Page 15 of The Lies Always Told

“My dorm is a few blocks away,” she replies. I don’t need convincing, so I pull her off my lap, fixing her shirt as I guide her out of the room. We step outside, but we don’t make it far before her friend shouts her name. She walks toward us, pulling Abraham by the hand. He’s whipped by this girl, looking like a lost puppy being dragged around.

“I’m heading back home,” Bee or Bree or whatever her name is says. “Don’t wait up.” She blows Nellie a kiss and turns around, still pulling Abraham. He shrugs his shoulders my way and smiles before turning around to follow her.

“So I guess the dorm is out of the question,” Nellie tells me, holding her hands in front of her.

“Not a problem, sweet girl. I drove here. Come on.” I walk her past a couple of houses to where I parked the rental car. I open the door and guide her in, and I’m on the road as fast as possible. I settle my hand on her thigh as I drive us to the hotel room I booked for the night.

“Where are you taking me?” she asks, her arms crossed over her chest and her gaze locked forward.

“To my hotel room. Why?”

“I need to tell my friends where we’re going.” Fuckin’ dumbass; of course she does. She may trust me, but she needs to protect herself. I don’t blame her.

“Here,” I say, handing her my phone. “It’s all in the notes app under today’s date.”

“No password?” she asks as soon as she unlocks it.

“I have nothing to hide,” I reply, when in reality, I don’t have a password because I’m not worried about anyone finding my family’s information on my personal phone. If anything, I leave it like that for easy access to my emergency contacts. There isn’t a lot of personal information to find either way. Aside from work availability updates with Manny, I don’t share my life with anyone, especially not the women I spend time with.

She fidgets with the phone and eventually grabs her own, which I can presume is to text her friends the information.

“That’s a good rule to have,” I tell her, pulling into the parking garage of the prestigious hotel, the best one I could find on short notice in a college town.

“What is?” she asks, handing me back my phone and crossing her legs as she finishes messaging her friends. There’s no music playing so the subtle shift in her body echoes through the car, making me acutely aware of her presence. I said Abraham was whipped, but with the way I can’t focus on anything but Nellie, I’m whipped too, I guess.

“Having rules about going places with strangers.” I’m not a stranger, but I might as well be. It had been years since I last saw her and the least I thought would happen when I did was that I would be lusting over her for a month.

“Yeah, too many psychos out there. But you’re not a stranger, Gus. I just want to be careful. What aboutyourfriend? Is Bee safe with him?”

“I should be askingyouthe same thing. Is he safe with her?”

Nellie laughs, a soft but carefree sound before she tilts herbody my way. “Honestly? Probably not. Bee is a force to be reckoned with. He’ll be safe, but he might be sore for days. Also…people who sleep with her end up becoming obsessed with her, so I hope you’re ready to have your boy down bad for her.”

“I fear he’s already down bad.” I park the car and step out, helping Nellie do the same. I guide her through the lobby and onto the elevators, walking past the buzzing piano bar and the people waiting to get checked in or sitting in the warm-lit area surrounded by plants.

We step through the elevators at the same time she pulls her phone out of her bag and proceeds to text an update to her friends with her location.

The elevator door opens on my floor, and I slide my hand to stop it from closing. I have an irrational fear that someone will get stuck between them. I prompt Nellie to step out, and she walks confidently, letting me guide her toward my room. In the light of the hall, I notice how perfect she looks. She’s wearing jeans that hug her body in the right places and a loose top that should hide her curves but instead showcases them under the sheer fabric. Her dark hair, tied in a high ponytail, bounces down her back with every step she takes, and my dick twitches at the thought of her perfect ass on my face.

We make it to my room, a cool blast of air rushing out of the dark room as I open the door. The room is sixty-five degrees, just how I like it. I have a hard time regulating my temperature sometimes, and I sweat more often than not, but I notice Nellie lifting her hands to her arms immediately.

“I can adjust the temperature so it’s warmer here.” I offer her a smile.

She returns it easily. “Or we can cuddle, and you can warm me up.” She walks in, making herself at home, and stands by the window. This hotel has a floor-to-ceiling window facing the impressive atrium. The indoor garden provides guests with a view no matter the weather. It’s perfect, andevery time I travel, I try to find something like this. It eases my mind. Plants have always had that effect, but feeling like I’m in a tropical paradise, like my home country, without my skin melting from the heat is the best of both worlds. We’re on the fourth floor, it’s close enough to see everything but high up enough to give us some privacy, as long as nobody looks this way.

Nellie stands with her hands on the window, looking out into the atrium. I take my keys and wallet out of my pockets and set them on the nightstand as I get out my phone and search through my music to play my favorite song. Her body tenses as soon as the song starts, but she doesn’t turn around to face me. I walk slowly behind her until my hands slide over her hips, and I capture them, digging my fingers into her flesh. I pull her flush to my body, and her breath hitches, her eyes never leaving the atrium, not even when I whisper the same phrase I sang for her that night at the club.

“That’s the song,” she whispers, closing her eyes and matching my movements with her body. I hum, my lips on the shell of her ear. “Are you trying for a do-over?”Jackpot.

“Are you a mind reader, Nellie?” My hands wander under her blouse, her soft skin the perfect contrast to my rough hands. She has some sort of tight top on under her blouse in lieu of a bra that I carefully pull up. Now, there’s nothing between her perfect breasts and my fingertips. When I brush against her nipples, she hisses and grinds against me harder.

“Yes,” she moans.

“Yes, you like this, or yes, you can read my mind?”

“Both,” she says between a gasp and a moan when I lick the curve of her neck before sucking and kissing gently.

“What am I thinking now?” I ask as I suck her earlobe between my teeth.

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