Page 59 of Hat Trick
I go to argue with her, but she shakes her hand dismissively. She gives Carter a kiss on the cheek before leaving. I love this version of Nancy. When I first met her, she was quiet, shy, scared, and folded in on herself. This Nancy is bold, brazen, and speaks her mind.
"What did she mean...?" I ask Carter, watching as Nancy backs out of the driveway.
He chuckles. "The first day she met you and Annie, she wanted you for me. Said you were perfect for me." I gasp before looking up into his blue eyes.
He pulls me against him. "If I remember correctly, she said 'I want that for you. I want romance, butterflies, falling in love.'"
My breath catches in my throat, and I have to choke back emotions.
"She did?"
Carter moves up back into the house and toes the front door shut behind him. "She did. She saw exactly who you are, and exactly how perfect you are for me, even when I was still fighting it."
He stalks towards me, a sleepy Annie in his arms, until we're in my bedroom.
Naturally, the focus shifts to Annie. Together, we bathe her, read her a story, and put her to bed. But the sexual tension between us never lets up. We're reading the wheels on the bus, but both of us are thinking about what it will be like to finally be together. To finally feel him press inside of me. To finally give in to what our bodies have been screaming for for months.
When she finally nods off, Carter silently turns the light off, grabs the baby monitor and my hand, before leading me to his room.
"I've tried, Emily." He says, shutting the door behind us. This snick of the latch sounds like a gunshot and my breathing increases. His voice has lowered an octave, and I don't trust my own voice to question him.
"I've tried to be good. I've tried to resist you because you were my employee. I tried to resist you because you're important to Annie. I'vetried to resist you because I can't be the man you deserve right now." He walks me back against his bed until the back of my knees hit the mattress and I fall.
Carter falls with me.
"But I can't."
My stomach drops to my toes. He can't what?
"I can't be good anymore. I need you, Emily. I need you with every inch of my soul. You didn't just take a job; you took my heart and soul with it. I can't imagine my life without you in it. And I know that's selfish, but goddamnit, Emily, you're the only person in the world who has ever told me it's okay to be selfish. So, you know what? You're my selfish. I'm selfish enough to want you all to myself."
His words spill out of him while he kisses me, my neck, my collarbone, my sternum. I lace my fingers through his hair to hold him close. Every word he says is a balm to my damaged ego. Carter Rhodes wants me. Not for my looks, but because of who I am to him. The damaged parts of me want to reject it, but the broken-hearted part of me wants to believe it. Wants to believe that I could be wanted by someone as amazing as Carter.
My mind and my emotions are a jumbled mess. Instead of dealing with any of them, I pull him down to me and kiss him. We've kissed before, but it's been rushed, and sudden, and public. This kiss is slow, lazy, a we-have-all-night kiss and I've never quite experienced anything like it. Gabe's kisses are fire, burning, need, consuming. Luca's kisses are promising, flirtatious, light.
This kiss? This kiss is the big bang. The beginning, middle, and the end of the universe. Every atom of every cell of my body aligns itselfto this kiss. I have a thought that I could ignore the rest of the world, if I could live in this kiss.
Carter pulls away, though, leaning his forehead against mine.
"Fuck, Emily. I'm trying so hard to be good."
And I know what he means. I can feel the need, the desire. It's anxious, needy, primal. And sweet kisses aren't going to do it.
"Then don't be good, tonight, Carter."
His eyes flash to mine. I can tell his control is fraying. Carter. My always-in-control Team Captain, my control freak. For once I want to see him let go. For once I want him to know it's okay for him to let go.
I'm on my back in his bed, but still fully clothed. "What do you need? I'm yours. Let me give it to you."
For a half a second he looks at me like he doesn't believe me. Then the beast surfaces. And I grin.
He threads his fingers through mine and pins my hands to the sides of my head.
"Don't. Fucking. Move."
I shiver. Carter's dominance in the bedroom is intoxicating. I know he's one for control outside of the bedroom, but being able to give it to him inside of the bedroom feels like a specific kind of privilege.
"I won't." I whisper.
