Set In Stone

by K. M. Scott

  Pushing her hair back to see her face, I had to admit she really was incredible once she let her guard down. I hadn’t thought she’d turn out like that.

  Her eyes opened and she looked up at me sweetly. Still so beautiful, even first thing in the morning.

  Then her expression changed, and her dark eyes grew wide. “Oh, my God. How did this happen?”

  I smiled down at her. Definitely the same Tressa. “Well, I kissed you and you kissed me back and our clothes fell off. From that point on, it was just nature.”

  Tressa covered her face. “Don’t make jokes. This isn’t funny. The press is going to know you stayed here and I’m going to have to deal with questions all day. Oh, my God! What time is it?”

  She rolled off me to look for her phone, but it wasn’t on the nightstand. The sight of her perfect ass made my cock grow even harder. Reaching over, I slid my hand around her waist to pull her back.

  “I think you should bring that beautiful body back here so we can continue what we left off with when we fell asleep.”

  Leaping out of bed, she hurried around her bedroom looking for her phone. Folding my arms behind my head, I watched her and loved how sexy she looked running around naked.

  “I don’t think the sun’s even up yet, so I’m sure you’re fine,” I said as she bolted out of the bedroom.

  She returned a minute later with her phone in her hand, shaking it in the air. “Four calls missed already! I can’t believe I let you convince me to sleep with you last night.”

  “Just curious. What part of what I did convinced you? You know, for future reference. Was it the kiss or something else?”

  “Stop making jokes. As the Chief Operating Officer of the Richmont hotel chain, I’m responsible for every hotel around the world. There could be a problem in one of the London locations. They called twice already.”

  I patted the bed next to me and smiled. “Come back over here. You can call them from bed, can’t you?”

  Just then, Tressa looked down and her eyes grew wide again. “Ugh! I have to get dressed and get to the office.”

  She rushed off to the bathroom, so I followed her and found her turning on the water for a shower. Leaning against the doorframe, I watched, loving what I saw, and asked, “Are you always this stressed out after a night of incredible sex?”

  Turning to look at me, she let her gaze run from my head to my feet and frowned. “Please stop asking me questions. I might have a crisis on my hands, and you’re standing there with the world’s biggest hard on.”

  I glanced down at my erect cock and smiled as I looked back up at her. “I don’t know if it’s the world’s biggest, but thanks for the kudos. Seriously, are you usually this stressed out in the morning? You’re not going to make it to thirty if you keep it up like this.”

  “Please let me take a shower so I can get to work,” she said as the water began spraying from the showerhead.

  She stepped into the glass shower and wet her hair as I watched her, impressed with how beautiful she truly was. She really did have to relax, though. The woman had only been awake for less than five minutes and already she was functioning at prime stress level.

  I followed her into the shower and grabbed the shampoo bottle off the shelf. Tressa opened her eyes and looked up at me with an expression of pure exasperation. “You don’t know how to take no for an answer, do you?”

  “You haven’t told me no since last night. Now turn around so I can shampoo your hair.”

  “Shampoo my hair?” she asked, obviously surprised by my offer.

  I squeezed some of her orange shampoo that smelled like citrus and coconuts into my hand and began to work it into her long brown hair. “Yeah.”

  Leaning around her, I saw her smile as I gently massaged the shampoo into her hair and scalp. “Then I’m going to do something else to take the edge off.”

  “And if I say no?”

  I kissed her cheek and continued to shampoo her hair. “You won’t. Now relax. You’re going to like starting your day like this so much you’re going to be begging me to take showers with you every morning.”

  “You think so?” she said with a chuckle.

  “I know so. Stop fighting this. You know you like it, so just let yourself enjoy it.”

  She started to say something in response but stopped and leaned back against me instead. As much as I loved the feel of her body pressed to mine, it made shampooing her hair impossible, so I gently pushed her off my chest and turned her around to face me.

  “I promise once I’m done here we’ll get back to that,” I said with a smile as I smoothed her hair off her forehead.

  “Should I close my eyes or are you good enough that I can leave them open?” she asked with a smile.

  “Better close them. I don’t think sex with a crying woman is a good thing.”

  She followed my instructions and giggled. “So women don’t routinely cry when you’re fucking them, Killian?”

  I tugged her hair and tilted her head back to kiss her. “No, and I would think you’d already know that since we’ve already had sex nearly four times.”

  Tressa’s eyes flew open just as a stream of shampoo rolled down from the top of her head. “Eyes closed,” I said before pushing it off her face.

  “Sorry. But I don’t understand the nearly four times. By my count, it was only three. The first time out in the living room and the second and third times in my bed. Where’s number four coming from?”

  “You started sucking my cock but fell asleep. Don’t worry. I’m not holding that against you. Okay, time to rinse.”

  She opened her eyes and smiled up at me. “You’re a very bossy hairdresser, sir.”

  I stepped around her and waited as she moved under the water. She really was beautiful, even with her hair soaking wet and with no makeup on her face. When she finished, she opened her eyes, pushed her hair back, and looked down to avoid my gaze.

  “This isn’t exactly the way I want anyone to see me. I must look like a drowned rat.”

  Reaching out, I snaked my arm around her waist and pulled her to me so her body pressed against mine. “You look as gorgeous as you did last night. Next up is conditioner.”

  “Conditioner?”

  I pointed at the bottle on the shelf next to us. “Conditioner. You wouldn’t have it here if you didn’t use it.”

  “I’m just confused at how you know anything about all of this.”

  Squeezing a glob of conditioner into my palm, I smiled before rubbing my hands together. “My mother had a salon when I was a little boy. Ready?”

  Tressa looked down at my hands and shook her head. “That’s not going to be enough. My hair is way too long and needs about five times more.”

  I slid my hands over her hair down to the ends. “Trust me. This is enough.”

  She stared up at me in disbelief as I began to massage the conditioner in. “You are a very bossy hairdresser for sure.”

  “Shhh. I’m working my magic here.”

  “I guess I’ll just have to keep myself busy some other way,” she said with a giggle as she reached out and palmed my cock.

  The feel of her hand stroking up and down my shaft felt so fucking good that I forgot what I was doing. My hands stilled in her hair for a moment, but when she cupped my balls and gave them a gentle squeeze, I grabbed a handful of hair and tugged as need coursed through me.

  “Enough conditioner. Rinse,” I bit out.

  With a pout, she let go of my cock and stepped under the water to do as I ordered. A minute later, she was finished and we could get down to business.

  “Now as for that stress relief I promised.”

  “Let me guess. A deep conditioning treatment.”

  Her teasing made me smile. I ran my hands down her sides and cupped her ass. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard it called that, but we can use that for our secret code.”

  “Why do we need a secret code?”

  I leaned down and nuzzled her neck, nibbling on
her skin. “You never know. We might be in public somewhere when the need to fuck you comes over me.”

  “Mmmm…so we’re going to be in public now? I don’t see how that will work since cameras follow you everywhere,” Tressa said as she slid her hands down over my abs to palm my cock once again.

  Lifting my mouth from her neck, I kissed her lips. “I’ll make sure they don’t. Deal?”

  She looked up at me and smiled. “Deal.”

  “I should warn you that the need to fuck you will be happening quite often.”

  “Oh? You can see into the future?” she asked as she slid her hand from the base of my cock to the tip.

  Fuck, her touch made it nearly impossible to think straight. Enough of this playing games.

  I lifted her up and held her over my ready-and-waiting cock. She wrapped her legs around my waist, eager for what I was about to give her, and slid her arms around my neck. Steadying my feet on the wet tile, I lowered her down onto me and gave my hips a single thrust, filling her completely.

  Tressa moaned softly, and I saw in those beautiful dark eyes how much she loved this. For all her fighting and iciness, the truth of who Tressa Stone was could be found in her eyes as she rolled her hips each time I pushed my cock into her perfectly tight cunt.

  She truly was unlike any other woman I’d ever been with. As difficult as she’d been before last night, as soon as we kissed, everything else but desire melted away in her. The transformation shocked me at first since I’d suspected she wanted me but never thought the woman beneath the feisty façade could be so sensual and yet so sweet.

  “Oh, God…don’t stop,” she whimpered in my ear in that voice that bordered on begging and made something deep inside me want to make her mine.

  I couldn’t have stopped, even if I wanted to. The need to please her took over my mind and body, and I pumped into her in search of that moment when she’d whimper as her orgasm raged through her and her cunt milked my cock to my own release.

  She rode me as much as I fucked her, the two of us desperately needing to come. Our eyes fixed on one other with an intensity I didn’t recognize from anyone I’d ever been with. In hers, I saw desire and passion and something else I couldn’t place.

  Was it fear? Why would she fear me?

  As I watched her bite her lip as her body began to give in to me, I saw whatever that was in her eyes disappear, replaced by pure satisfaction as she came hard on my cock. The feel of her walls squeezing me pushed me over the edge a moment later, and I buried my face in her neck.

  We stood there in the shower, the water hitting her back as I sagged against the cool tile wall behind me. My eyes remained closed, and I reveled in the pleasure we’d given one another and how good she felt in my arms. Tressa gently ran her fingertips across my back and shoulders, softly stroking my skin while she sighed in contentment.

  “That was…incredible,” she said quietly before kissing my cheek.

  I lifted my head to see her smiling. I liked seeing her like this. Relaxed. Happy. Satisfied.

  “See? I told you it would relieve your stress.”

  Looking away, she blushed so adorably I couldn’t help but be charmed. We’d had sex in half a dozen positions and shared the most intimate parts of one another since last night, and my lame joke about sex as stress relief embarrassed her.

  “What?” I asked, needing to know why she blushed at that.

  Tressa lifted her head and met my gaze. “Nothing. We better get out of this shower or we’re going to be pruney for days.”

  I kissed her, letting my lips linger on hers to avoid ending our time together so soon, and then lowered her to the tile floor below. She quickly turned off the water and opened the glass door, grabbing a white Richmont hotel towel to cover herself before handing me one.

  “If you need more than one, there are more in the cabinet over there,” she said, pointing toward the vanity and tall cabinet on the other side of the room.

  She hurried out of the bathroom, leaving me standing there in the shower alone wondering where the woman I’d had sex with last night and again a few moments ago had gone. The Tressa Stone who’d fought me every step of the way since the first time we met in her father’s office seemed to have returned, but I had no idea why.

  And I had to admit I was disappointed.

  I dried off and wrapped the towel around my hips before heading out to her bedroom. I found her combing her hair as she sat on the bed. Taking a seat next to her, I said nothing but waited for her to speak.

  Finally, she turned to look at me and said, “I can’t sit around here all day. I have to go to work.”

  “Nobody’s stopping you.”

  “You’re stopping me. You keep making me want to stay,” she answered with a cute smile.

  Reaching out, I touched the ends of her hair and kissed her softly on the shoulder. “Then stay. Tell all those people who think they should be bothering you twenty-four hours a day that you’re taking a day off.”

  The smile faded from her face and she shook her head. “I can’t. That’s just not who I am.”

  “Is that why you’re back to icy Tressa?”

  Her mouth turned down into a deep frown and her eyes filled with sadness that made me instantly regret my words. “Please don’t describe me like that. I would think after all we did that you’d know I’m not icy.”

  “I didn’t mean that as anything bad. I just noticed something changed in you after we finished in there.”

  Tressa shook her head, but the sadness remained in her eyes even if the frown left her face. “Nothing changed. I’m the same person I’ve always been. And you’re the same person you are.”

  That sounded ominous. I didn’t like where this was headed.

  “Whatever we are with the rest of the world, we’re pretty damn good when it’s just the two of us, don’t you think?”

  “Can that ever be enough, though?” she asked, cutting to the heart of things like always. “You’re famous and those cameras and the press aren’t going anywhere. I don’t want to live my life on the gossip sites with strangers dissecting the look on my face or the clothes I wear or if you really care about me because of the way you hold my hand. I’m the wrong kind of woman for that.”

  “I told you. I’ll make sure that won’t happen.”

  Tressa turned her body to face me and I saw that promise wouldn’t be enough. “You love being famous. You told me that last night. You like being someone the press follows around. I won’t ask you to give that up.”

  I took her hand in mine and brought it to my lips. Kissing it, I looked at her and smiled. “You don’t have to ask me to give it up. I’ll have that and when it’s just us, they won’t be around. I’ll make sure of it. Trust me. It’s not as big a deal as you think. Today, I’m a big story in this town. Next week, someone new will come along and I’ll just be the quarterback for New York. It really happens that fast.”

  The look of hope that had flickered in her eyes for a moment dimmed, and she asked, “Then why hasn’t it happened already? You’ve been in the league for years.”

  “Because I never had a reason to not look for it until now. I’m twenty-nine, though, and my days as a quarterback for any team are numbered. I think it’s time I look for something else.”

  “And I’m that something else?”

  I’d never lied to any woman before, and I didn’t want to start with Tressa. “Here’s the thing. If you haven’t heard about my past already, you will, so let me tell you the truth. There have been a lot of women, but none who made me think of them more than the game. Until you. Now maybe it’s because I’ve met you late in my career, or maybe it’s because you’re you. I don’t know. And I don’t know what’s going to happen with us. All I know is from the moment I first saw you at that auction, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”

  “I can’t live my life in a fishbowl, Killian. I hope you understand that.”

  “You won’t have to,” I said and then pulle
d her onto my lap. “It’s not like I’m going to impress you with dinner at fancy restaurants and public things like that. You’ll get the private Killian that no one else gets.”

  Looking into my eyes, she asked, “Will that be enough for you?”

  I chuckled and kissed her. “Trust me. From what I’ve seen so far with you, I’ll have more than enough to keep me busy.”

  Tressa’s cheeks blushed that pink color that made her look sweet. Whatever happened with us, I liked the challenge of making her happy enough that she felt comfortable letting this side of her come out. I had a feeling she didn’t do that for most people.

  Chapter Ten

  Tressa

  After a long day at work, I arrived back at the penthouse to find a bouquet of twenty-four red roses in a crystal vase waiting for me on my living room coffee table. I lifted the small, white envelope out of the flowers and smiled when I read the card.

  Redeemable for one shampoo.

  This thing with Killian could never work out. I knew that. I knew our differences were too much for either one of us to overcome, no matter what we told one another. Still, I couldn’t deny the man did something no man had ever accomplished.

  He made me happy. I hadn’t realized how much I wanted that until he came into my life. I couldn’t deny I had a good time with him last night. He was incredible in bed, and when there was no press around to take his picture, he was attentive like no other man I’d ever met. He also could handle me and rocked my body like no one else ever had.

  I closed my eyes and remembered how I felt in his arms. An ache formed between my legs as the memory reminded me of how he knew just what to do to please me.

  But it was useless to think about what might be when it couldn’t be. He wasn’t going to change who he was, and I wasn’t going to change who I was. We were just too different.

  I should call him to thank him for the flowers. No, that would be a bad idea.

  What was the point? We’d talk, he’d make me want to see him again, and that just wasn’t something I should do.