Page 58 of Beauty Beneath the Sorrow
Carter’s warm, slick lips glide over mine while my body shrinks into his. With a gentle force, he pulls me closer like he’s afraid I’ll float away. A kiss so deep and desperate I forget to breathe.
A short murmur escapes between our tightly connected mouths before a hungry urge overtakes me. I swing both arms around him, gripping the back of his head, deepening our kiss. Carter’s tongue moves around my mouth like he already has it mapped. My knees weaken. My thoughts cloud.
Yanked back into reality, he pulls back. Our clothes are soaked while we stand less than a foot apart. His eyes are as wide as mine feel, and the expression on his face tells me everything he’s thinking.
“This isn’t a good idea,” he says through labored breaths.
Now wet and cold, I wrap my arms around my shoulders. “You can go down on me, but you can’t kiss me?” I reply. How is this worse than his tongue between my legs? There is something between us, and I know there shouldn’t be, but I won’t deny itanymore. All the decisions I make with Carter are calculated and thoughtful.
“I don’t know.” He wipes the wetness from his face. “I can’t think straight.”
Defeated, my posture falls. What am I thinking? It’s not like me to get hung up on someone. This is a terrible idea. We can’t give in. It’s not okay. “You’re right.”
He removes his jacket and slips it around my back. Tucking myself under his arm, he ushers me toward our hotel. By the time we get back to the lobby, I’m shivering, but I stay safely in his arms until we reach the door to my room.
“You should probably get in the to warm up. I don’t want you to get sick again,” he tells me.
I remove my keycard from my purse, then turn to him, still wearing his jacket. “Do you want this back?”
“I do, as long as you don’t wipe your nose on it again.”
I smile. “I won’t.”
“Good night.” His voice is low when he turns and walks down the hall. I stand at my door, watching him with an ache in the pit of my stomach. He flashes me a quick smile before entering through a door only a few rooms away. I make a mental note of which blue door he walks into.
When I get into my room, I take a hot shower. After getting out, I text Avery to tell her I made it back safely. She replies that Christian is walking her to her room right now.
I change and crawl into bed—thunder pounds on the outside of the windows. My body hums and my lips still tingle from our powerful kiss. It makes me anxious and on edge. Already in an active and alert state, I restlessly toss and turn in bed.
What would I give to kiss him again? Fucking anything. I think to myself, blocking out the cracks of lightning and the bellowing rain outside. Thunderstorms like these always take me back to the night in high school, which I’ve tried to forget for years.
Chapter Seventeen
Carter
The rain outside the hotel is rapping heavily on the opposite side of the window. I drift in and out, having a difficult time sleeping. I can’t get Lina or our kiss out of my mind. It was incredible. It took all my self-control not to take her up to my room and rip every single piece of clothing off of her wet body.
I pull the blankets up and roll over to my side. Sleeping in only my boxers and without a shirt in the crisp chill in the room isn’t ideal for most, but my body has become accustomed to sleeping in cooler weather since my days in the Navy.
A light knocking stills me.Who the hell is at my door?It’s probably the room next to mine. I hear it again, but this time, it’s louder, and the rhythm is longer.
That’s definitely my room.
Peering out of the peephole, my eyes land on a tall blonde woman bouncing up and down on each leg.Lina.My breath hitches, and I’m taken aback. What is she doing here?
I step back, unlatch the chain atop the door, and pull it open. She’s dressed in plaid pajama pants and a sweatshirt. “Lina, is everything alright?”
“I’m sorry to bother you, but I hate this hotel, and theyalways put us on the top floor—” she rushes out, attempting to explain.
I nod. “Alright—”
She glances around behind her. “I forgot to ask for a room on the bottom floor, and now there’s a storm, and this happened to me last time I was in Seattle—” she continues to ramble as I quickly organize her thoughts.
“Okay.” I nod again, opening the door wider while gesturing for her to come in.
She dips under my extended arm, still going on about the hotel. “I hate thunderstorms, and I’m terrified of hurricanes, tsunamis, floods—”
“I understand. Is that why you’re here? Are you scared?” I close the door behind me, inadvertently cutting off the light from the hallway that was brightening up the completely dark room a second ago. I can no longer see her, but I know she’s standing only a foot in front of me.
