Page 57 of The Road Trip Romance

Everyone glares at him.

“What? You never know?” he adds.

“Not likely. I…maybe I should just wait. Fuck, I wish I had more patience about this. I just don’t want her thinking this can’t work,” I mutter.

“She’s not wrong. It will be hard,” Jordan states. “Hell, it’s hard with Alisha and we work in the same industry.”

“But it’s possible. People do it all the time. I could make Maryland my home base. I might have to travel for filming, but I could come home in between it all. It’s not impossible,” I say to them.

I’m met with some nods and shrugs.

“I know you want this with her, but you need to prepare yourself that she might not be willing to. And if that’s the case, then you gained a hell of a friend and you also know what you want in life now. So either way, you’ve won, Tate,” Jordan says. I hate that he’s right.

The car door opens, and we all turn to look at Sophia. “Here, they had five rooms,” she says as she hands out card keys.

Penn shrugs and gives me a look before taking one. “Thanks, Soph,” he says as he gets out of the car to go grab his bag from the back.

Jordan and Rex follow suit, leaving Sophia and me standing by the car.

“Soph—” I start but she holds up her hand.

“Not right now. I want to shower and get room service or order food or something and just go to bed early. I need to call Mark and let him know we’re on the way back. I—I’ll see you tomorrow,” she says as she hands me my bag and hits the lock on her fob. The car beeps and I follow her inside.

I look at my key. Eighth floor. I wait for the elevator next to her, neither of us speaking. If sexual tension could be cut with a knife, we’d need a machete to hack through ours. A kid and a woman I presume to be his mom come to stand next to us.

The door chimes as it opens, and we all step inside.

“What floor?” I ask the woman.

“Two,” she says as she holds the little boy’s hand.

I press “8” and Sophia doesn’t add a number. Are we on the same floor?

The doors shut and a minute later open with another ping. The woman and child exit, leaving Sophia and me alone again. I step toward her. She doesn’t move but keeps looking forward.

My hand brushes her arm and I watch goose bumps form. Fuck, she has to stop denying what’s between us. She needs to at least give it a chance. I intentionally run my finger over her arm. She doesn’t pull away. I watch in the mirror as she swallows hard.

I can’t hold back any longer. I turn and cage her against the wall of the elevator, pressing my lips to hers. She shudders against me, not moving for a second. And then it’s like a dam bursts. She wraps her arms around my neck, and I lift her ass, her legs wrapping around my waist as we deepen the kiss. She feels so right in my arms. Our tongues tangle as my hands knead her ass. Fuck. She has the greatest ass. I could run my hands over this ass all day long and still not get enough of it. Thoughts of biting and kissing her flesh here invade my brain cells as our lips continue to connect. She grinds herself against me, and I press her harder into the wall of the elevator, thrusting myself against her.

The elevator pings and we just stand there for a moment, breathing hard as we pull back to stare at each other. She slowly slides down my body and grabs her bag from the floor, exiting and leaving me standing there with the biggest fucking hard-on that I’ve ever had.

I blow out a breath and pick up my bag. When I step out, I find she’s already unlocking her door.

“Sophia,” I call out, heading toward her.

“We…that was a mistake,” she stammers as she begins to shut her door, trying to block me out. I watch her face disappear from view.

Fuck, I can’t lose her. I need this woman like I need oxygen.

CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE

Sophia

His hand grabs the door and stops it from closing. I gasp as I step back, and he steps inside the room. He shuts the door and turns to me, and I swallow hard. He’s looking at me with such intensity it’s a little scary but also hot…like I-write-about-this-shit hot.

When I say he stalks over to me, I mean it. I’m the prey and he’s the predator. With each step I take backward, he takes one forward until the backs of my knees hit what I presume is the bed. He stops for a half second and then lunges at me.

This time the kiss deepens immediately. He feels hard and hot against me as he pulls off my top while I try to push his up over his head. One article of clothing at a time falls to the ground as we desperately claw at one another. It’s as if we can’t get close enough, we can’t feel enough.

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