Stranger love part 3

Chapter 3

Morning light cut across the bed in thin stripes.

I woke first. Rhys was still asleep beside me, one arm heavy across my waist, face turned into the pillow. The sheet had slipped low on his hips. I lay still and listened to his breathing, trying to decide whether last night had been the best mistake of my life or the start of something I was not ready for.

My phone buzzed on the nightstand.

I reached for it carefully. One new message from my ex.

Saw you leave with someone last night. Didn’t take you long.

The words landed like a slap. I locked the screen and set the phone face down.

Rhys shifted. His arm tightened. “You’re thinking too loud.”

“My ex texted.”

He opened his eyes. Sleep roughened his voice. “What did he say?”

“That it didn’t take me long.”

Rhys propped himself on one elbow and looked at me for a long moment. Then he took the phone from my hand, typed something, and handed it back.

I read the message he had sent.

It took exactly as long as it needed to. Don’t text her again.

I stared at him. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“I know.” He brushed hair off my face. “I wanted to.”

The quiet between us felt heavier than before. I sat up, pulling the sheet with me. “What happens now? You go back to your life and I go back to mine and we pretend last night was just convenient?”

Rhys sat up too. “I don’t want convenient. I want more of this.” He gestured between us. “But I also don’t want you using me to hurt someone who already left.”

The honesty stung. “That’s not what last night was.”

“Then prove it.” He leaned in and kissed me, slow at first, then deeper. His hand slid under the sheet and found me already warm. “Stay another night. No audience. No proving anything. Just us.”

I should have said no. Instead I kissed him back.

He pulled me over him until I straddled his hips. He was hard already. I sank down onto him in one slow glide, both of us exhaling at the same time. The stretch felt familiar now, still intense. I started to move, rolling my hips, taking him deep. Wet sounds rose between us almost immediately.

Rhys gripped my waist and thrust up to meet me. “That’s it. Take what you need.”

I rode him harder. The bed creaked. My moans mixed with his lower groans. Every downward stroke forced another wet sound into the room. He sat up, wrapped an arm around my back, and sucked hard on my nipple while I kept moving. The dual sensation pushed me higher fast.

“Rhys, I’m close.”

“Come on me.”

I did, clenching around him with a broken cry. He followed seconds later, burying his face in my neck and groaning as he spilled inside me.

We stayed locked together, breathing hard.

My phone buzzed again on the nightstand.

Neither of us reached for it right away.

When I finally looked, the message was from the hotel front desk.

Ms. Cole, your original reservation has been extended complimentary for two additional nights by request of Mr. Rhys Langford. Please let us know if you require anything.

I turned the screen toward him. “Langford?”

Rhys’s expression closed slightly. “My full name.”

“You booked the room under a different name last night.”

“I travel for work. Sometimes I prefer privacy.”

The way he said it left a thin crack of doubt. I climbed off him and reached for the discarded T-shirt.

“Sienna.”

“I need a minute.”

I walked into the bathroom and shut the door. When I came back out he was dressed in last night’s pants, shirt still open, watching me carefully.

“I have a meeting across town in an hour,” he said. “I’ll come back after. We can talk properly.”

I nodded, even though something restless had started turning under my ribs.

He kissed me once at the door, firm and deliberate, then left.

The second the door closed my phone lit up again.

This time the message was from an unknown number.

You should ask him about the Langford acquisition. And about the woman who left the bar with him last month.

I stared at the screen until the words blurred.

Someone knew he was here.

And they wanted me to know it too.