Page 54 of Creep

“Yes,” he said with a laugh. He playfully tapped my ass, getting me to walk inside the apartment, with him following close behind. He closed the door behind him, not that I looked back to see. I was too busy taking in everything.

From the open concept of the space, I could see almost everything in its entirety, from the stainless steel kitchen appliances off to the right to the large white marble island that took center stage to the expensive dark wood dining room table that seats six, to the black leather couch that looked as expensive as it was comfortable. A thud of my night bag being dropped to the floor sounded out from behind me, and then Mael was against me, his arms wrapped tightly around my middle. He leaned down and kissed my neck, and I moved my head to the side to allow him better access.

“I can’t believe you live here,” I said. His chest shook against me as he laughed. “What do you do?”

I now realized I didn’t even know. We never talked about that on our first date.

“I’m… a freelancer.”

I frowned and looked at him. “A freelancer? Doing what?”

“Whatever my clients tell me to do.”

“Whatever?”

Likeillegalstuff?

Was that possible? Was I starting a relationship with a criminal? Wouldn’t that just be my luck?

He laughed again and tapped my nose with his index finger. “I do have some lines I won’t cross, you know.”

I let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding until now.

Right.

“Come on, I’ll give you the tour and then call for dinner. How does that sound?”

“Wonderful,” I said.

The smile he gave me had the power to stop the world from moving. I was sure of it.

“Wonderful,” he repeated.

17

LIA

I restedmy back against the headboard of the huge king-size bed, waiting for Mael to come back.

I was too nervous to do anything but sit there on his bed.

This was ridiculous. I didn’t even know why I was nervous. It wasn’t like I was a virgin or that this was my first time spending the night with a man. It was the first time I had felt this way about a man though. Not even my first boyfriend in high school had been able to elicit these kinds of feelings from me, and I always thought teenage love was more intense than anything else.

But this…

I shook my head.

It wasn’t like I was actually planning on sleeping with Mael.

We were just goingtosleep. That was all.

I jumped when the door to the ensuite bathroom opened, and Mael stepped out wearing nothing but black boxer briefs that molded to him in the best way possible and nothing else.

My mouth went dry.

I knew he was fit, but this was… this was something else entirely.

He was hard and muscular and beautiful. And so tall and imposing.

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