Page 68 of No More Secrets
She held her laughter until she got to the top of the stairs. “So much for secrets,” she sighed to herself. Summer flipped on the light in her room and was halfway in when she realized none of her things were there. Jax’s tangle of possessions were exploding out of a duffle on the floor.
Curious, she almost called down to Carter, but instead she followed her hunch into his room. He had hung up all of her clothes in his closet and stowed her suitcase. Her toiletries were neatly lined up on the counter in his bathroom next to the open box of condoms.
She caught her grin in the mirror.
When was the last time she had smiled like this? Or felt this light?
She couldn’t remember.
But he wouldn’t really want you if he knew the truth, would he?The little vile voice in her head whispered its poisonous truth.
Summer turned away from the mirror, from the words that scratched at her.
They weren’t getting married. They were seeing where things went. And it was no reason to let herself get swept up in it. She had work to do, goals to accomplish, a battle to fight.
––––––––
Carter found her curled in his bed, asleep with her laptop browser open to an article on using an organic, plant-based diet to fight disease. Always working, he smiled, closing the laptop and moving it to the nightstand.
Her phone was still clutched in her hand. He gently pulled it from her grasp and plugged it into the charger.
Carter stripped down and slid into bed beside her. She didn’t even stir when he pulled her into his arms and buried his face in her hair.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Summer woke in the gray dawn to the sound of rain on the metal roof and a soggy Carter crawling back into bed.
“Is it time to get up?” she murmured sleepily.
“No, baby. Go back to sleep.”
Carter pulled her against him and she snuggled in.
When she woke again, the rain still fell and thunder rumbled in the distance. She was curled into Carter’s side, a leg thrown across his. Her hand rested just above the steady thrum of his heartbeat.
He slept peacefully, she noted.
His face was a masterpiece. That perfectly straight blade of a nose. Lips that gave so much pleasure, pressed in a line. Even in his sleep he frowned. That serious look that, when turned on her, made her stomach feel like it was on a roller coaster. Inky lashes hid his steel gray eyes. And that beard. Oh, how she loved that beard.
It was her last full day here. She was going to make the most of it. Summer pulled the sheet down his body, taking her time and reveling in the view. He was built with strength and power from his broad shoulders to his scarred chest to the tapering waist and hips. He was perfection and in this moment, he was hers to explore.
Summer trailed a light line of kisses down his chest, across his taut stomach, and lower still. He was already hard by the time she worked her way down those delicious slashes of muscle that brought her mouth to its destination. She felt him come awake when her lips parted to accept the head of his cock.
It was her name on his lips as his hips came off the bed, forcing him deeper into her mouth.
Summer slanted over him, tasting and licking. She gripped the base of his shaft with her hand and began a slow, torturous rhythm. He groaned and his hips flexed again, driving his cock deeper into her mouth.
The speed built with the need. She wanted to take him over the edge as he did for her again and again.
His fingers dug into her shoulders. “Baby, you have to stop.”
She didn’t listen. Summer wanted him helpless and shuddering.
Carter took matters into his own hands and wrestled her up his body. He flipped them, reaching desperately for the drawer of his nightstand. He returned to her triumphant, condom in hand.
Summer reached for it.
“No, baby. I want this to last, and for that to happen you need to keep your hands to yourself.”
