On the Ropes by Holley Trent Read Free Book Online Page A

you’re sleeping,” he said and pulled the passenger-side door open. “I hope the housekeepers put covers on the beds. I’m too fucking tired to wrestle with fitted sheets.”
    And just like that, the tiny little speck of bliss she’d allowed herself to feel abated.
    When she’d left Bermuda, she wouldn’t have minded the idea of having a room to herself. Now, though, she feared being disconnected. She’d grown up being disconnected—not mattering. She’d learned to keep her own counsel and grew to distrust others who would give it. She was suspicious of people who offered her things without expectation or recompense.
    She’d always assumed Stephen would want that from her—her complete capitulation in exchange for his attention—but maybe she’d been unfair.
    No, she’d been wrong .
    He was a flirt, but maybe he would only ever see her as a friend he liked to tease. Wouldn’t he want to touch her otherwise?
     
     

Chapter 5
     
    The drive to the house was a short one, and good thing because Stephen regretted eating that heavy meal. He’d trained his body to function on very little sleep, but he’d gone beyond burning the candle at both ends to melting it in the middle, too. Ideally, he’d spend a good portion of the week catching up on sleep. That might be the only way he’d be able to keep his hands off of her.
    Fuck, that was getting increasingly harder. Not allowing himself to reach out and smooth one of her short curls over her ear during dinner nearly drove him to distraction. And then Derrick had to go flapping his trap about sharing. The thought of his prim Jan fully dominated and filled to her brink had nearly made him cream his pants. He and Derrick had always worked well as a team. They knew when to get out of each other’s way. But, he didn’t want to share Jan. She made him want to be selfish.
    He killed the engine and unbuckled his seatbelt. “Don’t worry about the luggage. I’ll get it all out before bed. How’s your ankle, by the way?”
    “I very nearly forgot about it,” she said. “I guess that’s a good thing. I’ll take a look at it before I get into the shower.”
    “Yeah.”
    He turned away and opened his door before she could see his grimace. His natural inclination was to offer to help scrub her back and any other places she had difficulty reaching, but he tamped down his compulsion to say it aloud. Her scent and voice had had his cock half-hard for too fucking much of the evening—that is, when it wasn’t trying to stand at full alert. Her breezy skirt clung to her ass and legs as she walked, and though it covered everything, it left very little to imagination. There was just something about a cinched waist and round ass that made him temporarily forget all his home training. The week ahead was going to be goddamned torturous.
    “It’s a lovely house,” she said before he closed his door.
    “Thanks.” He closed the door and moved around to the back of the SUV, adjusting his dick as he went. Thank God the nearest streetlight was blown out. Maybe she wouldn’t catch on to his distress and his cock would chill the fuck out while he toted the luggage in.
    She’d already hopped down and closed the door before he made it around to the passenger side.
    “I was going to get the door for you.” He’d always made a habit of opening doors for ladies—dates or not—and was always surprised when there were a few who found that perplexing.
    “Sorry. I’m just excited, I guess.”
    He gestured toward the door. Houses this close to the water were built up on stilts, and he’d driven the SUV onto the parking pad beneath. “Let me get that unlocked before the dome light shuts off. I’ll turn on the lights out here and in the stairway so you can see where you’re going.”
    He felt around on his key ring for the key with the rubber cap and found it by the time he reached the doormat. It was a damn shame the house was empty so much of the year. He and Meg had talked