Page 74 of Salty, Spiced, and a Little Bit Nice

We tumbled onto the bed, his mouth on mine, our hands all over each other. My brain was fogged with lust, wanting—needing—more of him. I peeled off his T-shirt, desperate to feel his skin on mine. There was no finesse, just hunger, and I shuddered when the hard shape under his shorts nudged me. A hoarse groan escaped him as I arched my hips, shamelessly grinding against his solid length, begging him for more.

Then, of course, my phone had to choose that very moment to sing out.

“Ignore it,” I mumbled against his mouth, my hands busy exploring his body.

“You feel so good.” His clever lips pressed kisses on my jaw and my neck, tracing a path down to my breasts. He took one nipple into his mouth, licking and lapping attention at it. My eyes rolled to the back of my head, as the rest of my body perked up in gleeful anticipation.

But the phone didn’t care that I was about to have the best sex of my life. It kept on ringing, as if us ignoring it made it even more determined to get noticed. It stopped for all of two seconds before starting its next round of melodies.

“Turn it off.” His tongue did something mind-blowing on my breast.

“Mmmh.” I shuddered. “Good idea.”

It took every ounce of my willpower to pull away, because the sight of him worshipping every inch of my body would be enough to make a lesser woman succumb to temptation. Groping around the sheets, I finally found my phone on the bedside table, with the sole focus of turning it off, pronto.

Everything screeched to a halt when I saw my mother’s face flashing on the screen.

This was the first time she’d called since I left home.What does she want?

Rejecting the call, I switched the phone off, then turned back to Alec to resume where we’d left off. But it was too late. Because he’d seen it, too. His face had turned pale, and he stopped whatever dirty, delicious things he was doing.

“Hey,” I whispered, my hands gently caressing his face. “You okay?”

He jumped a little, then grabbed his discarded T-shirt from the floor. Straightening up, he slipped it back on, while wearing a flustered look in his eyes. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”

My mouth gaped open. Ten seconds ago, this man had his lips around one of my nipples. I was on the bed right now, lying naked before him, and that was what he chose to say?

Whatever the hell happened to his intense “once I start, I won’t be able to stop”?

I was perplexed, stumped, and mortified. “What?” Pulling the blanket, I hastily wrapped it around myself. “A little too late for that, don’t you think?”

“I’m sorry. That should never have happened.” He covered his face with his hands. “What was I thinking?”

Anger and embarrassment rushed through me. Twice in my lifetime I’d given him my heart on a silver platter—this time, my body, too—and both times he’d rejected me.

That was two times too many.

“I don’t understand,” I said, my lips pursed tightly. “I thought we both wanted this.”

“No.” He shook his head. “Yes. I do. But I can’t. We can’t. I promised.”

“Promised who?”A neuron snapped inside my brain. “Eric? Forget about it. I’m absolving you of that promise. You’re no longer under any obligation. Is that all?”

“That should never have happened,” he repeated. He backedaway, moving toward the door. “I should go. We have a long day tomorrow.”

Without looking back, he rushed out of the room while I sat on the bed, covered with my blanket and shame. Then the humiliation faded into nothingness, replaced by indignation and rage. I was seething, furious at him, but more than anything, I was angry at myself.

Hadn’t I known this was going to happen? That letting myself fall for him again would lead me to nothing but grief and heartbreak? Sure, he was being an asshole, but I had nobody to blame but myself. I’d known this was in the cards, but I still let my feelings for him dictate my thoughts, my words,my actions, like that naïve eighteen-year-old teenager that I had once been.

Getting up to get dressed, I made a vow: I’d grit my teeth and do everything in my power to get through this weekend, because I’d already promised to go. But the minute we got back from the GPG trip, I was moving out of his house as fast as humanly possible.

And then Alec Mackenzie could go to hell.

CHAPTER 21We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Bed

Despite my resolution, I was still a hot mess the next day, because I couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened. My concentration was shot, and I found myself explaining the same things multiple times to Ruby, Jenna’s friend whom I’d hired to work the front of store, because I wasn’t making any sense. It took all my willpower to focus on the last two pending tasks on my To-Do List, but no matter how hard I tried, my traitorous brain kept repeating yesterday’s humiliating episode over and over again, like one of my Engkong’s old, scratched CDs that always got stuck on the same annoying track.

On the brighter side, my mother hadn’t tried to call again, which was good, because I just didn’t possess the mental capacity to deal with herandAlec right now.

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