Page 91 of Playing A Risk
We all focus on the timer in the front of the ballroom. When it strikes midnight, we raise our glasses and toast.
“Happy New Year, beauty.” Hunter takes me in his arms and kisses me. He pulls away and stares at me with a wildfire burning in his eyes. “Why don’t we go back to the hotel?”
“I think that’s a perfect idea.” I lick my lips as thoughts of what I’d like to do when we get back there swirl in my mind.
Jonah and Melanie step closer to us.
Jonah peers down at Melanie. “We should get going. We have an earlier morning flight back to the States.”
Melanie whines like a child. None of us wanted the reminder that life will return to how it once was in two days.
I’m lying naked in Hunter’s arms after solidifying our relationship one more time. We’re face-to-face on our sides, with only the moonlight shining into our room illuminating us.
He pulls his arm out from underneath my neck and props himself up, resting his head in his palm.
“Beauty, you’ve made this night the highlight of my year. Aside from meeting you, this is the best I’ve ever felt.”
“This feels different than before.”
“How so?”
I push a rogue lock of hair off his forehead. “Before was amazing, but this time, we seem closer. I’m not lying here wondering if there’s something I should know.”
“Did you before?”
“Not necessarily, but now I feel like there’s nothing left.” Ilift to his level, allowing the soft sheets to slip to my waist. “There’s nothing left to tell me, right?”
“No. Not on my side, but there is on yours.”
“Me? What would you like to know?”
“Why are you okay with not using condoms anymore?” He studies me. “You have to understand my intrigue since it’s a complete one-eighty, and I didn’t ask you for it.”
“I know, but after my last…”
Shit, I don’t want to bring this up and ruin the moment.
“Dorothy, I’ve been honest with you. Please give me the same courtesy. You won’t hurt my feelings.”
I nod and push up, sitting cross-legged before him. “After my last miscarriage, I asked to be on the best birth control known. User error caused… Never mind that. I wanted to be on something that I couldn’t screw up, so I had an IUD inserted.”
“And it’s better than the pill?”
“It’s ninety-nine percent effective, but I don’t have to worry about remembering to take it if I’m stressed or forget to pack it. It made me more comfortable, so I opted for that. We really should’ve been tested for STIs before we went without, though. I wasn’t thinking about that earlier.”
He sits and flicks on the light. “Are you worried about something?”
“A little.”
“Help me understand.”
I shrug and glance down. “Isabella says you were with her and I was with Jamison. I’m not sure, but who’s to say you weren’t with others?”
“Me, that’s who. And I wasn’t with Isabella either.” He sighs a growl. “I wish I could take that night back.”
I pull the sheets over my shoulders. “Well, she doesn’t. If anything, she’s hoping for a lot more.”
“That won’t be happening, so don’t let that thought enter your mind. Not for a second.”
