Murder_ A Sinful Secrets Romance - Ella James Page 0,166

for you like you are for me.”

“What do you mean?”

He squeezes me against him. I feel him inhale, but he just shakes his head. He stands up. “Back to bed?”

He helps me up. I go with him.

As we get back into bed, I see his phone light up. He grabs it.

“Dove.”

“Did you say Dove?”

He frowns down at the phone, then puts it back on his nightstand.

“Seth,” he says.

I nod. I’ve heard him mention his friend before.

I wonder why the name Dove made me feel so weird just now. Maybe I’m just tired and delirious.

We go to sleep together. The next morning, we go into town on his Harley—me wearing the helmet he grabbed me the other day—and look at the studio again.

“What do you think?” he asks me with his big hands in his pockets.

“I like it. It’s in a good location.”

I go use the restroom and when I come back, he’s hanging up with Mallorie.

“I’m making an offer.”

I squeal and he swings me around the empty space.

“You want to ride bikes home?”

“Um…huh?”

“You told me you used to love to ride your bike. When’s the last time you had a bike?”

“I don’t even know.”

“Let’s get some. On me.”

I laugh. “That’s crazy?”

“And?” He grins and kisses my nose. “C’mon. Any color you want. There’s a bike shop half a block away.”

“You and your GPS.”

“You think it’s hot,” he teases.

I giggle. “I totally do.”

Holding hands, we walk down the block and exit the bike shop with matching royal blue Giant bikes. Barrett’s got a charcoal helmet; mine is lime green.

“You think we should ride these home?”

He laughs. “Gwen. How else will we get them there?”

“We could stash them in the studio?”

“The one we don’t own yet?” My heart leaps a little. “We.”

His fingers grip my chin loosely. “I know you’re not scared of a little bike ride.”

“It’s on a big road. What if someone hits us?”

“There’s a wide bike lane. I looked. I’ll ride on the outside.”

“No way.” I grab his hand and squeeze and end up kissing his knuckles. “Gotta protect my prince charming.”

I get the small, sweet smile. “Are you my princess?”

“Yes.”

The ride home takes about an hour, and by the time we reach the top of my driveway, all the endorphins swimming through my brain have made me giddy.

“I feel great!”

Barrett takes his helmet off and leans his head back. His chest swells with a deep, half-panted breath. “Me, too.”

Damn… His curls are dark and pasted to his perfectly-shaped head. His temple and throat are damp with sweat. His beard, which he trimmed to just scruff last night, looks so freaking sexy; I just want to lick him.

I take my helmet off, and his eyes roll up and down me. He takes my bike’s handle. “Why don’t you go inside? Wait for me on the coffee table?”

My neck flushes.

“No?” His eyebrows lift.

“How do you always know?”

“Know what?” He smirks.

“When I want it.”

“Because,” he says darkly. His hand slaps my backside. “I do, too.”

I scamper in and wait for him, bent over the coffee table, even though I feel insane. He uses a secret agent trick to come inside without making a sound, so the first thing I know of him is his hands pulling my pants down, his fingers delving into my slick pussy.

He’s rougher than usual; he seems hungrier. Like he needs it bad. It’s so, so hot, I come before he has his dick inside me. Barrett flips me over on my back, my legs hanging off the table, bent at the knees. He spreads me with his fingers, rubs his tip around my slickness, and then pushes in.

The table is just the right height so he’s neither standing nor fully crouching, more like leaning over and driving into me. He holds my arms and nibbles at my breasts. After we’re finished, we get in the bath and Barrett rubs my shoulders till I think I might just slip into the soapy water.

The next few days are much the same. We bike downtown and get coffee or hot chocolate, grab some lunch, drop by the studio, to which Mallorie gave Bear a key, and make plans for what we’ll do with the interior if the owner accepts Bear’s offer.

Finally, a few nights before Thanksgiving, Mallorie calls Bear and tells him she heard from the owner, who accepted his offer.

We celebrate with a long walk through the dark woods, making a pit stop to have sex in the stock shed before winding up in the attic library looking