I would be lying to myself if I said I hadn’t thought about marriage when I was with Erik. I had, a lot.
I always knew that I wanted to get married one day, so naturally, I thought I’d marryhim. I thought I loved him—and I guess I did. Or at least, I loved the person I thought he was, the person I wrote him as in my head.
But he wasn’t that person, and when Erik left me, I felt stupid for having hoped for those things with him. For having thought about meshing my life so completely to someone that hadn’t even had the common decency to break up with mebeforesleeping with someone new.
I didn’t know if I could ever put that kind of blind trust in someone again, and that made me a little sad. Sad that I let someone break me beyond what I recognized, and angry I’d let it happen, too.
Sensing my mood, Dahmer sashayed down the hall and weaved around my feet, rubbing his head against my legs and purring loudly. I picked him up and carried him to the couch, sitting down on it.
My thoughts went back to the night before, and I sighed heavily.Casual sex.By definition, I didn’t docasual. My mother said I was too passionate and empathetic. I wore my heart on my sleeve and was over-sensitive.
I had only known Alaric for three weeks, and he was already getting to me. I craved the way he made me feel, but I was scared of it too—scared because I couldn’t turn off my emotions.
But emotions had no place in this thing we were doing, and I couldn’t change it now…but I also couldn’t stop. I was too selfish for that, and I dreaded returning to the numb, disconnected state I’d lived in for the last several months.
The likelihood that I’d end up hurt again was very,veryhigh, and a smarter girl would walk awaybeforethat happened, but when it came to self-preservation…I wasn’t always the brightest.
Alaric
I pulled into the shop parking lot just after Gwen and parked two spaces away from her. She watched me for a moment, a sultry smile on her red painted lips before she dropped her gaze and exited her car.
Desire coursed through my bloodstream at the sight of her standing. She tugged on her black skirt. My gaze perused across her creamy legs up to the white-and-black printed bodice and the sliver of skin exposed at her neckline. Her long, dark hair was pulled back into a sleek ponytail, and I couldn’t help but grin at how pretty she looked.
She smiled as if she felt my gaze on her, but didn’t look at me again as she strolled up to the office and opened the door, disappearing inside.
Clearing my throat, I grabbed my gear and walked into the shop through the open metal door. I nodded at Paul and Wes as I passed them, heading to my workstation for the day.
I had a lot of mistakes to fix. Not mine, some other bonehead employee had cut the parts for the Creek project wrong. The engineers were coming by tomorrow, and Russell needed the job done right—and quick.
I’d be putting in overtime tonight. After seeing how incredibly sexy Gwen looked this morning, I was a bit irritated about that fact. I’d wanted to ask her to meet me after, but I hadn’t—aware of the boundaries we’d both set in place. Work was work, play was play.
Still, it had been three days since I’d last been inside her, and I was already craving another round.
Subconsciously, I was aware of how dangerous that was—to need something from someone as badly as I yearned for the feel of her. It wasn’t just about her body; I coveted her time, too. The burden of everything seemed lighter in her company, and that was highly addictive and unstoppable.
Rolling my shoulders, I set to work. Watching the way the metal would fuse seamlessly, taking pride in each perfect weld, I let the sounds of my gun sauntering drown out all of my ruminating thoughts, emptying my head of everything but the job at hand.
* * *
It wasten o’clock when I finally turned off my machine and pulled off my helmet. My limbs were exhausted and aching, but I still took time to clean up my workspace before leaving the shop, leaving it in pristine condition for tomorrow.
Someone—Russell, I’m assuming—had lingered in the office. There always had to be someone else present in the shop if an employee was working after hours, as it was a liability to work alone.
Russell was likely catching up on some paperwork, as the shop door was propped open with a door stopper. I walked through the open door and into the office to let him know the job was completed before I headed out.
I stopped short when I saw Gwen sitting behind her desk, typing away on her laptop. She looked up, her fingers never ceasing, and gave me a tentative smile. “Hey.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked, my tone a little gruff and distant. I cleared my throat, looking around for Russell. But, Russell wasn’t in the office. His door was open, the room dark, as empty as the meeting room beside it.
Gwen saved whatever she was working on and shut her laptop, slipping it into her black leather satchel as she stood, her gray eyes never leaving mine. “He had dinner reservations with my mom, so I told him I’d stick around until you finished.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because I know how unbearable my mother can get when she’s disappointed, and she would have beenverydisappointed,” she said, blinking at me and shouldering her bag.
“Right,” I said, feeling awkward. She’d done it for her parents, not for me, but the knowledge that we were completely alone in the office wasn’t lost on either of us, and the air was thick.
I saw the fervor in her eyes as her gaze slid down my body, pausing between my legs, where my dick was pushing against my zipper, proudly declaring how turned on I was.
