Dropping The Ball - A New Year’s Billionaire Romance - Weston Parker Page 0,94
had amazing sex with him.
Yep, I decided. Definitely normal. Any woman who’s seen him will agree.
Flopping back on his bed, I couldn’t fight the smile that broke free. That’s right, ladies. You will be tempted to look, but you can’t touch. He’s mine, all mine.
The smile didn’t go away when he came back in or while we dressed or even after we got back to my house. I’d have thought that I’d be wiped out after a day like today, but there was a strange energy buzzing through my veins.
I felt like how I imagined people felt when they won the lottery. And it was all because Carter was back. He was mine, and he hadn’t written me off as a crazy person for freaking out on him.
For the first time in a long time, there were no doubts plaguing my mind. No confusing thoughts swirling around inside my head, and no crushing guilt coursing through my veins over the future I’d be forcing on him if he stayed with me.
All was right in my world, and it felt fucking incredible.
The only thing missing was Max, but he was with Carter’s elderly neighbor, and we would pick him up in the morning. In the meantime, we had the whole night to ourselves.
“Okay, what’s with that smile?” he asked when he stood up after lighting the fireplace. He brushed my cheeks with his fingertips, curious brown eyes latched firmly on mine. “I feel like you have a secret you need to tell me.”
“That’s just it. There are no more secrets between us. You’re here. I’m here. You’re not losing your job and my brother didn’t cut off your balls when he found out about us.”
He smiled, and it was so beautiful that my heart skipped. “It feels pretty damn awesome, doesn’t it? I just wish we could’ve said goodbye before he had to run back to Nashville.”
Before we’d left Carter’s apartment, we’d both retrieved our phones from where we’d left them in his kitchen. There were texts from Billy waiting for each of us, claiming he had to catch the first flight back to deal with an emergency at work.
I twisted my fingers into Carter’s hair. “I know. Me too. We’ll be seeing him soon, though. I’ll check on him in the morning.”
“Want to watch a movie?” he asked, pushing his chest to mine and walking me back until my knees hit the couch. “Or did you want to go to sleep?”
“Movie,” I said immediately. “We should probably order some takeout for dinner, too.”
He nodded and went off to grab some menus while I got settled on the couch. We chose a movie, a terrible ninja thing that had only one redeeming quality—I was snuggled into Carter’s chest while watching it.
Our Chinese food got there halfway through, and luckily, the credits started rolling not long after we’d finished eating. I sat up then but only to twist my upper body around to face him.
All the lights were off, the room illuminated only by the fire and the television. Billy and Bart had helped me take the Christmas tree down, which I regretted now. When I’d gotten home after my hospital stay over the weekend, it had reminded me too much of Carter and his family to even look at it.
He raised a dark brow at me, the corners of his lips slightly tipped up. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I guess I still just can’t believe that you’re here, and that you’re you. Who would’ve thought that little Rylee Naples and hot Carter Demming would ever be snuggled up on a couch together while being, well, together?”
He shrugged but there was no hiding the soft smile in his eyes. “I hope no one thought it. My mom probably hoped for it, but the age difference between us just seemed so insurmountable back then.”
“Did you ever have feelings for me when we were younger?” I asked. It was a question I’d been dying to know the answer to since I’d first found out who he was.
His head fell back a bit when he laughed. “No, you were too young, but I wanted to.”
“I had them for you,” I admitted, although I suspected he already knew.
“Yeah, I got that from the way you kept looking at me.” His lips pulled up into a sexy smirk. “When I caught you staring the first time, I nearly had a heart attack. I felt so fucking guilty about it.”