Wheeler (Seattle Sharks 8)

My balls tightened, electricity slamming down my spine until it was her name on my lips as I released into her. My vision blackened from the intense pleasure as my orgasm went on and on.

I kissed her as she came back into focus, then rolled us to the side and studied her for any sign of regret or discomfort as I slid from the warmth of her body.

“Are you okay?” I asked, fearful of the answer.

“Uh. Yeah. My brain doesn’t work.” She smiled, nuzzling into my chest.

“Was I too rough?’

“You were perfect,” she told me, her lids already half closed.

I cleaned us both up and joined her in my bed, pulling her sleeping form into the cradle of my chest.

Holy shit, I’d done it. I’d slept with Faith. Taken her virginity in my bed with my name on her lips. And even though it made me the largest kind of asshole, I couldn’t bring myself to regret it.

“No going back,” I whispered against her hair.

I just hoped she didn’t regret her choice in the morning.

Chapter 10

Faith

Silk sheets, warm from a night of deep, restful sleep, slid across my skin as I stretched and peeled back my eyelids. A soreness between my thighs instantly brought back flashes from last night.

Lukas’s lips on my skin.

His tongue coaxing whimpers from my mouth.

The tender, gentle way he worshiped my body.

The near primal growl as he slid in and in.

Over and over again.

My toes curled against the silk covering my naked body, heat rapidly pooling between my thighs as the memories raced through my mind.

It only took one glance around the room to douse my skin with ice water.

I bolted upright, my eyes noting the incredibly empty spot beside me. I held my breath, hoping to hear the shower running.

It wasn’t.

Panic crawled into my chest, aching and cold.

Now that I’d given Lukas all of me…he bolted? Just like I’d always feared. What the absolute fuck?

I grabbed my cell off the nightstand near the bed and sighed when I saw a text.

LV: I didn’t want to wake you.

LV: Had to make it to the shoot. Figured you needed your rest after last night.

LV: My driver is on standby. If you want to come watch me.

I locked my phone and smiled.

Figured you needed your rest after last night.

Cocky. Confidant. Lukas.

The heat was back, pulsing and hungry.

I hurried to slip on some yoga pants and a plain black T-shirt, not even bothering to shower—I wanted to keep the smell of him on my skin. Wanted to live in the fantasy-like quality of what last night had brought to my life. After securing my unruly curls in a topknot, I was in Lukas’s town car and heading toward a nearby café in no time.

The driver patiently waited as I grabbed two coffees, and it only took us a few more minutes to get to the location of the photoshoot.

I’d known it was scheduled for this morning, but Lukas had turned off the three alarms I had set to ensure I got him there on time.

I bit my lip to stop my smile as I rode the elevator up to the third floor, coffees in hand. My heart picked up in speed the closer I came to the room I knew would be packed with photographers and make-up artists and racks and racks of Adrenaline. I found myself both excited and unbearably nervous.

How was I supposed to act around him now?

Like a girlfriend?

No, we hadn’t labeled anything.

Like his personal assistant?

After what had happened…

Damn it.

I should’ve thought about this before last night, but I hadn’t wanted to. All I’d wanted was to give in to what my body…what my heart had wanted.

I paused just outside the double doors that led to the photoshoot.

Sucking in a sharp breath, I told myself to stop being ridiculous— to go in there and do my job. I’d figure out how to behave based on how Lukas did.

Brilliant.

I turned my back to the doors, pushing with my rear to get them open without having to shuffle the coffees around.

The peaceful quiet of the hallway instantly transformed into a slightly chaotic chorus of clicks, instructions, and... giggles?

I froze three steps into the room, Lukas’s driver nodding at me as he took a seat on a stool right by the doors.

Lukas stood in the center of a massive white backdrop, clad in an immaculate hunter-green suit, a drop-dead-gorgeous blonde on either arm. The women wore dresses of the brightest red, the hemline barely covering their perfect asses, their long legs slicked with oil and held up by black pumps.

Slowly, I walked closer to the set, stopping behind the photographer who instructed the trio in Swedish. The women ran their hands all over Lukas, their faces changing from various forms of pouting.

Lukas, focused on the camera, stoic and sexy in that predatory way that turned my stomach molten.

The photographer muttered another phrase, and each of the models relaxed. Lukas’s face switched from sensual to casual, a smile on his lips as he whispered something to each of the girls, who immediately responded with light laughs and grins of their own. Not one of them took a step way, despite the obvious break in pictures.

More laughter.

More touching.

Lukas didn’t even know I was there.

He didn’t have some ridiculous sense when I was in a room—nothing like me, like the electrical warmth I felt whenever he was near.

I was a foolish girl.

Thinking he cared for me more than another conquest.

I always knew who he was. Knew his

reputation. Why had I let his softer side seduce me into believing he cared? I should’ve stuck to my original guns like during the masquerade ball—use him for nothing but consensual sex and cut myself off from feeling anything.

Watching him make those supermodels laugh, seeing how right they looked next to him in their expensive dresses and perfectly tamed hair…

I glanced down at my yoga pants and T-shirt and cringed. I looked exactly like a college student. And I hated feeling shameful of that. Because that’s who I was and I’d never not been proud of it before.

I loved myself.

But everything inside me hurt as the models laughed and touched him. As he continued to mutter words in Swedish, completely oblivious I was present for his…work. I’d never wanted to speak his native tongue more, just to feel less out of the realm. Out of my element.

When one of the models raised up on her tiptoes, whispering something in his ear, and he smirked that wolfish grin that had solely been mine for weeks…my stomach turned over. I blew out a sharp breath, not meaning to slam the coffees down on the table just to my left but the sound echoed through the room.

Lukas’s eyes snapped to mine, a totally unfair bright flash of happiness crossed them before he furrowed his brow, confusion coloring his features.

I shook my head, spinning on my heels and hurrying through the room.

Sure, running away, seeking sanctuary in the quiet of the hallway, was the furthest thing from professional. But I needed air…needed time to clear my head and put my personal assistant mask back on. To bury the intense emotions swarming me that I had no right to—jealousy and hurt and wanting more from Lukas when he’d made no such promises. Sure, he’d told me I was his future, but I knew all too well that men often promised whatever was necessary to get what they wanted. Not that I for one second thought Lukas would use me like that…I thought we’d had something.

I should’ve known better.

The pain in my chest…the aching there…was so damn hard to bury.

I reached for the elevator button, realizing I needed more than a few spare minutes to get my head on straight.