Risking the Crown (The Crown 2)

“Fuck me too.” My voice was raspy. I clung to the bed, lifting my hips in the air.

He reached over to the bedside table and grabbed a condom. It was the longest ten seconds of my life while I waited for him to roll that thing on his glorious cock.

He pressed the tip at my entrance as he sank his thumb at my ass and simultaneously slammed into me.

I groaned with the pleasure. There was a new fullness. A new awareness of my body I’d never had before.

“You shouldn’t have gone there tonight,” he grunted.

“I know. I know.”

He sank into me and I bowed off the bed.

“Tell me you won’t do it again.” He pushed his thumb all the way inside me and I tried to hold him steady. I was stretched and filled. I loved it. My nerves were sparking inside me.

“I won’t.” I shook.

His breath was ragged as he pumped in and out, fucking harder and fiercer. We were on a wild ride. One that was taking up a steep and rocky cliff.

My body started to shake. I was quivering and gasping.

“Cole,” I cried. “Oh God.”

“Never do it again, baby. You’re mine,” he growled, filling me with a forceful thrust. “Say it.”

“Yes. I’m yours.”

I fell off the cliff first. I exploded around him. I was his. I didn’t care if he thought this was just a one more night thing, it wasn’t. I knew it. And he knew it. He fucked me like this

was what we both wanted tonight and the next.

“Fuck,” he groaned pumping faster.

The sweat dripped from his chest. He leaned forward and kissed me. I melted at the touch of his lips. His tongue was like a flame twisting with mine. His body tightened as he came in one violent shudder.

I wrapped my hands around his back and he collapsed on my chest.

I don’t know when, but Cole fell asleep, still buried inside me.

16

Kaitlyn

The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and I was adding, subtracting, and multiplying. After my offer to help Cole with the business end of the Dune Scape, he had stuck me in the office with a box of receipts and a calculator.

I wanted to ask Cole about the phone call I overhead yesterday, but I didn’t want to embarrass him. Even though he had opened up a sliver of the bookkeeping to me, he was keeping the Dunes’s full financial situation guarded. I respected that. It couldn’t be easy to navigate this alone.

It didn’t take long for the tiny office to heat up. I walked over to the wall unit and cranked the air conditioner to the coldest setting. It was probably silly that I wanted to look cute for Cole this morning, but I had left my hair down.

He had seen me when I had braces. He had seen me when I scraped my knee playing soccer in high school. But I didn’t want those memories to stick. I wanted the grown-up version to be the Kaitlyn he remembered.

With the stickiness on my neck, I was regretting not pulling it up in a ponytail. Texas was hot. I searched the wooden desk for a rubber band. I gathered a handful of hair and twisted the rubber band around it. There.

It was almost lunchtime, and other than when he first set me up with the documents, I hadn’t seen Cole all morning. God, I hoped we didn’t have any more conversations about Ryan.

We had to keep this to ourselves. And we could. There was no reason for Ryan to know.

I turned back to the books. Cole’s grandfather hadn’t been much of a record-keeper. Now I knew why Cole always looked so frustrated and stressed. If I woke up to this financial confusion every morning, I wouldn’t be a happy person either. Even though the motel had been closed for a year, there were still bills that had to be paid and expenses that were due.