Page 10 of The Fake Date Deal

I smiled, buckled up, and we were off like a shot. I hadn’t even thought to ask where we were going.

CHAPTER 4

MARCO

Icouldn’t resist showing off just a little for Eve.

I took the long way to my hotel, cruising down the waterfront for no good reason. For no good reason except it was quiet. The road was wide and ran straight for long stretches, and I could gun it. Put on some speed. Eve gasped at first and gripped onto her seat. Then she laughed, breathless, and flung her head back.

“Faster,” she said.

“Yeah? You’re not scared?”

“No. I trust you.”

My chest swelled at that, pumped up with pride. We’d just met and she trusted me. Take that, Rafael.

I slowed for the cops manning the border to France, then opened the engine when they dropped out of sight. My eyes stayed on the road, but I could feel Eve beside me, her mounting excitement, her tension, her joy. She shrieked when we drifted around a wide curve, laughed when we roared like a train down the straight. I could picture her cheeks touched with hot bursts of pink, her blue eyes bright with exhilaration. I knew how she felt because I felt the same way, that charge I always got when I drove just for pleasure. I could’ve driven her for hours, driven her through the night, but she was looking for an escape, not an abduction.

“I’ve passed my hotel,” I said, as I slowed. “But it’s not far from here.”

“Then let’s go.” Eve slid her hand over to brush up my thigh. A dark thrill chased through me, a hot surge of want. A woman like her didn’t come along every day, sexy and smart, adventurous, fun. Women like Eve moved in their own world, a world full of titans and princes. Rafael. She’d come down to earth just for tonight, and I wasn’t going to waste that. I’d make it count.

In my hotel’s rattling elevator, Eve had the same idea. She grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me to her. Kissed me like she meant it, so deep my head spun. The doors slid open, dinged, then slid closed again, and the old-fashioned cage rattled back down five floors.

“We missed it,” said Eve, voice hoarse from kissing. I thumbed the button again and we rode back up lip-locked. We staggered out when the doors dinged, then backward down the hall. Eve tasted sweet, like sugar and gin. I couldn’t get enough of her, or her fresh smell. Her hair felt like silk when I ran my hands through it, her body lithe in my arms, her skin creamy smooth. She was water and I was thirsty; she was air and I needed to breathe. I couldn’t take my hands off her to dig out my key. I pushed her up against the door to my room, caught her moans in my mouth as I traced the lines of her body. My cock thrust up, eager, and she bucked against it.

“My room key,” I groaned, and she pawed through my pockets, dropping objects that weren’t keys on the floor at my feet. I toed a pack of gum away, a hotel matchbook. Then she pulled out my key and I took it from her, fumbled the door open, and we shuffled inside. Eve kicked her shoes off and stood on tiptoe to kiss me. I swept her up and carried her to the bedroom.

“We should call for champagne.”

“What, right now?”

“I want to taste it here. On your lips.” I kissed her again, lingering, heated. “Champagne and strawberries. What do you say?"

“Yes. I say yes.” She fell back on the bed. I sank down with her and pulled the phone toward me, called in our order while she nibbled my neck. Her breath on my skin sent chills coursing through me, my whole body burning with urgent desire. I drank in the sight of her when she lay back, panting, the spill of her blond hair across the plump pillows. She was rumpled and breathless, her red lipstick smudged. I’d done that to her, smeared her perfection. Left my mark on her, at least for tonight.

“What are you looking at?”

“Just you,” I said. “Those pretty blue eyes.”

She ran her hand up my back, under my shirt, her soft palm grazing the bumps of my spine. I couldn’t wait to lie skin to skin with her, hold her in my arms naked and clean.

“Your eyes are nice too,” she said. “I like your long lashes.”

“I like your little ears, and your heart earrings.”

“I like your chest hair.” She hooked her thumb in my collar and stretched it down. “Mm. Very manly.”

I hoped she’d keep undressing me, maybe peel off my shirt, but room service chose that moment to show up with our treats. I stood halfway behind the door to hide the bulge in my pants, and ducked in front of the service cart as the man wheeled it in.

“Merci bien,” I said. “Je l’ai d’ici.”

The bellhop ignored me and pushed the cart to the bedroom, and deposited the champagne bucket on the side table. He left the strawberries beside it on their covered plate. I turned my back on him as he trudged back out. Eve was hiding laughter behind her clenched fists.

“Not funny,” I said, as the door clicked shut.

“It is a little.” Eve sat up. “Bring those strawberries over here.”

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