As I studied her beautiful features, her attention veered toward my mouth. She traced my bottom lip and asked, “Do you like to kiss?”
“I like to kiss you,” I quickly replied, baring my teeth and gently nipping her finger. The rumble of her laughter was a balm to my soul. Sophie was unexpectedly softening me, and I couldn’t determine yet if that was a good or bad thing.
“My ex didn’t like to,” she confessed, scrunching her face afterward as if she’d said something wrong. I didn’t want to hear about her kissing another man, but I didn’t want to discourage the conversation either. I never wanted her to feel like she couldn’t tell me things, intimate details about her life. Now, if she broached the subject of sex with that jackass, that topic I might have to shut down.
“He missed out, then.” I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers but didn’t deepen the kiss, wanting to preserve the tenderness of this moment.
“Did you kiss the women who—”
“No,” I immediately answered, never allowing her to finish her question. “Those women were strictly for sex.”
Bye-bye tender moment.
“Right.” She huffed, shifting her weight to move away from me. “How lucky of them.” The anger in her voice was undeniable, and I mentally kicked myself for uttering something so careless.
I grabbed on to her and pulled her closer. “Sorry, that was stupid of me to say.”
“I get it. You have a past. It just hits differently now that I’m in your bed.” She propped herself up on her elbow and stared atme, her teeth working overtime on her bottom lip, looking like she had more to say.
“Did you want to ask me something?”
She hesitated a moment. “Why haven’t any of them come by recently?”
“No need.”
“Why?” she pressed.
I mentally committed every facet of her to memory before answering. From her light blue eyes to the cluster of freckles by her cheekbones to the tiny scar near the edge of her eyebrow.
“Because you’ve stolen all my attention. Don’t you know that by now?”
“Oh.” The muscles of her throat constricted on a swallow. “What happens when you’re done with me? I don’t know if I can handle seeing women come and go like before.”
“You won’t have to.”
Her shoulders stiffened. “Because you’d fire me?”
“No.” I shook my head, about to laugh at her ridiculous question, but judging by her frown, she was a thousand percent serious. “I meant there will be no other women. Just you.”
I wanted to give life to every sporadic thought that popped into my head, but I held back, keeping my answer short and simple. An overload of random information would only serve to confuse us both.
Silence bloomed between us, but I didn’t want to be the one to break it. Her slight facial movements indicated she had something on her mind, and I wanted to give her the time she needed to either work through whatever she was thinking or express whatever it was that plagued her.
Finally, she parted her lips. “So, are you saying that we’re exclusive?” Her eyes widened, and she gasped as she rushed to say, “Not like that. Just like… are we only… are we only sleeping with each other? No one else?” She stammered over herwords, and if not for the subject matter, I’d find her nervousness adorable.
“Is there someone else you want to sleep with?” I asked, picturing Lance even though she told me she had no interest in him. I couldn’t explain my irritation other than to admit that the possessive side I warned her about was starting to emerge.
“Of course not.”
“Good.” My erratic heartbeat started to slow. “Then we agree the only person who gets to touch you is me.”
“Yes. And vice versa.”
I nodded.
“Now that that’s settled, can I ask you where you got that scar from?” She reached up to trace the rigid line that ran from the outer corner of my left eye to the top of my ear, but I grabbed her hand before she touched me.
“I got that when I was a kid,” I said, a tightness forming in my chest. “But I don’t want to talk about it.”
