“Sure,” he mocks and nips at my bottom lip. “I never want to stop kissing you.”
“You’re going to have to.” I feel him harden again and my body is reacting the way it always does with him. My hips roll involuntarily. “Rowan…”
“At least let me walk you to your door.”
I moan. “Fine. Fuck, Rowan…We have…The co?—”
“I know,” he hisses and the kiss is over before I’m ready to stop.
In mostly silence, he removes the condom and discards it in a garbage bag. I put on my clothes, he pulls on his shoes, and we leave the car and enter another world.
I should have stayed in that car with him, safe and protected and in a bubble that’s just me and him.
Rowan walks beside me on my right and his hand reaches out but quickly curls into a fist before he stuffs it into his coatpockets. I have to do the same before I do something silly like that too.
I let us in through the front door, then we’re in the elevator. Then we’re outside my apartment door and I’m pushing the key into the lock.
I don’t want this night to end.
“Um.” I sigh and turn, standing at the threshold. “Do you want to come inside? Play UNO or watch a movie?”
Rowan gives me one of those unbelievably sexy half-smiles. “UNO?”
I nod.
“We can play UNO,” he says.
Rowan follows behind me, placing his jacket on the hook next to mine, leaving his shoes beside mine. Binx meets us at the door and after my loving greeting, Rowan gives her his own, taking her in his arms and letting her curl against his neck.
“She’s so cute,” he says.
I smile at them together. “She’s only a few months old. She’s…an emotional support companion. Or, at least, that’s what I call her.”
“Does she help you?” Rowan kisses the top of her head and scratches under her head, earning himself a purr.
“She does,” I murmur. “I always wanted a black cat. My dads never let us get a pet so…”
Rowan kisses her again and sets her down, letting my little best friend roam around her home freely. “I like her. She loves you.”
“You like her because she loves me?”
“Yeah, you deserve to be loved,” he says. “I like anything that loves you.”
“Hmm, do you want any food?” I ask as I make a beeline for the kitchen. I open and close the fridge and other cabinets several times before I feel his arm come around my waist from behind me.
“What’s going on, Natalia?” Rowan asks in my ear. The tenor of his smooth voice allows my body to relax into his. My head drops back against his chest, my eyes close, and I inhale this moment. “You act like you’re scared of me sometimes. What am I doing?”
I am scared.
“Nothing,” I say. “You aren’t doing anything, I swear.”
“No?” Rowan gingerly turns me in his arms and I lean back against the kitchen counter. “Natalia…”
“Rowan.”
“I see you,” he says. “And when you’re ready to show me more, I’ll be here.”
I swallow. Nod. Absorb his words and appreciate his patience in the few little ways I know how. “I-I’ll get the cards.”
