Page 179 of Hat Trick

“I’m waiting,” I murmur, and he brings a wet hand to my hair. He drops my head back and presses a kiss to my neck, his tongue running up the length of my throat.

“I have a tough choice to make, Lexi baby. Do I get you off out here where anyone can see?” he asks, and I press my chest against his. “Or should I make you wait until I get you back to my room?”

“Both are good options.” I sigh when he moves his hand down my throat and dips it below my collarbone. He snakes his palm across my body, between my legs, then shoves my thighs apart with a satisfied hum. “I can be patient.”

“The last thing you are is patient.” He pushes a finger inside me, and my nails dig into his shoulders. “We might need to add an addendum to the list: skinny dipping with orgasms. That’s way better than just skinny dipping, don’t you think?”

“Y-yes,” I rasp, the syllable cracking when a second finger sneaks inside me and pumps my pussy. I arch my back and bite my bottom lip to hold back a moan. “Way better.”

“Look at you.” His mouth moves to my shoulder, and he laps up the water on my skin with his tongue. He sucks on my skin then finishes it off with a quick bite of his teeth, the sting sending a delicious roll of pleasure through my body. “You’re so beautiful all the time, but I like you like this: no makeup. Your hair down. Naked. I like that it’s the side of you only I get to see.”

He forgot something on his list.

Exposed.

Split open with my heart in my hands.

Out here in the quiet, still night, I’m handing over pieces of myself I don’t normally show during the day. I’m sinking into him, letting him possess me in new ways, and I wonder how it couldeverbe better than this.

“Riley,” I whisper, putting both hands on his cheeks. “I’m glad I get to do your Life List with you.”

His face softens. The intensity behind his eyes melts to hopeless,loving, and I swallow the lump in my throat when he kisses me slow and tender.

“There’s no one I’d rather do it with,” he says, and I don’t know if he’s talking about the list or the thumb he’s pressing against my clit or something bigger that I’ve been trying to explain to myself for weeks but can’t figure out.

He fucks me with his fingers lazily, like we have all the time in the world.

Maybe we do.

There’s no hurry, no rush. Riley brings me to the edge of an orgasm then pulls back, smiling into the curve of my neck when I saypleaseand whispering backokay. He transports me to some mystical place I’m not sure I could reach if we weren’t out here, if I wasn’t with him, the slick glide of our bodies against each other and my muffled moans buried in his shoulder when he finally,finally, plucks me apart with four fingers and a gentle laugh that makes my heart twist in my chest.

He eases me down from the high with a kiss everywhere he can reach: my forehead, my cheek, the curve of my jaw and the spot below my ear where I’m secretly ticklish. I can feel his body shaking, his muscles straining, the strength of holding me on one leg an excruciating task I don’t take for granted. I shiver when I kiss him again then pull away, wanting to relieve him from the weight he’s carrying.

“Can we go to your room?” I whisper against the corner of his mouth, and he nods.

“Yeah. It’s going to take me a minute to get my leg back on, though. If you want to go ahead, I’ll?—”

“I’ll grab us some towels.” I slowly unravel from around his middle, limbs heavy, sated and satisfied. “And I’ll help however I can.”

“A towel would be great.” Riley spins and puts his hands on the edge of the pool, hoisting himself out of the water as rivulets of chlorine roll over the sculpted muscles of his ass. “My liner won’t go on if I’m wet.”

I swim over to the stairs and step out of the pool, feeling his eyes on me as I grab a handful of towels and make my way over to him. He smiles when I hand him two, and he dries his hair and shoulders before tackling his lower half.

“Are any of the guys on your floor?” I ask, wrapping my towel around my body and scooping up my discarded bathing suit.

“Ethan is next to me. I heard him recording a video earlier, and I hope I never have to hear a conversation like that again.” He laughs as he dries his residual limb. “It was vile.”

“You need to download an app that does white noise. Or get some headphones.”

“I already ordered a pair of noise-canceling ones.” Riley puts his shorts back on but leaves his hoodie off. Clothed from the waist down, he assembles his prosthetic, then stands. “There we go. We’re back in business.” He holds out his hand, and I lace our fingers together. “Ready?”

“I’m ready for you to fuck me into oblivion, Mitchy,” I say, and his laugh is loud enough to wake up the whole hotel.

FORTY-EIGHT

RILEY

We leavea trail of wet footprints behind us, and Lexi teases me the whole way back to my room. She roams her hands up my chest and down my back. She rests her head between my shoulders when we ride the elevator to the seventh floor and grazes her palm against the front of my shorts as we walk down the hall. She kisses my neck, and I fumble with my room key, practically throwing the door open and yanking her inside.

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