“I don’t know who he is anymore. He’s a complete stranger, and I...I hate that,” she said, absently scratching her fingers over my chest. “What happened to him?”
“Power.” I squeezed her hand on my chest and tried to put everything else out of my head for now. “Power happened to him. He got a taste of it through Dad, and even more when Dad decided to run for president.” I scooted off the countertop to share the same small space as her. “Which is why I need to go.”
She looked up at me, her dark eyes concerned. “Where?”
“To put out some fires. I’ll be back before you know it. Go grocery shopping if you want. But please,” I said, trailing a finger down the bridge of her glasses to smooth the worried line underneath. “Don’t forget the bacon.”
She snorted and shook her head. “You need an intervention. Okay fine, I’ll go do the woman’s work while you go do the man stuff only because I’m starving.”
“Women’s work.” I dipped my head for just a taste of my sweet magnet in the soft curve of her neck. “It’s the grocery store. It’s not like you’re barefoot and pregnant.”
Her whole body stiffened. She slid away from me with an empty expression. “I’ll go now.”
Obviously I’d struck a nerve to make her shut off like that. I scrubbed a hand down my chin and stared after her as she left the bathroom. Was it because I’d said the p word?
“I was kidding,” I said, following after her.
She slung her purse over her arm and fluffed her hair around its strap. “I know.”
“I didn’t know we had a safe word.”
She screwed up her face at me over her shoulder. “What?”
“You know, a safe word. A word people use when they want to stop a...uh... sexual partner from going too far. I said pregnant and you immediately shut down.”
“So...Iwas going too far?”
“I’m only twenty, babe.” I winked. “I can only take so much of all the delicious things you have to offer.”
A smirk tilted those sinful lips. “You’re a rotten liar.”
She didn’t know the half of it.
“I shut down, as you call it, because I’m hungry,” she continued. “I was unaware we had a safe word as well, but I don’t think pregnant should be it.”
“Okay. Fair enough,” I said, striding toward her. “So what should our safe word be in case one of us goes too far?”
She paused by the front door. “Apocalypse?”
I chuckled. “Well, that would definitely put an end to pretty much everything, I suppose. Apocalypse it is.”
“Behave yourself today, Sam,” she said. “No more fighting.”
“What fun is that?”
She gave me one last warning look before slipping outside. Then she immediately changed her mind and came back, squeezing and releasing the strap on her purse in quick succession, with a determined lift to her chin.
“Pregnant,” she blurted. “I was once. I had the baby, and I put it...herup for adoption.” Her mouth wavered as if there was more she wanted to say, but she snapped it shut so tight the tendons in her neck strained.
A million thoughts flooded my head. Before I could stop it, a single word grinded out. “Rick.”
She looked at me for a long time with a haunted look in her eyes I never wanted to see again. Finally, she nodded.
A strange noise came from the back of my throat. “Did he rape you?”
“No. I was...” She swallowed and started again. “I was young and stupid.”
I blinked down at the few tile squares between us that hours ago we’d fucked on, doing my best to wrap my under-caffeinated, bruised head around this. She obviously blamed herself, but it took two to the deed. Rick was a fucking asshole who should have known better.
