Sleeping with the Enemy (An Enemies to Lovers Collection)

“Alright.” I lead the way up the stairs, and Stella follows, gripping the glass railing tightly as we go along.

“This is kind of cool. I like how the stairs wind all the way up but not in a circle. And that light fixture…wow.”

“That’s also my mom’s doing.”

“She has excellent taste.”

I want to say that watching my mom pick out stuff for this house was one of the greatest joys of my life. Watching Mom’s face come alive, seeing how much delight she took in everything we looked at, and witnessing the glow of fascination that came over her whenever she saw something for the first time—like that light—was indeed a monumental experience for me. It wasn’t about the money or buying the most expensive thing I could afford. It was something we did together, something Mom never had the opportunity to do before and never thought she’d have the chance to do at all. I think it was both wonderful, overwhelming, and bizarre for both of us.

My office is set up in one of the spare rooms. The house has seven bedrooms, which is quite a lot for one person. I have the gym in the basement with the rec room while my office is up here. I made two bedrooms up as spares and kept one as my own. I still haven’t done anything with the rest, but maybe I could make Stella a room of her own. The cat I meant, but if Stella, the person, wanted a room too, that would be okay with me.

Holy shit, when did I get so far gone?

“Nice desk. Very modern,” Stella praises as she walks into the room. There’s a square light fixture overhead, and everything else is pretty much square too—the desk, the chair that’s not a desk chair, the abstract artwork on the walls, the bookcases. Even the fake plant in the corner is in a square pot.

I left my authentication key on top of the desk—see, I honestly did have it here. It wasn’t just an excuse to get Stella over to my house. I step toward the desk and reach for it, but Stella steps toward me and reaches for me. She throws her arms around my neck, slams her body up against mine, and nearly knocks me clean over. I crash into the desk, hitting the edge with my lower back and butt. I let out an oomph sound, but Stella’s lips crush against mine, sealing it off.

It only takes me a second to fist my hand in her luxurious hair and drag her even closer.

To be clear, she’s the one who tugs a little too fiercely at the buttons on my shirt, making a few pop clean off, and the rest come undone just by the sheer force of Stella’s will. She runs her hands along my bare skin, spreading little shockwaves and heatwaves with every touch. I go from kind of semi-hard and trying to hide the fact for decency’s sake to hard enough to pound steel bars into concrete in a nanosecond. Stella’s still kissing me, but she grasps my shirt and tugs me along, propelling me out of the room. We hit the hallway, and I make a hard right. I’m not taking the chance of getting anywhere near the staircase railing.

Stella reaches around and grabs my ass, and I nearly squeal again. She’s not subtle or apologetic in the least. In response, I pick her up, and she wraps those wonderful long legs of hers around my waist.

“Are you sure?” I pant.

“Are you going to carry me up to your bedroom or throw me over the railing?”

“Gah! What a thing to say!”

“Well then, yes, I’m sure.”

She blisters my lips with another hot, desperate kiss, and after a long and delicious moment, I tear my mouth away long enough to get us up the next flight of stairs without having a disaster. I didn’t grow up with stairs in the house because we only had an apartment, but I remember how Stella’s mom would always warn us kids not to farge around on the stairs because we might break our necks.

I barrel through the bedroom door. Stella tries to work herself down and get her feet on the floor, but I’m holding her tightly, and the backward sway turns into a forward one. Then, all of a sudden, I’m stumbling across the room. The floors are hardwood and not the least slippery things in the world, but I embarrassingly lose my footing easily and go sliding across the expanse to the big king-sized bed. Stella, realizing I’m not joking around, lets out a little shriek that ends in a hiccup and a laugh as we go tumbling onto the bed. I quickly twist to make sure I take the brunt of it.

As soon as my back hits the soft comforter, and I realize I didn’t fly ass over end straight to the floor, I let out a hiccup of a sound too. Stella grins from above me and runs her palms down the length of my chest again, closing her eyes to savor all my muscles. At least, I hope that’s what she’s thinking about. She drops her head and kisses me hard, and then her hands start working at my pants.