Honor Bound by Joey Hill (speld decodable readers .txt) 📕

Just the brush of his knuckles against the swell of her breasts was enough to fire up her arousal, make her want him. The thought of never touching him after tonight, never feeling his mouth on her again, made her fight tears.

Instead, she swallowed past the ache in her throat and managed a smile. “Staying in sounds like a really great idea.”

He removed his fingers. “Let me go shower. Why don’t you order us something to eat and drink?”

While he was in the shower, Ella slipped on a soft sundress. She pulled the room service menu out, scanning the dinner items, her stomach rumbling as she did. It had been a while since they’d had lunch. She hadn’t realized how long they’d spent on the boat and then at the beach and pool today. The sun had already set and she was starving.

By the time Clay came out from the bathroom, she was ready to eat the sheets.

“I hope room service doesn’t take long,” she said, pacing the length of the room. “I’m already past hungry.”

He pulled on a pair of shorts and dragged her onto the balcony. “You sure get cranky when you aren’t fed regularly.”

“We should have crackers in the room or something.”

“There’s food in the mini bar.”

She cast a disgusted gaze into the room. “Please. Five bucks for a candy bar? I’ll wait.”

He dragged her onto his lap. “Quit bitching. Am I going to have to spank you?”

She laughed, then heated at the thought. “You wouldn’t dare.”

He cocked a brow. “There isn’t a lot I wouldn’t dare to do, Ella.” He pulled her against him and rubbed her back, his fingers making a slow trek down to her rear end. “Besides, you have a great ass.”

Her dress bunched up in the back and his fingers teased the globes of her buttocks. She shuddered against him. “If I wasn’t starving . . .”

“Food can wait.”

He bent to kiss her, her hunger taking a completely different turn.

But a knock came at the door.

“Shit,” Clay said, smoothing her dress over her butt.

She giggled, her gaze traveling down over the obvious tent in his shorts. “Maybe I should get the door.”

“Yeah.” He went into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

Ella felt tons better after she’d eaten. They ate out on the balcony, because Ella couldn’t seem to get enough of watching the ocean, listening to the sound of it and smelling the fresh, salty air. She was going to miss all this when she got back home to landlocked Oklahoma tomorrow, back to dirt and her crew and steel, where the only things she’d be inhaling were construction dust and the smell of the guys she worked with.

She inhaled and let out a sigh.

“What’s wrong?”

She grabbed her glass of wine and leaned back in the chair. “I was just thinking how different this is from our world. Such a fantasy being here this past week.”

Clay smiled, laid his napkin on the table and took a drink of wine. “So you had fun here.”

“Definitely. I’m going to miss this. The blue of the ocean, the utter—forever of it. The smell of the flowers that seem to permeate the air wherever I go. The total relaxation.

Yeah, I’m going to miss all of this.”

And Clay. She was going to miss making love to him, feeling his body move against hers, inside her. She was going to miss the way he touched her, the way his lips slid over hers, the way her stomach tumbled whenever he looked at her.

“You can always come back. You’re welcome to use my condo anytime you’d like.”

But he wouldn’t be in it. There was a difference. It wouldn’t be the same. “Thanks. I really appreciate that.”

“But you can’t bring a guy.”

She arched a brow. “I can’t?”

“No. The thought of you fucking some random guy in my bed here just doesn’t sit well with me.”

She tried not to grin. “So there are conditions to me using your condo.”

“Sorry. Yeah.”

“I could lie.”

“You could. But you won’t. You don’t know how to lie.”

She finished her glass of wine and set it on the table. “Damn. I’m going to have to learn to be unscrupulous. Then I can have hot monkey sex in this fabulous condo anytime I can get away.”

He stood and came over to her, pulled her out of the chair and dragged her against him.

“Anytime you want hot monkey sex in this condo, just give me a call. I’ll meet you.”

Her skin prickled with chills at the same time her insides melted with heat. “Is that a firm offer? Can I get it in writing?”

“Firm offer, yes. In writing, no. But my word’s good.”

Okay, so he hadn’t actually offered his undying love, but what had she expected? They were friends. They worked together. Not even together, really. They were competitors in business. And they’d just spent a week fucking each other like crazy. That he might want to do it again sometime was . . . nice.

Nice? Hell, it was more than nice. It was more than she expected. She knew Clay’s lifestyle. He was a compulsive serial dater, and he never did repeats.

She laid her palm against his chest, somehow comforted by the steady beat of his heart.

“Wow. You want to see me again. This is . . . unexpected. So rare for you.”

He narrowed his gaze at her. “Are you insulting me?”

“Not intentionally. You just never see women . . . repeatedly.”

“True enough. You aren’t most women I know. We see each other a lot. You’re an

exception.”

He revealed nothing in that statement. How typical for Clay. She patted his chest, trying to keep things light. “I’ll keep you in mind whenever I need to scratch the itch again.”

His hands slid down her back, his fingertips tantalizing her but rubbing ever so seductively above her butt. “We don’t have to come back to Hawaii to have sex with each other, Ella.”

She stilled. “You mean . . . back in Tulsa? You and me