At the wordcold, he paused, shifted on his bare feet, then took a step back. “The more I get done tonight, the more time I can spend with you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I’m not buying that.” I rolled over onto my side and muttered something about blue balls.
The mattress gave when he climbed over me. “Don’t pout, honeybee. I really do have work to do, but I’ll be in soon.” He kissed me on the cheek and then on the shoulder before disappearing.
David turned downsex? Couldn’t he see that hurt more than a few bruises I hadn’t even noticed?I wasn’t cold anymore. Just angry. I kicked off my pajama pants and stripped out of the shirt. Maybe he’d find me naked, wake me up, and we could do it then, I reasoned. Despite him telling me not to pout, that’s exactly what I did until I dozed off.
23
Ididn’t remember David coming to bed the night before, but in the morning, big arms clutched me from behind. I smiled, perfectly content to remain pinned against him while I waited for him to wake up, too, but he stirred soon after and sighed against my hair.
“The first time we woke up together, you jumped out of bed before I even had the chance to kiss you,” he said. “It was total bullshit.”
I laughed lightly and rubbed his arm. “If it’s any consolation, I was dying for that kiss, too.”
“It is.”
I rolled my head back to take in his sleepy face. “Were you up late?”
He just nodded and shifted to kiss me. As it grew heated, I moaned into his mouth. He pulled back suddenly. When his eyes fell to the bruise on my chest, he released me and climbed out of the bed.
I groaned and moved onto my back, cursing my sex-battered body. This act was going to get old really fast. I decided to try convincing him it was nothing again and headed into the bathroom to find him brushing his teeth.
“I’ve got an issue,” he said before I could speak. He spat into the sink and set down his toothbrush. “I spoke with my engineer yesterday and things are falling behind on my New York project. I’ve been away too long, and they took my absence as an excuse to fuck off. I need to make a trip.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t thrilled about spending time apart, but I’d gotten almost all of his attention lately. “When?”
“I’m going to see if I can get a ticket this afternoon.”
“Today?” I exclaimed. “David, Thanksgiving is tomorrow.”
“I know, but this is important.” He grabbed my robe off a hook and passed it over without looking at me. “Put this on.”
“Why can’t it wait until next week?” I asked, slipping into the robe, trying not to feel hurt.
“I let some shit slide for too long, and now it’s catching up to me.”
I knotted the sash at my waist. “Who’s even working on Thanksgiving?”
“They will be,” he said simply, “because they fucked up my schedule.”
I gaped at him. “You can’t be serious. You’re going to fly in and out in one day?”
He turned his back to me. “Actually, I’ll have to stay through the weekend.”
What the hell?That made no sense. It was a holiday weekend, and nobody would be working. Not to mention we had plans. “Your sister’s expecting us,” I pointed out.
“She’ll understand. You can still go without me.”
“Of course I’m going,” I said, bristling. “It would be rude not to.”
“All right.” He walked over and kissed the top of my head. “Come on, beautiful. Let’s fix us something to eat.”
As I followed him to the kitchen, it dawned on me. This had nothing to do with a fuck-up in New York. It was about David’s perceived mistakes here in our bed. Would he seriously go all the way to New York to ensure he didn’t hurt me again? “What about Miami with Gretchen and everyone?”
“I’ll have to cancel with Brian,” he said. “I’m really sorry. I know you were looking forward to it.”
“But you already bought the tickets.”
