Page 88 of Love You Like That (Excess All Areas 4)

Alex glanced down at the floor, then back at her. “I figured.”

“It’s in my heart. A piece of me I can’t fill with anything else, even you. I can’t play unless I’m brilliant, but I need to know if I still can be. I need to go and talk with Dr. Boncaldo, to see if I can still do this.”

Cerys stepped around Alex and hugged her. “Of course you can still do it. That was amazing. Lorenzo can help you.”

Zoe hugged her back. “It’s a lot more than playing a song by myself in a hotel room and you know it.”

Cerys sighed, her shoulders rising and falling. “I know.”

Jase said something she didn’t catch, but Cerys turned to look at him, and then Alex, who hadn’t moved or taken his eyes off her.

“I love you,” Cerys signed.

“You too,” Zoe signed back.

The others spoke to her. She caught words.

Congratulations… Amazing… No idea…

But they were bound to support her. They’d become her friends. And that was what friends did. What family did.

Then it was just the two of them.

Alex gripped the collar of her robe gently, walking her backwards until the door slammed behind him and her knees hit the bed. She sat down with a jolt.

He towered over her as he slid his room key and phone from his pocket, then reached for her wine glass, taking a large gulp. Then he surprised her by crouching down between her legs and offered her the glass. “Take a drink, you look like you need it.”

Her heart beat a military tattoo in her chest as she did.

Alex slid his hands beneath the hem of the robe, over her knee, along her thighs. His thumbs pressed into her stiff muscles, and she sighed.

Finally, he took the glass out of her hands and placed it carefully on the bedside table. He was quiet as he walked around the room, turning off lamps and plugging in her phone. When he reached the mallets on the bed, he picked them up and caressed them.

For a moment, Zoe was envious of them.

He laid them back in the case, and then returned to her, taking her hand to lift her to her feet. Without a word, he reached for her pyjamas and dropped to his knees, holding them open as she stepped inside them. His fingertips dragged along her skin as he raised them over her calves, her knees, her thighs.

With the dressing gown protecting her modesty, he slipped them up over her hips. Sliding his fingers beneath the belt, he tugged at the knot. The gown fell open, but Alex’s eyes stayed focused on hers. She bit down on her lip, wondering if he would kiss her again. When he brushed the gown off her shoulders, she shivered, and his eyes flared.

Her breath caught in her throat at the warmth of his touch. Suddenly, she felt hypersensitive. To the whisper of air from the hotel heating system, the feel of his heat next to hers. To his breath against her cheek.

Alex reached for her pyjama top, not taking his eyes off her. And the very fact he wasn’t looking at her naked breasts made her wish he would.

She glanced down to the floor, but the unmistakable outline beneath his joggers told her he was as aroused as she was.

And now she was totally confused.

He brushed a finger over her clearly wrinkled forehead. “Stop overthinking.”

Gently, he encouraged both of her arms into the pyjama shirt and swiftly fastened the buttons. Once done, he untucked the covers so she could climb in.

Alex walked to the other side of the bed, his lamp the only light in the room. The sheets lifted as he lowered his body beneath them and rolled to face her. “Come here.”

Taking a breath, she wriggled toward him, and he opened his arms, pulling her tight to his body, her head tucked beneath his chin. For a moment, he simply stroked her hair while she battled all the emotions raging inside her.

She’d just played. Properly.

It felt good.

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