“Nobody’s ever made me feel the way you do.”
Was that my throat burning? Oh hell, it was. No amount of swallowing made the sensation go away. “But...I’m like your little rabbit. Your pet.”
”Oh, you’re somethin’ of mine all right, Ris. But my pet? Huh uh,” he said with more conviction than any man should be capable of.
At least a little bit of fear flooded my system because I thought for a moment about walking out of the room to end the conversation.
"You go and I'm comin' after you, babe." Dex ate up those few feet to loom over me on the couch, his body longer and leaner than it'd seemed hours before as he hovered. "I'm not your daddy. I'm not gonna do the shit he did. You don't need to be scared of me."
At the mention of my dad, my spine stiffened. "I know you're not. I'm not scared of you either, okay?"
"Yeah, you are." He bent at the waist to place his hands on the back of the couch at my sides.
Heat exploded on the back of my neck. "I'm not," I insisted.
He lowered his head even more, cornering me like the bully he was."You are, but I'm not your pa and you gotta remember that. I told you when you tried to quit that I keep what's mine, andI meant that."
Yeah, I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't do a single friggin' thing as his mouth came to within inches of mine. I shouldhave moved, shouldhave pushed him away, screamed, anythingexceptjust sit there. But the closer he got, the more of him and his lulling body heat, the less I wanted to do that. It was like being in a trance.
"I suck at pretendin', babe." He brushed his mouth over my cheekbone, making my spine tingle. "You suck at it, too."
I don't know what it said that the word‘suck’hit me right in the lower stomach.
And really, what is there really to say when Dex Locke brushes his lips against that spot between your jaw and ear?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Mine.
I keep what's mine.
Mine.
Mine.
Mine.
It was the first thing I thought of when I woke up the next morning alone on the couch.
He hadn't said anything else after he'd kissed my jaw and right off the corner of my mouth. Dex had just thrust out a hand to pull me off the couch, and led me toward the stairs. With a firm hand on my lower back, we walked out of the bar without speaking another word. Rode to his house in silence, and then ate dinner and watched television the same way.
It was only when he got up to go to bed that he leaned in to kiss the corner of my mouth, just a hair off from my lips that he saidtwosentences. "Iknow you’re confused, Ritz, but there’s no reason for you to be.”With that, he disappeared into his bedroom, leaving me dazed and on the verge of panting on the couch.
It was a friggin’ miracle I’d managed to fall asleep.
I definitely didn't need to think about that right before I went into the shower. Or maybe I did. There was a detachable showerhead...
Yeah,no. I grabbed my bag from its spot on the other side of the couch and rifled through it, grabbing clothes for my shower. The clock on the DVD player showed that it was a little after ten. Normally, Dex would be in his garage working out so that gave me more time to wonder what the hell was going on.
Was I being a pushover by letting him assume that I would want to.... to what? Be with him? Date him? Dex didn't seem like the type of man that dated. Or the type of man that had a girlfriend.
Where did that leave us?
If I was smart, as smart as I'd been my entire life, I'd call Sonny and tell him what was happening.
I wasn't though, not today or tomorrow. I could justify notcallingby saying that I didn't want to stress him out or piss him off.Right. It wasn't at all because the thought of making Dex hard—like he'd been back atPins—turned me on more than any time I'd spent with my ex-boyfriend times a hundred. No,siree.
