Page 149 of Face Off

“Then where are we going?”

My attention traveled over the salsa staining her white shorts before returning slowly to her face. “You spent the last hour sucking food off my fingers and rubbing that ass against me every time I reached for a pan.”

“It was crowded.”

“My room isn’t.”

Her eyes darkened. “I thought we were changing.”

“We are.”

“That doesn’t explain why I need to change in your room.”

I brought my mouth beside her ear as we reached the west corridor. “Because if I take you back to the east wing, I’m going to fuck you against another door, and your friends are already nosy enough.”

Charm’s step faltered. My hand tightened around her waist, keeping her moving.

“What makes you think your room will be any safer?” she asked.

“It won’t. It’s closer.”

She looked up at me. “Ryan—”

“I told you what would happen all day, don’t get intimidated now.”

Her breathing changed when I stopped outside my suite and took out the key card. Charm turned inside my hold. “You said you’d fuck me.”

“I remember.”

Her hands slid beneath my stained apron. “I was making sure.”

The lock flashed green when I opened the door and pulled her through it.

12

Charm

The door closed behind us.

Ryan turned the lock without taking his eyes from me.

The soft click entered the silence carrying every warning he had given me since last night. This was one weekend. One answer. His body without forgiveness and the version of us he believed he could leave behind when Sunday came.

None of it stopped hope from climbing through me when his hand settled at the back of my neck and kissed me before I could speak.

My shoulders struck the door beneath the force of it, but his other hand caught my waist, taking the impact before dragging me against him. He tasted like lime, mezcal, and the salsa he had licked from my mouth in front of everyone downstairs. The flour and smoke clinging to our clothes followed us into the room, proof that he had spent the last hour touching me openly without once remembering he was supposed to keep his distance.

I wrapped my arms around his neck.

Ryan caught both my wrists and lowered them. “Apron,” he said against my mouth.

I pulled at the knot behind him until the fabric dropped between us. He kicked it aside and returned to me immediately, one hand sliding beneath my stained shirt while the other gripped my ass through the white shorts that had been torturing him all morning.

“You knew exactly what you were doing downstairs.”

“I was cooking.”

“You sucked my thumb in front of Temple.”