Page 29 of A Lot Like Love
Chloe was about to push him back and return to her exploration when a loud voice made her jump and grab hold of Ryder’s shirt.
“We’ll soon be beginning our descent into Las Vegas, with an estimated arrival time of approximately twenty minutes.”
Chloe sighed as Ryder pushed her hair from her face and back over her shoulder.
“You’re jumpy.”
She nodded. “I’m kind of a nervous flyer.”
His frown made his eyebrows pull together. “You didn’t think to mention that earlier?”
“I thought the champagne would take the edge off.”
“So how about I distract you some more,” Ryder suggested, running a finger from her chin all the way down her chest. “I know exactly how to take your mind off landing.”
Chloe looked down at him, the man she had clamped between her thighs, her palms still placed on his firm, golden-brown chest. A moment ago she’d wanted to rip his clothes off and take him right there on the plush leather sofa. Now she was overthinking the whole thing and starting to have regrets. What the hell was she doing? She’d never been this reckless or impulsive before – she’d never even made out with a guy in front of anyone else before, let alone on a plane. And what had happened to keeping things strictly professional between them? The moment they’d been alone on the plane her resolve had crumbled.
“Is there anything you need before we land, Mr. King?”
She sighed at the interruption and righted her top before turning her attention to Ryder’s buttons. She’d popped one in her hurry to see him bare, but the rest she was able to do up.
“We’re fine. Thank you,” he muttered, not bothering to look at the attendant, his eyes firmly fixed on her instead.
“We’ve got a long day ahead of us,” Chloe told him.
“Don’t give me some bullshit lines,” he said, grabbing hold of her wrists and making her stop before she did up the last button.
Chloe didn’t fight him, stayed straddling him with his hands holding her still. She stared straight back into his eyes, so unsure of what she wanted. Or maybe she knew what she wanted, she just wasn’t sure about the consequences.
“We have as long as we need for you to brush up on your skills,” he told her, raising one of her wrists and pressing a slow kiss to the inside of it before letting go. “Tonight I’m taking you out, and you’re going to tell me all about your asshole father and how the hell you know how to play poker well enough to bet with the big boys.”
Chloe sucked on her bottom lip, biting the soft skin as she watched Ryder. “There’s nothing to tell.”
“To hell there isn’t,” he said, drawing her down so her breasts were pressed into his chest, mouths only inches apart. “If we’re going to play this whole dating thing seriously, I need to know all about you.” Ryder kissed her, his lips plucking at hers over and over until she was ready to yield to whatever the hell he wanted from her. “Today I decide what we do. Tomorrow?” He laughed. “Tomorrow I’m yours.”
Chloe forced herself to push Ryder away, but not before she cupped his face and kissed him like it was the only chance she’d ever get.
“Fine, you win,” she murmured, groaning as she extracted herself from him and wriggled her clothing back into place. He’d had her top pulled down so low her breasts were ready to spill out.
“Darlin’, if I was winning, you’d be butt naked and riding me right now.”
His deep drawl made it impossible not to smile, the mental picture alone making her want to moan. She might have put a stop to things right now, but that didn’t mean she was going to push Ryder away if something happened between them later. Shelly had told her not to be a prude, told her to jump his bones the first chance she had, so maybe she just needed to call her for a pep talk when they landed. It wasn’t like she’d ever done anything like this before, so didn’t she deserve some fun?
“You ever had a cocktail at the Bellagio?”
Ryder adjusted his jeans and sat up straighter, no longer slouching back. “Don’t think so. I’m not usually a cocktail kind of guy.”
“They’re world famous,” she told him. “So how about we start with one of those and then go from there?”
Ryder’s dimple winked at her, the look in his eyes like a wolf about to take down its prey. When she’d called him a devil before, she hadn’t been lying. “I say that sounds like a very, very good idea.”
Chloe settled herself on the leather seat facing him, turning her attention to the seat belt she was fastening around her waist.
“You know I had no intention of sleeping with you when I agreed to be your fake girlfriend,” she told him.
He made a grunting kind of laugh. “And now?”
She shrugged. “Now I’m wondering why I ever thought that abstinence was such a good idea.”
