“We’ve never once talked about a woman I was seeing. I’ve never mentioned that I’d met someone or introduced you to a girlfriend. Why do you think that is?”
“I-I just thought you didn’t want to talk to me about those things.”
“Those things?” I echoed.
She leveled a stare at me that warned me to play nice. I had no intention of doing that and when I dropped my attention to her mouth, a frustrated noise rasped in her throat.
“There’s never been a shortage of women in your life,” she said. “There’s models and actresses and singers and?—”
“Em, I love you, but you’re really fucking wrong about all of it. Those were public relations setups. Either it was a publicity event for a brand or a favor to someone. None of it was real.”
“Then…you aren’t plowing your way through all the young starlets.”
I wanted to drag her bottom lip between my teeth and just move the fuck on from this mess but I talked myself out of that. For now. “No.”
“But everyone thinks you are.”
I lifted my shoulders. “If you say so.”
“And that’s why you needed”—she wiggled her ring finger at me—“this.”
“I’ve always needed that.” I took that hand and settled it on the back of my neck. “You’ve always known it too.”
Her drowsy eyes narrowed and her lips turned down. “But what about—everything else? I know you’ve always been…active.”
My brows lifted as a smile tugged at my lips. “But I never liked any of them.”
“Why not?”
Finally, I brought my hands to her hips and pulled her in close, as close as we could get with these last few layers ofclothes between us. Her gaze dropped, her nails pressed into my nape, and I knew she felt me stiff between her thighs. Even if she was only hearing half of what I was saying, I needed her to understand this. “I don’t think it matters anymore.”
She swallowed hard. “What do you mean?”
I waited, wanting her to see it for herself. “I’m married now.”
She blinked several times. “Oh.”
“And it seems”—I ran my thumb over the plump line of her lips—“you’re married too. Time to leave those exes in the past where they belong. Can you do that for me?”
She nodded, her eyes growing heavier with each blink. “I think so.”
“That’s my girl.”
She tucked her head against my shoulder and murmured something I didn’t catch. The hood slipped off her head and I rubbed my face against her hair. Then, “I’m really tired.”
I kissed her temple. “Yes, you are.”
I rolled her down to the mattress and tried to pull the blankets up around her but she immediately kicked them away like the feral creature she was. The sweatshirt bunched up around her waist in the process, leaving me staring at hot pink panties with tiny white bows on either hip.
I managed to choke out, “I’ll let you rest.”
The plan was to get up, sit in the cold plunge until I calmed the fuck down, and then run flat out for an hour. Very simple, very effective. Or lock myself in the nearest bathroom and jerk off. Another straightforward solution. Either one would work.
But Emme grabbed my arm and asked, “Will you stay with me?”
She pulled my arm across her torso, tucked her backside into my lap, and nestled up into me until she found the perfect spot.
And all I could say was, “Always.”
