Hayden came over to stand with us, bending down to kiss the top of her head.
“Good night.”
The deep rumble of his voice kick-started the lust his presence already had me battling, and I wanted nothing more than to grab him, kiss him silly, then throw him on the floor and ride him until we both screamed, but first, we needed to talk.
He’d done a one-eighty from when he came back from the hospital with Liam until now, and I needed to know if it was because he wanted something real or if he just wanted to get his rocks off.
“Good night,” Marcie whispered and following Hayden’s lead, I kissed her head and walked out of the kitchen screaming at my cock that adults talked before they fucked.
He wasn’t having it. He throbbed and pulsed and twitched until my balls ached. I wanted to adjust myself, but I didn’t want to alert Hayden to the chaos happening in my pants.
“Fuck she’s perfection,” he whispered.
I grunted and gave in. My palm slid over my dick and adjusted it to give myself some room. There wasn’t much to find in the jeans I wore. I glanced to see Hayden doing the same as I was. Unlike me, he had on tactical cargo pants, which were much roomier.
“I’m gonna need to get some of those pants if she’s going to be around regularly.”
Hayden laughed, and we climbed the stairs to the rooms made up for us. We stopped in the hallway, and I had to shake my head when we realized our rooms were side by side.
“Meddlesome fuckers.”
“Maybe they had the right idea.”
I looked at him with what I was sure was the most comical look of shock ever seen.
“Come again?”
“I’ll loop back around to that comment, but maybe they had the right idea. Maybe forcing us into a situation where we couldn’t walk away because people were counting on us was the best thing for us. Fuck knows we chased our tails for long enough.”
My heart stopped. Jumped. Stuttered. Then it took off like the hounds of hell were on its tail.
“You’re gonna have to break that down for me, Hayden.”
“Papi.”
I hated how overwhelmed I was by his one-word demand.
“Don’t play with me, Hayden. I’m begging you. I can’t take you jerking me around anymore. Fucking me senseless until shame or regret or whatever it is takes hold of you, and you shove me out the door. If that’s…”
He reached for me, but I backed up. The minute he touched me, or I touched him, I’d go up in flames, and I couldn’t let that happen. Not until I knew his intentions, as puritanical as that sounded.
His hands fell back to his sides, and his chin dropped to his chest. A moment or two passed before he crossed his arms over his chest and cleared his throat.
“I was hurt. Am hurt?”
“About what?”
He looked up, his gaze searching my face, and the pain I saw behind the shutters I’d never noticed made me want to go to him, but I held back. We had to get on the same damn page.
“Your lack of trust in me. Then to have Mara be the person who disclosed the info you were hiding… I’m not saying I would’ve taken it better had it come from you, especially so long after we married, but there was a much better shot I would’ve.”
“I get that, Hayden, I do, but when it came out…”
“I was an ass and I let my insecurities get the better of me.”
Chewing the insides of my lips and cheeks, I tried to process what he’d said. It wasn’t much, but it was more than Hayden had divulged since that day in front of the beach house. I understood being insecure with where you stood with the person you loved, especially after the last few years, but could I risk my heart again? I’d tried to fix things between us three times, only to be tossed out on my ear.
“I know I’ve hurt you, Declan. And there’s a lot of stuff I should probably be telling you… Hell, I should get down on my knees and beg, and I will if you want me to, but I want us to figure this out, because…” he paused, his liquid brown eyes glistening with unshed tears.
