I had a million questions — questions that I’d held onto for now. But as the shower stopped, and I heard the sound of the curtain being pulled open? They all jumped back in my head again.
Ryan emerged in a way too small towel, his mostly-naked body dripping water. He looked utterly magnificent. My eyes crawled over his big shoulders, down along the yummy muscles of his arms and chest. They moved past that, across the smooth mocha expanse of his ripped abdominals.
I had to stop and re-evaluate. Because to be honest? I’d underestimated his hotness.
“Get a good look?”
I didn’t even bother trying to hide my stare. He was my boyfriend, after all. Or at least he was supposed to be.
“No,” I quipped. “Why don’t you turn around so I can see the back.”
To my surprise he did, and I looked some more. He had a wonderfully trim waist. A perfectly bubbled yet masculine ass, that I strained to see through the towel. Ryan even held his arms up, showing off his well-muscled back. For the next four or five seconds I became religious, praying that gravity would do me a favor and the towel would fall away.
“Why are we here?” I asked finally. “And who the hell were those guys?”
Ryan pursed his kissable mouth, looking down as if considering how much to reveal. In the end he only squinted back at me without answering anything.
I was starting to get mad again. “Does this have something to do with Briggs?”
His expression changed after the question. There was surprise there, no doubt. But also, an admiration.
“Yes.”
“Can you tell me what??
?
Slowly he shook his head. I knew in an instant it was the best answer I was going to get.
“Well let’s at least call Kyle and Dakota,” I suggested. “Get them down here, to pick us up.”
“Already did that,” said Ryan. “All three of us agreed the best thing to do is sit tight until morning.”
“All three of us?” It was infuriating. “What about me? Do I even get to be involved?” I bounced up from the bed. “Do I get a vote here?”
He stood toe to toe with me, eye to eye. “What kind of vote do you want, Sammara?” he snarled. “Please, tell me now. Because it seems no matter what I do, you’re mad about it.”
I was close enough to smell his body now, all clean from the shower. His eyes glowed. I could feel the heat of his breath on my lips.
“I do wrong and you’re mad,” cried Ryan. “I apologize and you’re still mad. There’s no winning with you. You’re pissed at everything!”
“I’m pissed at you!” I practically screamed back in his face. “You let me in the other night, and then you push me away. You make a date with me, and then ruin it with the sub-contractor!” I was staring back at him. Not giving a single inch. “And now here we are, stuck in this piece of shit motel, and you’re pulling rank?” I laughed in his face. “Hate to break it to you Ryan, but I don’t work for you! I’m not one of your subordinates! In fact, I’m the only one who—”
He grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me against him. It happened with lightning speed. One moment I was shouting into his face… the next moment we were kissing so hard our teeth clacked together.
Oh shit…
It was raw. Savage. Totally fierce, but also totally hot. Our tongues met immediately, as if they’d been destined to all along, and our lips churned so violently against one another it was becoming difficult to breathe.
What the hell is happening?
I was losing it. Surrendering completely as his arms slid around me. My brain screamed at me to stop, to just open my mouth and start ripping into him for the callous asshole he was. But my body…
My body completely overruled it.
Instead I let go, allowing Ryan to continue our fiery kiss as he crushed me against him. I felt ambrosial. Totally and completely lost in the moment. Unwilling to stop, or breathe, or say a single, solitary word that might jeopardize the waves of forbidden, heated pleasure now rippling through my body.
“You’re right,” he growled into my mouth. “You’re not my subordinate. You’re not under my command.” He kissed me hard between each statement, leaving me stunned and dismayed.