Still lodged deep inside me, Ransom’s softer side makes an appearance as he pulls me up and wraps his arm around me, holding my back to his chest, ensuring I don’t fall over. It’s a big possibility, considering how wobbly my legs feel right now. He lingers long enough that his cock shrinks back, slipping from my body of its own accord. Semen wets my cheeks and inner thighs, slowly leaking back out as I stand up straight. Turning me in his arms, Ransom smoothes my hair back from my face and flashes me a lazy but devastating smile.
“I’m staying in room two-oh-five. I’ll have dinner waiting when you get there.” Gripping my chin, he tilts my head back and his mouth covers mine, his tongue sliding over my lips and into my mouth before he releases me. After tucking himself back into his pants, he reaches into his wallet and hands me a key card. “Let yourself in.”
I bite my lip as I watch him turn to leave. This man confuses me. One minute he’s a brute, laying waste to my body and emotions, and the next, he’s almost sweet. I wish I could figure him out, but he’s like a puzzle that’s impossible to solve.
Studying the hard piece of plastic in my hand, I find myself questioning the wisdom of meeting him tonight. I know I’m waffling, set on walking away one minute, and diving back into bed with him the next, but I don’t know how to turn my back on this man. Not certain I even want to. The only thing I know for certain is how I feel when he’s standing in front of me—alive. I’ve never felt more alive than in the moments we steal.
Ransom is my drug. Each time I feast on his body, I fall deeper into my addiction. Tonight, even with my ass already beginning to ache, I know I will show up at his door. The secrecy shrouding our relationship should cause me shame. I know he’s hiding something from me. I used to think he was just a businessman who breezed into town a few nights a month to fuck me senseless and leave again, but now I know different. So what reason would a man who lives in the same city I do have to rent a hotel room, unless he has a secret?
The fact is, even though a part of me cares, it’s not enough. My desire for him is more powerful than his truth. Without another thought, I clean myself up and get dressed.
TEN
“You didn’t have to do this.” Annie steps back to allow me inside her apartment.
When she texted me early this morning telling me not to wait for her before class, I panicked. The idea of going in alone gave me hives. So I did the only thing I could think of—ransacked the kitchen cabinets for a can of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle and showed up on her doorstep an hour later, fully prepared to play nursemaid.
“You’re sick. I bring soup.” Heading straight for the kitchen, I pour the chicken noodle soup from the container into a soup cup made by the same company, nuke it in the microwave, and return to the living room where I find her curled up in a corner of the couch. “You look like death warmed over,” I say as I hand her the bowl.
She looks at it with a mix of longing and repulsion, and then takes a tiny sip. “Campbell’s, Joe? You shouldn’t have.” The mirth in her eyes gives me a chuckle.
“It’s double noodle, too,” I point out as I take a careful seat across from her. After spending the night with Ransom, it’s a miracle I can even walk. I count my blessings, because that man is unequaled when it comes to his skills in the sack.
After taking a couple more bites, she sighs, sets the bowl on the table, and curls back under the blanket draped around her shoulders.
“So, what’s going on with you? Flu? Bad breakup?” I ask hopefully. I haven’t forgotten about Jason’s inability to show up at the bar last week, and I am holding firm to my conviction that she needs to drop him on his ass, and fast.
Annie rolls her eyes. “You wish.”
“I really do.”
“It’s complicated,” she says softly, then burrows deeper into her blanket.
“What’s complicated about saying ‘Hey, we should see other people’? The guy is a douche. Do you have any idea how many guys at school would kill to go on a date with you?”
I’m not even exaggerating. Annie is the kind of girl that sparks men’s primal instincts. She’s got that whole cute and innocent vibe about her. Hell, most days, even I want to wrap my arms around her and shelter her from the world.
“It just is, Joe, and I don’t really want to talk about it right now. What’s up with you?” she asks, changing the subject. I let her, only because I don’t want to fight when she clearly needs her rest. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you limping in here.”