter laughed, leaning in to reply when his eyes suddenly tore away from mine and narrowed at the door. His voice was low, his face close enough to mine that I felt his sweet breath ghosting over my skin when he spoke.
“That’s the same woman. Do either of you recognize her?”
Ice shot through my veins before I even saw her, but then a commotion broke out between her and one of the women in the group who’d come in earlier. Carter visibly relaxed again when it appeared that she wasn’t there for me.
“A good old lover’s quarrel.” Jules chuckled, exhaling deeply when he realized the same thing. “For the record, I don’t recognize her but that was a good practice round.”
We ordered pizzas to share, eating and laughing until Jules insisted on paying the check and had to take off. He bent down to kiss my cheek before he left. “I have a meeting with the publicist. I’ll keep you in the loop. Remember that you need a dress for Anna’s birthday party. I’m sorry I can’t come shopping with you.”
After he left, Carter arched a brow at me. “Did I hear that correctly? We’re going shopping?”
“Yep.” I wasn’t any more excited about it than he seemed to be. “Anna’s a set designer for Wicked and she made me promise I’ll come to her birthday. If you’d rather not come dress shopping, I can go by myself.”
His jaw tightened. “That’s not a good idea. I’ll be fine. Just don’t expect too much input from me. My fashion sense must’ve gotten lost right along with my interior decorating abilities.”
I gave him a long look, noticing that there was a definite flare of heat in his gaze again. “I’m sure you’ll do just fine. Have you ever thought a woman looked hot in a dress?”
“Yes.” No further explanation given, but I saw his chest rise and fall on a deeper than usual breath. “Why?”
“Because that’s the only input I need from you,” I said cheerfully, trying to ignore how very much I wanted him in that moment. Again. “If I try something on you think looks hot, just let me know.”
“You’re a client.” His teeth ground together. “I’m not supposed to think you look hot.”
I leaned into him, gently placing my hand on his chest and feeling his heart racing underneath my palm. “We’re in public, which means you’re my boyfriend. I’m not a client out here.”
Those glittering dark eyes of his drank me in before he nodded. “Fine, but we’re on very thin ice here.”
“Would you look at that? Thin ice is one of my favorite places to be.” While I wasn’t exactly risk averse or the most dedicated rule-follower in the world, I also wasn’t an outright rebel who liked to take massive risks every day.
I liked to think of myself as well balanced in that respect. Most rules I came across were fine with me, and therefore I followed them. I’d flaunted a few in my day but nothing serious.
Going after Carter would be breaking a pretty big rule, though. It might also put both of us at risk, since I wasn’t sure what the consequences of something like that might be. I doubted he’d get fired for it, but I was almost sure he’d get yanked from my detail.
I didn’t want that, but I felt a pull to him I couldn’t explain. Which was why when he followed me into a dressing room at the first boutique we went into, I decided to be a little bold.
There was something brewing between us, the likes of which I’d never felt before. Something deep inside was pushing me to at least bend the rule instead of directly breaking it.
Besides, I still didn’t know for a fact he was interested in me the same way I was in him. The rules said no kissing or touching, but they were silent on showing.
Carter stood on one side of the spacious dressing room, his back turned while I hung the dresses I’d picked out over a rail. Unlike so many of the changing areas in department stores, the lighting in here wasn’t fluorescent and unflattering.
It was soft and warm, and a heavy purple curtain separated us from the prying eyes of any others who might come back here. Mentally fortifying myself for what I was about to do, I straightened up and slowly pulled down the zipper of my jacket.
His broad shoulders tensed when the soft sound rang out in the quiet cubicle. There were mirrors all around, and I could see his profile in them. His eyes were closed and his head turned slightly down.
There was a rustling of my clothes when my scarf and jacket dropped to the floor. Then I undid the short zips on my ankle boots. When I looked up again after kicking them off, his eyes were open and he was facing me.
A storm was brewing in the dark brown depths of his eyes, and his fists were clenched at his sides. The way he was looking at me made me feel all gooey again, like molten heat was flowing through my bloodstream and obliterating everything except the need I felt for him.
“I love it when you look at me like that,” I whispered, but I knew he’d heard me loud and clear when his breathing became heavier.
With my gaze on his, I continued stripping down to my bra and panties. I hadn’t thought he’d see them when I’d chosen them this morning, but I was glad I’d put in the extra effort in order to make myself feel confident and sexy.
Carter’s lips parted and he sucked in a sharp breath when his gaze swept across the matching, lacy, navy set I was wearing. His eyes flashed in warning when he finally dragged them back up to mine.
“This isn’t smart, Rylee,” he bit out, his deep voice rough and a little hoarse.
“Why not?” I let my shirt, which had been the last item I’d taken off, drop to the floor and stood in front of him. “You don’t like what you see?”
A quiet scoff came out of him. “Quite the opposite. I’m a man with a beating heart and you’re everything I want in my bed. Let’s not push this, shall we?”
“I wouldn’t mind playing house together,” I said before an awkward laugh came out of me. “I know how that sounded, but I really want to kiss you, and unless I’ve misread the situation entirely, you want to kiss me too.”
“You haven’t misread the situation,” he admitted, taking a step closer to me as if he had no choice in the matter.
Large, muscular hands came up to catch my face between them, and his tongue came out to wet his lips while his eyes never left mine. I knew in that moment that this was happening, that he was going to give us both what we so badly wanted.
I dipped my head back to let him know I was okay with it, and then he let out the sexiest sound I’d ever heard and kissed me like he’d been dying to do it his whole life. My arms wound their way around his neck, my fingers dipping into the soft hair at the bottom of his scalp.
Just as we surged together again, the harsh voice outside of the curtain made us jump apart. The store manager shouted at us. “None of that allowed in here, please.”
He darted away once he’d made sure we separated, and went on his merry way.
Holy. Shit. I needed air. Lots of it. Pronto.
Chapter 13
CARTER
Back at Rylee’s house, we unpacked some of the groceries we’d gotten together earlier. She smiled over her shoulder as she bent over to retrieve a pan. “I’m no chef, but I have my mom’s recipe for this dish. I’ve never tried it by myself, though. Don’t get your hopes up too high.”
By unspoken agreement, neither one of us had brought up our kiss yet. I knew we needed to talk about it eventually, but it seemed unwise to do so until we got back here. There were potential ears everywhere else, and we couldn’t risk outing ourselves so early on in the assignment.
Since we had kissed now though, that wasn’t the only thing we needed to talk about. I’d been racking my brain for the last few hours to figure out how to tell her who I was. The mention of her mother and the fact that we were about to cook one of her dishes together just cemented it for me.
The time had come, even though I really didn’t have a good explanation for why I hadn’t told her earlier. It’d made sense to me at the time, but I’d realized while trying to figure out what to tell her when she inevitably
asked that everything I’d come up with sounded lame in retrospect.
Things between us were progressing much faster than I’d thought they would, and much further. Whatever it was that was happening with us, I’d already risked too much damage by not coming clean on the first day we’d “met.”
Stupid. Fucking. Idiot. I knew now that I should’ve just told her, but I hadn’t, and now I had to deal with the consequences of my decision.
“I need to tell you something,” I said, rolling up the sleeves of my button-down shirt after shrugging out of my jacket.
She set the pan down on the stove, grabbing the chicken from the counter opposite us and peeling open the packaging. “Sure. We can talk about whatever you want, but let’s watch a movie and get in the hot tub later. How does that sound?”
Fucking idyllic. I could say without any shadow of a doubt that a night like that with her would be the best thing that had happened to me all year, but it wasn’t as easy as just agreeing to it.
“I’m working, remember?” I reminded her, keeping my tone gentle. “Despite what happened earlier, we need to keep in mind that when we’re here, we’re not pretending to be together. I’m here as your bodyguard. Nothing more.”
Bart would have my balls if he knew what’d happened earlier. He’d probably castrate me and send me right back to make sure I completed the job I’d signed up for, but it definitely wouldn’t be a fun process.
He was a guy’s guy, but I knew he wished he was in a relationship. I also knew he wished I was in one, even if it would complicate the work I did for him sometimes. It’d all come out of him one night at my place after a few too many beers.
A part of me wanted to believe that if I explained this to him, he would understand and not kick my ass for breaking the rules. I wasn’t optimistic or naive enough to think it wouldn’t be an issue at all, or that he, like Rylee, wouldn’t ream me for not being honest from the outset. I deserved whatever came my way from both of them, though.
It was only fair that I spoke to her about it first, and that was exactly what I planned on doing. Rylee, however, seemed to be intent on talking about the other thing first.
She dropped the shredded chicken into the pan, added a dash of olive oil, and turned to me with a serious expression on her beautiful face. “I know you’re working, and I know there are rules against it, but I really like you.”
My heart stopped beating before it sprang back into action at double speed. “You do?”
She nodded, turning off the heat on the stove before taking a step closer and placing her hands gently on my hips. “I do. I know it’s forbidden for us to be together right now, but maybe we could be friends and have a good working relationship for now?”
My stomach sank. “You want to be friends?”
“If that’s all I can get for now, then yes. I’d like for us to be friends.” She locked her eyes on mine. “I really enjoyed our kiss earlier, but I don’t want to get you in trouble or do it again if you don’t want it, too.”
“I loved kissing you, Rylee.” I brought my hands to her neck and stroked my thumbs across the smooth column of her throat. “It’s just more complicated than you think. There’s more than just the rules to consider.”
She stiffened immediately, her brows pulling together as hurt darkened her gaze. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
“What? No. Of course not.” I ran the fingertips of one hand across her jaw. “I’m a lot of things, but a cheater isn’t one of them. If I had a girlfriend, I never would’ve looked at you the way I have been and I definitely wouldn’t have kissed you.”
“So it’s not complicated because you’re seeing someone else?” Her relief was so powerful that I felt it radiating from her as she released a slow breath.
“I’m not seeing anyone else,” I said firmly. “Not even casually.” A thought occurred to me then. “Are you?”
“No.” She pressed her body closer to mine, a slight smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “We have the ‘not being a cheater’ thing in common. I think I would break out in hives if I even looked at someone else while I was in a relationship.”
I lifted her arm tenderly and pretended to inspect the skin there, keeping my fingers light as they stroked across her. Tiny goosebumps appeared in their wake, and I wound my other arm around her waist to hold her tighter.
“No hives,” I commented. “You’ve got to be telling the truth.”
She laughed and brought her head forward to nuzzle my chest. “I’m glad we’re on the same page. What else is there to talk about then?” Pulling back to look up at me again, she smiled and put her hands over my heart. “If it’s not the rules and it’s not other people, it can’t be that complicated. Whatever it is, we should be able to work it out, right?”
Fuck. With her looking at me like that, there was nothing I wanted more than to believe she was right. “It’s about my childhood. Where I come from.”
I trailed off, struggling to find the words that were completely evading me. How the hell was I supposed to tell the gorgeous woman in my arms that I was her brother’s best friend from when we were kids and, more than that, that I’d known who she was from the start?
“I don’t care about any of that, Carter,” she murmured. “If you had a bad childhood or if you’re worried about where you come from, you need to know that none of that matters to me. I want to hear about it sometime, when you’re ready to tell me, but all I care about is the man you are now.”
Well, that went well. “It’s not that I had a bad childhood. It’s just that I—”
She silenced me with a finger to my lips. “You don’t owe me any explanations. Just don’t let anything like that worry you or stand in our way, okay?”
Before I could even blurt out the truth, she leaned in and pressed her lips to mine. Every thought I had about coming clean vanished the second she touched my mouth with hers, her fingers tightening on my chest and a soft moan hitting my ears.
I reacted on instinct, giving in to the primal need inside me and hauling her against me as I swept my tongue across her lips. She gave me the access I demanded instantly, parting them and tentatively touching my tongue with her own.
She tasted like the candy she’d sucked on when we’d walked home, arms laden with every dress she hadn’t gotten around to trying on in that dressing room, but there was also a hint of something else there. Dreams. Hopes. Lust?
Whatever it was, it was something I’d forever associate with her. When we’d first kissed just a couple of hours ago, it’d been seared into my memories along with everything else about her, and I was addicted.
If I’d thought I was screwed before, it was a million times worse now. My cock was so hard I was willing to bet I’d be able to drive nails into a wall with it. Everything about her, from the way her lips moved against mine to how incredibly fucking soft she was in my arms, sucked me right the hell in.
It was almost impossible to believe she was the same girl I’d wanted all those years ago and had all but forgotten about until she’d crashed back into my life. At the same time, I knew it was her because I felt the deeper connection between us.
Kisses like this didn’t come from knowing a person for less than week. Something crept into the back of my mind, a fleeting thought that there was something I still had to tell her.
Whatever it is, I’m sure I’ll remember later.
She rolled her hips against mine, and I lost even the will to try to remember what I had to tell her. Moving my hands down to her thighs instead, I lifted her against me and carried her to the kitchen counter.
Something clattered when I put her down, but I didn’t stop to check what it was, and she didn’t seem to be too worried either. Her fingers twisted into my hair as she turned her head to give me a better angle.
The height of the counter put me right against her core when I stepped between her legs, her heat on me despite the layers of fabric between us. I moaned into her mouth when I ground my length against her,
not even caring if I ended up fucking raw from rubbing against denim after my head popped free of my underwear.
She held me closer, kissing me harder as she tilted her hips up to angle them how it felt best to her. Almost immediately, her legs wound around my ass and her muscles started quaking as she pressed herself as tightly against me as she could.
“Oh God, Carter,” she said, her voice breathy and shaking. “Fuck. That feels so good.”
As if hearing my name coming out of her in a voice like that had dumped a bucket of water straight from the Atlantic over my head, all the reasons why this was a terrible idea flooded back into my brain. I knew she was seconds away, and if I was being honest, I wasn’t far behind her, but I had to put a stop to this.
Forcibly jerking my hips back, I gave her hips a gentle squeeze before slowly ending the kiss. When our lips separated, I pressed one last, soft kiss to the tip of her nose. “No going over the line, Rylee. We just can’t.”
Our labored breaths mingled in the air, and when I noticed how swollen her lips were and how dilated her pupils were, I almost decided to toss the whole stopping plan in the “fuck it” bucket. But I couldn’t.
Bart. Billy. The rules. The lie. Those were all the things between us, and I couldn’t let this get out of hand until I told her.
She pouted but eventually inclined her head and gave me a sheepish smile. “I know. I understand. I’ll work on behaving. Maybe. Let’s get back to cooking. Just no more talking about any of this tonight anymore then either, okay?”
Guess I walked right into that one. Luckily, I wasn’t exactly in a hurry to tell her. A lot of things could happen once I did, and while I knew I had to, I just wanted to enjoy as much time with her as I could first. Maybe I could get just one idyllic night before it all went to shit. Probably.
“Fine, but I do still need to talk to you.”
“You will. Just not about anything that’s going to make me want to kiss you again. Or think about kissing you.” She pierced the ceiling in a glare before hopping off the counter and walked around me, giving me a wide berth. “Carter, Carter, Carter. What am I going to do about you, huh? It shouldn’t feel this way. It’s too soon.”
Dropping The Ball: A New Year’s Billionaire Romance Page 9