Stranger love part 5

The work issue took less than twenty minutes to settle.

A bitter colleague had been sending the messages, hoping to create enough doubt to pull Rhys’s attention away from whatever had kept him offline for two days. Rhys handled it quietly and completely. When we stepped back into the hotel lobby I expected to feel only relief.

Instead I saw my ex.

He stood near the entrance to the lounge with the blonde from the bar, one hand resting on her waist in the same casual way he used to touch me. The moment his eyes found mine the easy smile he had been wearing disappeared. His gaze dropped to Rhys’s hand at the small of my back, then returned to my face. Something tight and bitter settled in his expression.

Rhys noticed. “That’s him.”

“Yes.”

“Do you want to go upstairs?”

I watched the man who had left me with soft excuses and then replaced me in under two weeks. The old hurt was still there, but it no longer decided anything for me.

“No,” I said. “I want him to watch.”

Rhys’s eyes darkened. He did not ask me to explain. He simply let me lead.

I walked straight toward the lounge, past my ex and the blonde, close enough that he could not pretend he had not seen us. Rhys stayed half a step behind me, his presence solid and unmistakable. I chose a low couch in clear view of the bar and sat. Rhys sat beside me, close enough that our thighs touched. He ordered drinks without looking away from me.

My ex had followed. He stood near the far end of the bar with his date, trying and failing to look unaffected. Every few seconds his eyes returned to us.

I turned to Rhys, placed my hand on his thigh, and leaned in until my mouth was near his ear.

“Kiss me like you mean it.”

He did.

The kiss was slow, deep, and thoroughly claiming. One of his hands slid into my hair, tilting my head the way he liked. The other rested high on my thigh, fingers tracing small, deliberate circles under the hem of my dress. I made a soft sound against his mouth that I knew would carry. When we finally broke apart I was breathing faster. Rhys’s eyes stayed on mine, dark and focused, as if no one else in the room existed.

I glanced past his shoulder. My ex was staring, jaw tight, the blonde speaking to him without getting a response.

Rhys’s thumb stroked the inside of my thigh, higher this time. “Still want him to see?”

“Yes.”

He stood, took my hand, and led me toward the elevators. We did not rush. My ex and the blonde remained in the lounge, but I felt his eyes on us the entire way across the lobby.

The elevator doors closed. Rhys backed me against the mirrored wall and kissed me again, harder. His hand slid fully under my dress and found me already wet. He stroked me slowly, deliberately, while the numbers climbed. I moaned into his mouth. The sound was raw and unrestrained.

When the doors opened on our floor he walked me backward down the hall without ever taking his hands off me. The moment the door to the room shut he spun me around, bent me over the desk, and shoved my dress up. Underwear was pushed aside. He freed himself and thrust into me in one deep, rough stroke.

I cried out.

He fucked me hard and steady, the wet slap of skin on skin loud in the quiet room. One hand gripped my hip. The other reached around and rubbed my clit in tight, relentless circles.

“Louder,” he ordered against my ear. “I want him to know exactly what he gave up.”

I did not hold back. My moans grew sharper, filthier, mixing with the wet sound of him driving into me. The desk shook. I came hard, body clenching around him, a broken cry tearing from my throat. Rhys followed moments later, burying himself deep and groaning my name as he spilled inside me.

We stayed locked together, both breathing hard.

Eventually he eased out and turned me to face him. He cupped my jaw, eyes searching mine.

“You okay?”

I nodded, still trembling. “I am better than okay.”

We cleaned up in silence. Later, while we lay in bed with the city lights cutting across the sheets, my phone buzzed once.

A message from my ex.

“Was that necessary?”

I stared at the screen for a second, then typed back.

“Yes.”

Then I blocked the number and set the phone face down on the nightstand.

Rhys pulled me against his chest. His heartbeat was steady under my ear. Outside the city kept moving. Inside the room the only thing that mattered was the quiet certainty that I had stopped looking backward.

I had used a stranger to prove a point.

I kept him because he made me feel chosen.

And that was the only ending I needed.