Page 48 of Forever After All

"Alice!" The voice booms through the door. "Open the door. I'm not going to ask you again, princess."

Princess. Oh my god.

"Carter? Is that you?" I shout into the dark room.

I scramble off the bed towards the door and yank it open to be met with Carter's giant body blocking the frame, and holy hell, he is naked, hot as ever, and shaking with desire.

Grabbing my arm, Carter yanks me towards him, and I letout a startled gasp as he ducks down, and I feel my body leave the floor as he swings me over his shoulder. My legs flail a little in the air as I try to stop myself from falling over his back and face planting the floor.

"Stop it! What are you doing here?" I squeal and involuntarily slap him on the back. "Put me down. It's next to impossible to carry me like that." I kick my feet again and he slaps my ass, the sound echoes down the hallway.

"Difficult, princess. Not impossible," he grumbles under my flailing legs.

"Miss Barretta, oh—" A voice startles me. The lovely concierge who was trying to sort out my door walks around the corner as Carter is manhandling me in the hallway.

"She won't be needing another room, don't worry." And Carter, butt naked and all, carries me into his room and slams the door behind him.

"I'm fine, thank you!" I yell, with my hair trailing down Carter's back, before the door swings shut.

"Put me down!" I protest again as Carter lowers me to my feet and I hit the carpet with a thud. I didn't expect to be standing in his hotel room, in my lingerie, yet here we are. "Why are you here? I don't understand. What is going on?"

He walks me back until my knees bump the back of the bed, and I stumble, landing on the soft mattress beneath. Droppingto his knees in front of me, Carter spreads my legs and presses kisses on the insides of my thighs, his beard hair tickling my soft skin. My insides squeeze and I feel a prickle of heat everywhere.

"I told you that you were safe with me. I was never going to let you do this alone." He presses his face to my centre, and through the lace of my underwear I feel his hot breath against my skin, and over the lace, he sucks my pussy.

I yelp a little and jump.

"I can taste you. I know how wet you are for me." He swipes two fingers over my underwear, and brings them up to the light, to see them glisten. I try to move away, still reeling from him being here with me in England.

"Carter, get up." I moan a little at feeling him between my legs, and I tug on his hand, urging him to stand, but he pulls it away and looks into my eyes as he presses his palms into my thighs.

"Princess, I amsoup." Pulling my underwear to the side, Carter latches onto my clit and sucks. I roll my hips instinctively and press myself harder into his face.

"Carter, I—" I pause, wanting to tell him so much and nothing at all. And then, without warning, I burst into tears.

Pulling away from me, Carter sits in front of me, and rubs my thigh, looking worried. "Alice?" he asks. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong, I just can't believe you care so much about me that you'd come here." It hasbeen so hard for me to form lasting relationships, and so hard for me to trust a man fully. I am rendered speechless that a man,this man, has flow halfway around the world just for me.

"Alice, there is nowhere I wouldn't go for you, and if it isn't completely clear, I am so fucking in love with you. You make me crazy." I don't know what to say, so I stay silent. "Just so we're clear, you don't have to say it back. I don't need you to say it back, but I need you to know. And when youdosay it back—because you will—I'm going to marry you so fucking hard." I can't stop the look of dread that crosses my face.

Don't tell me you love me, I'm not ready to hear that.

"Carter, get up. Please just get up on this bed with me, right now." I ignore the last bit he says altogether. The thought of marriage makes my younger self shudder.

"Why would I do that when I'm having so much fun down here?"

"Because…" I pause. "I know you love me, but right now I need you to touch me like you don't." I press my hand over his as it rests on my thigh, and I squeeze it so hard his fingertips flex and dig into my skin. "I want to be hurt by a man who won't hurt me. I need you to touch me like you think I won't break. I-I—" I don't even really know what I'm asking for, but the words keep coming. "I need you to talk to me like you don't care about meat all." Instinctively, Carter stands and pulls me up by the wrists, then turns me around to face the bed.

"You don’t know what you’re asking me to do, Alice." He hesitates at my request.

"I do. I really do," I beg him, desperate for him to be rough with me.

"Fuuuuuck," he moans. "You're not gonna break, princess, but if you want me to, we can try." Gripping the back of my neck, he tugs me backwards, hard, and I stumble a little. He forces my face down into the bed sheet and my knees bump into the bed frame as I fold onto the mattress.

"Are you sure you want this, Alice?" he asks, pressing me down a little firmer.

I say nothing, but nod and whine a little at being manhandled on Carter's hotel room bed.

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