Tempting the Crown (The Crown 1)

“You don’t have to do that anymore.” She sat up to kiss me. “I swear I’ve been good about my birth control.”

I kissed her roughly. “You should have told me before.”

“Round two?” she teased.

I pulled my jeans up and fastened them. “No, I’ve got to get out of here.”

“Wait.” She sat up quickly, wrapping her arms around my neck. “I don’t want you to go. I’m not ready. It’s been two weeks. This isn’t enough time.”

I hung my head. There wasn’t a fucking thing I could do about it. I wasn’t going to dwell on it. There was no point.

“Baby, don’t make this harder on yourself.” I pulled her hands from my neck.

“Don’t you want to stay?”

I clasped the buckle into place. “Of course I want to stay. But I have a game tomorrow. I can’t stay up all night. And Charlie is on to this.” I pointed between us. “This is my way of keeping our deal until the red carpet.”

She pouted. And it was the prettiest damn pout I’d ever seen. God, I wanted those lips. To kiss them. To fuck them. She was killing me. I knew she’d let me come down her throat. I closed my eyes.

“I’ll text you later.” I tried to walk to the door, but her naked body clung to me.

“No, don’t go yet. A few more minutes. Take a shower with me? At least help me clean off.”

I looked at her glistening belly. I had done that.

I yanked the shirt over my head. “Ten-minute shower and then I’m out of here.”

She smiled victoriously. “Wait until you see this shower.”

I laughed. I think we both knew no one in this room gave a shit about what the shower looked like. Once we were in it we wouldn’t even see it.

29

Alexa

The water cascaded on my shoulders. Luke lathered the green tea body wash on my back. I leaned into him, feeling the warmth of his skin and the slickness of the water between us. His hands coasted up to my nipples, pinching and twisting them with dabs of bubbles.

“Feels good,” I moaned. I hope he hadn’t set a timer. We were already way past his ten-minute curfew.

I knew he couldn’t stay. And his intentions were good. He was trying to spare me the fall out I didn’t want before we had a winning plan in place. For that I loved him. My eyes sparked and my belly flipped. Was I thinking this was love? Was it?

Had I actually fallen in love with Luke Canton? The edge of him was sharper than any blade I had been near. The man had sliced under my skin, freeing me. Yet, I wanted more. I knew that. He knew it. We had risked everything to be together. Did that define love? Was he in love with me too? My consuming crush had re-ordered everything in my life. Nothing could stop me from needing the rush he gave me. Needing the place he created where I could soar. He was my love song.

I didn’t care if the song was blurry or rough. That it wasn’t like everyone else’s song. This was the one we wrote together.

I spun to face him.

“What?” he asked.

“I-I was just thinking.” I wanted to tell him. To confess how he had inexplicably changed my life.

New lyrics popped in my head. The words that would tell the world he was mine. I thought about jumping out of the shower and jotting them down in my journal, but Luke leaned down to kiss me. The song could wait.

“I’ve got to get going.” He reached around me to turn off the water.

“Wait.” I stopped him.

I eyed him as I sank to my knees. The water soaked my hair and slid down my back. The steam billowed around me. We both liked our showers hot.