ᴛʜᴇ ʀɪᴠᴀʟꜱ ᴄᴏɴᴛʀᴀᴄᴛ

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𝘞𝘙𝘌𝘕 𝘑𝘈𝘔𝘌𝘚

I JUMP ON MY SMALL LUGGAGE until it closes, then I bend in a half pretzel to awkwardly zip it up. I lay all the way back and let out a long, harsh sigh.

Lex was over my apartment earlier and brought over Thai food. But she had to leave for 'family game night'. I've decided to not pressure her into telling me about her secret lover. Obviously she's not ready to tell me yet, but when she is, i'll have no choice but to except them. Even if no one is good enough for Barbie.

Just when I sit up from the floor, the sound of an incoming text message comes from my phone on top of the counter. I grab my luggage and put the handle up. Then I shuffle over to the counter, Puff is perched over my phone, curiously looking at the screen.

𝙢𝙤𝙤𝙨𝙚: 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚.
𝙢𝙚: 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙣𝙤𝙬.

I look up at Puff and she looks up at me, then at my phone, and back. I'm gonna miss her. For the two days i'm gone.

I scoop her up and nuzzle her into my neck, she purrs. Then I smack a big kiss on top of her head, she shakes it. I squeeze her one more time before double checking the note I left for Maxon, Rhys's friend.

Once i've made sure everything is squared away, I grab my luggage and make my way out the door. Puff snuggles up on the couch and angles her head up at me. I blow her a kiss before locking my door.

When I make my way outside, I see a familiar black suv waiting. When I approach the car, I open the passenger side and look in. The car is spotless, i'm talking straight from the factory to here. And then I see the driver.

Rhys is sporting a plain black t-shirt, with black dress pants, and shoes that are hidden underneath the dashboard. His elbow is perched on the center console, a watch fitted around his wrist, his phone in his hand. My eyes meet his and I see them narrowed.

"Took you long enough." His voice isn't as clipped as when I first met him, but there's still an edge to it.

"Open your trunk." I fold the handle of my suitcase down. His brows pinch together.

"You need all that for a weekend trip?" His eyes lazily roam my suitcase and then up my body with no shame.

"Pop the trunk." I flatten my voice, and he rolls his eyes, then with the click of a button, the trunk opens.

I walk to the back and slide my luggage into the spacious trunk, a small briefcase-looking bag in the corner of it. That's all he's taking? Ha. I'll laugh in his face when he needs to borrow a dress because he didn't pack accordingly.

I close the trunk and make my way to the passenger side, then hop in and slightly slam the door behind me. Petty suits me.

When I look back at Rhys, he's looking directly at me. I raise my eyebrows, sort of in a challenging way. He quietly scoffs. Wow, there is a tremendously large stick up his ass today.

I pull out my phone and text Lex,

𝙢𝙚: 𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙮 𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙘𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙨 𝙖 𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙧𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙧𝙮 𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙞𝙩 𝙢𝙪𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧
𝙡𝙚𝙭: 𝙇𝙈𝘼𝙊𝙓𝙎𝙄&!&𝙃𝘿𝙆$𝙎
𝙢𝙚: :|
𝙡𝙚𝙭: 𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙗𝙖𝙚

Just when i'm about to send my location, a tattooed arm reaches across my chest, then it grabs onto the seat belt and brings it across my body. His knuckles skim my thigh as he buckles me in, and I curse the tiny tingles that explode in that area.

My head snaps up at look at him. "I'm not going to babysit you this whole weekend. Either learn to do basic things or get out." The nerve of this man.

"Buckling my seatbelt wasn't part of our agreement. We agreed that you'd drive. So, drive." I motion towards the road.

"Don't worry, that's the last time i'm going to help you this weekend. Can we agree on that?" His voice is deep and snarky.

I roll my eyes instead of agreeing. He starts driving. Well this was going to be a hell of a car ride.

__________

"Crawl into the back." Barely an hour into the car ride and Rhys is already bossing me around.

"Pardon?" I glance at him from my phone.

"Crawl into the back and grab me a water bottle." He doesn't take his eyes off the road as he instructs me to do so.

"Excuse me?" I lock my phone and place it in between my thighs, then turn my head to stare at Rhys.

"I have a small cooler in the backseat, crawl into the backseat and grab me one." He grinds his teeth and i'm almost satisfied with his reaction.

"I thought you didn't want me to unbuckle my seatbelt." I cross my arms.

"Don't make this difficult, love." Love? "I asked you to grab me a water bottle, not suck me off."

"At least if I sucked you off, I wouldn't have to unbuckle." My hands don't budge from under my arms.

"Have at it then," He motions to his lap and my eyes betray me and dip down, then they're back to his profile. "but as I said before, grabbing me a water bottle would be much more satisfying to me right now."

Asshole.

"I'm not arguing about blowjobs Mr. Moore." I unbuckle my seatbelt and slowly crawl over the console and into the backseat.

When I sit on a seat, I look up at the mirror and see Rhys's eyes flick back to the road. Perv. I grab the water bottle from the cooler and crawl back to the passenger seat. Just because I can, I toss the bottle right on his lap.

He doesn't even flinch, he just uses his free hand to untwist the cap. One hand stays on the steering wheel as the other brings the water bottle to his lips. And then very very slowly he tips his head back and I watch as he swallows every last drop.

A shiver rolls down my back and I force myself to look back at my phone. But the mental image of his adam's apple bobbing up and down-almost like he's struggling-is on repeat in my head. I groan. Not out loud, I wouldn't give Rhys the satisfaction.

__________

I wake up to the feeling of of fingers poking my lips. I squint my eyes open to see Rhys's face directly in front of mine. His hand is extended out toward my face; his fingers playing with my lips. I grip his wrist and his eyes move from my lips to my eyes.

"You look dead when you sleep." What a sweet-talker.

His eyes move down to my hand around his wrist. I tighten my grip-just a bit-so that my nails bite into the delicate skin there. He doesn't wince or even flinch, he just looks at me with a certain heated gaze. The heat makes my limbs turn to Jello and I release him from my fingers.

"We're here." His gaze hardens and I regain the ability to move.

I check the time to see that it's ten o'clock at night. I already had dinner with Lex, but I packed snacks just in case. Rhys won't be having any.

____________________