“Who knows. I’m just trying to be prepared here.” He shrugged. “But if you want to allow people to poke more holes in our story, then…”
Goddammit. I hated that he was right.
“Fine,” I gritted out through clenched teeth. “I have an IUD.”
His brows hit his hairline, and I rolled my eyes, reading his surprise over the fact that I had one when I hadn’t had sex in so long as clearly as if it were written across his forehead.
“IUDs are used for more than just birth control.” I scrubbed a hand over my forehead, letting it drop as I exhaled a deep sigh. Fuck. I didn’t want to tell Ford my medical history—especially because it made me feel vulnerable…something I hated to be in his presence—but he had a good point about knowing these kinds of details about each other. “Which I guess is something a husband would know about his wife. I have an IUD because I have PCOS, and it helps with my periods. Sometimes…” I muttered the last word under my breath.
He nodded, satisfied. “There. That wasn’t so hard, now was it? We’re both clear, you have an IUD, and we’re officially sleeping together…” Then, softer, as if he didn’t want to admit it, he said, “Even if it’s not the way I want.”
I studied him, my brow furrowed as I tried to get a read on him, but I couldn’t. And I was tired of his games. “And what way is that?”
From the second Ford’s eyes landed on me, his gaze a bit unfocused as if he was lost in a fantasy, his tongue making a slow path along his bottom lip, I knew I’d made a mistake by asking. Knew I’d fucked up as he walked slowly toward me.
“One thing you’ll come to learn about me, kitten, is that I’m not picky. I’d be happy with you under me. On top of me. In front of me while I take you from—”
I leaped toward him, closing the distance between us and clamping a hand over his mouth. I wasn’t sure I could take it if he finished that sentence. Holy shit, it was roasting in here, my cheeks flushed, thanks to the heat and definitely not because a matching fantasy had popped up in my mind after each scenario he’d stated.
“I’m not doing any of that,” I snapped before removing my hand from his mouth. “I can’t believe you don’t have a couch.”
“No couch, sorry. But I do have these fluffy barriers you can use to protect yourself,” he said, gesturing to the huge stack of pillows on the bed. “If one of my hands or my dick should attempt to make contact with you at some point during the night, just shove them back on my side of the bed. They tend to have a mind of their own when you’re involved.”
“The only thing I’d use a pillow for in the middle of the night is to smother you in your sleep.” I forced the words out, though they lacked their usual sharpness, because there was no stopping the thoughts now.
Imagining us lying together in the dark, working our way through each of the scenarios he’d presented… My breath quickened with every thought that floated through my head, my nipples tightening in response and my cheeks flushing even more. Whether because of curiosity or reflex, my gaze dropped to the front of Ford’s sweatpants, and there was no missing the prominent bulge there—definitely larger than it had been when I’d first shown up. And I hated myself a little bit that I’d given in to temptation and Googled his piercing last night, which meant I could picture it…
Ford stepped closer to me, his hand going to the flare of my hip, his thumb slipping beneath the band of my sweatshirt to sweep against the soft curve of my stomach. “You’re thinking about it, too, aren’t you, kitten?”
Too?
My gaze snapped to his as my lips parted, and I stared up at him, trying to gauge if I was reading too much into that single word.
But without my voicing the questions flitting through my head, Ford answered them anyway. “Yeah, I was thinking about it. But that’s not anything new. It’s basically all I do where you’re concerned.”
“You’ve…thought about me like that?”
He huffed out a humorless laugh. “More times than I can count.”
The heat pouring off his body sent shivers racing down my spine, and the side of my breast brushed against his arm with every breath I inhaled.
It wouldn’t take anything to have his lips on mine again. Just a few scant inches and then—
But no. We couldn’t do this. This marriage wasn’t supposed to be real, which meant I absolutely was not going to fuck my husband.
I turned away from him and busied myself by grabbing the test results to set them aside. My gaze snagged on the date at the top and rolled my eyes. “If you think an old test is going to reassure me of anything, you’re wrong.”
“Who said it was an old test?”
“Um, I did? I can read, and this says it’s from April.”
“And?”
“And? What do you mean, and?”
Ford just looked at me with raised brows as if the answer to this should be obvious. My mind scanned through a dozen possibilities, but it kept coming back to the same one. If what he was saying was true—that this wasn’t an old test, just the last one he’d needed to take—that meant Ford hadn’t been with anyone in months.
Not since I’d moved back to Starlight Cove.
