Page 71 of Reckless
22
Kelly
“So, this is the type of luxury you live in while you’re out on the road?” I made my voice flirty. Being in the same room with Gage was making me nervous, so I roamed the room, pulling open the fridge, pressing the button that retracted the TV from the ceiling. “Pretty nice.”
“Yeah, it’s okay.” Gage shrugged as if the luxury of his hotel room wasn’t impressive. I guessed this was every day for him. “It gets kind of lonely after a while though, all of us scattered in our own rooms. It was crazy when we lived in the bus, but maybe better. I’d rather be at home, in New York.”
I sat down at the desk and pulled out the drawer to see what kind of notepads they stocked here. They didn’t disappoint. The paper was nice, first-class.
“You always used to do that.”
“What?” I looked up, embarrassed that I’d taken it upon myself to go through his desk, whether he was using it or not. He was standing next to the desk, one dark eyebrow cocked, his jeans sculpted to his thighs. My lower regions took notice, going all melty. “Sorry, I always look for paper first thing.”
“To take notes for that book you’ve never written.”
I felt my face heat. He had to bring up that. I pulled open another drawer, to avoid his gaze.
“Do you do many radio interviews? Is it fun?” If I kept on talking about nothing in particular, we wouldn’t need to go deeper. Sure, I’d come here to go deeper, but my writing was tender territory.
He barked out a laugh. “You experienced that journalist. Do you think it’d be fun?”
“I just thought if you had a set interview, it might be easier.”
“A little. If the interviewer isn’t into bait and switch. You can get away in a parking lot, but in a studio, not so much.” Moving behind me, his hands came down on the muscles between my shoulders and neck, squeezed once. I leaned back and looked up into his upside-down eyes. “God, it’s so weird to have you here,” he murmured, his deep voice dipping another octave. “I thought you would never leave New Hope.”
I swallowed hard, never looking away from his gaze. “I know what I said, but a lot of it was my own insecurities. I’ve been too scared to move on after Dad and Stephen, even more so than my mother, apparently. Babs made sure I saw that.” It felt weird to admit that, embarrassing yet freeing.
“She always would get to the bottom of things if you wouldn’t face them.” There wasn’t a scrap of judgment in Gage’s eyes. Just something that looked a lot like forgiveness. “Mom would be ashamed of me, the way I left.” He hung his head.
I was supposed to be here to make him feel better, cheer him up, not send him back into a negative spiral.
I reached up and squeezed a hand still resting on my shoulder. “She would have kicked your ass,” I said, changing the tone to a lighter one.
His face broke into a smile, the light breaking through the darkness in his eyes. “She would have. Is that why you’re here? To kick my ass for her?” He leaned closer to me, heat from my body and his making the air between us grow warm.
I laughed, and it came out low and sultry, like I was trying to seduce him. “I might kick your ass anyway. You better be good.”
“Is this good?” Bending down, he planted his hands on either side of my face and covered my mouth with his, giving me an upside-down kiss. The warm, wet of his mouth sent an arrow of ache straight to my center, eliciting a groan from me. Upside-down felt so strange, but delightfully so. His tongue dipped inside, tangling with mine, making me go boneless.
Pulling back, he spun me around, his eyes flickering over my body. Tingles raced down my arms and into my fingertips as I thought about the ways I could touch him, to take his mind off things…
This wasn’t why I’d come. My intention had never been to hook up with Gage, but I was already crumbling to this intense need.
“I…” I tried to find words, to cool the overheated atmosphere, but my mind blanked.
Gage leaned down and planted his hands on the armrests, pinning me in. Growling my name, he closed the distance between us, kissing me hard. He claimed my lips, then my mouth with his tongue, demanding in a way that made me breathless, at his mercy.
It also made me reckless.
And I liked it.
I also liked that I hadn’t been in the room for fifteen minutes and he’d had the need to kiss me. Truth be told, I’d wanted to jump his bones in just the first few seconds. But I’d come here to offer him comfort.
Now, my pulse raced, my body giving over all control to him. With his hands on me, circling my waist, kneading my flesh, I wanted to offer him everything I had. It felt so right, I had no power to stop it.
His tongue circled mine as he pulled me closer, kneeling between my legs. My breasts pressed into his hard chest, and his fingers gripped my waist as I flung my arms around his neck. His scent, spicy and just him, seeped into my blood and raced through my veins. This could be considered a type of comfort, right? Me giving him a respite…
His mouth moved from mine, dragging kisses over my cheek and down my neck. My fingers knotted tight in his hair that had grown even more unruly since I’d seen him last. His lips moved lower, across my chest, over my abs. When he reached my hips, his teeth sank ever so lightly into my skin through the thin sundress I wore, giving me a little nip that made me squeal. Joy filled me at his touch.
