Page 44 of Gigi and the Gym Rats

I will make it work. Wanting him—wanting them—is screwing with my concentration, with my plan. Bucket list: Ronin, Zayne, Casey… I have to get them out of my system, I decide, out of the way, before I continue on my beta path. Tick them off. Besides which, now is the only chance to go wild. Before eventually finding my soulmate and settling down.

No time like now.

It’s a weak excuse. I can’t pretend not to feel anything when Ronin slings an arm around me, hauling me along his wide strides toward our apartment. When he glances down at me with that softer smile I haven’t often seen on his face. When, before we reach the building entrance, he growls softly and turns, pressing me against the wall and kissing me.

Crushing our mouths together.

Devouring me.

It’s an alpha kiss, through and through. Aggressive, violent, punishing.

Hot.

He shoves his tongue into my mouth and I moan. He presses his tall body to mine and I can feel how hard he is as he explores my mouth, fights my tongue for dominance, teeth scraping over my lips.

It erases my doubts, erases every thought inside my head.

Ronin iskissing me.

He’s finallykissing meand it’s even better than I’d ever thought it could be. I’m lost in that kiss, lost. He’s kissing me, touching me, ruling me, and I let him. Something in me purrs, just like when I’m following a plan—only he’s the opposite of a plan.

He’s a beautiful, walking disaster.

By the time we come up for air, I’m so turned on, I could come just by a touch. He has a hand braced on the wall above my head, his chest rising and falling fast, his eyes half-closed, and I can’t stop looking at his mouth.

I want more.

More of him.

“Damn, Gigi,” he says on a groan, and I put my hands on his chest, feeling his pecs flex as he dips his head lower, like he’s going to kiss me again.

But then he sweeps me off my feet and carries me to the door. I yelp and grab at him, afraid to fall. I’ve never been carried by a man, not since I was little and Travis used to give me piggyback rides. I’m not a tiny woman.

And I shouldn’t like it so much—his strength, the way he towers over me, the ease with which he’s lifting my weight.

Why do I like it so much?

I have to twist about to open the door, and he laughs when I almost fall out of his arms. Almost. He shifts his grip and holds me in the air while I unlock the door. He kicks it open and carries me up the stairs.

What a strange evening.

What a lot of fun, though, and I really can’t regret it as he puts me down to unlock the apartment door, then picks me up again.

He makes me feel like a child, carefree and joyful.

His grin is miles-wide as he swings me into the apartment, again kicking the door closed—I think he just likes kicking things—and carries me into his room.

I’ve been inside his room before. You’d think the walls would be covered in Ronin’s awesome art, his drawings for the tattoos he creates, but he only has traditional Japanese seascapes in expensive frames and the most minimalist space I’ve ever seen, his covers and sheets black, his carpet gray.

I barely notice any of it now, though, as he switches on the light with his elbow and carries me inside. He throws me onto his bed and climbs after me, settling between my legs and bowing over me, and yeah, I don’t feel like a child anymore. Nothing child-like about his cool eyes and sexy smirk, about his powerful shoulders and the serious hard-on pressing into my belly.

Am I really going through with this? I got shaken by a kiss and a handjob from Casey, from coming against Zayne’s thigh, shaken from finding Ronin kissing Grey, andGod, how hot was that?—and now I’m about to have real sex with my roommate?

“Wait,” I say, “wait…”

His smirk fades. He frowns down at me. “Something the matter? Are you having second thoughts?”

“We’re going… too fast.”

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