I rolled my eyes and huffed. I was too tired to move, which was really nice because even my brain had shut down from my intrusive thoughts for a while. “I told you the other night that I wasn’t interested. And if I did have another man, why would I be using my dildo?”
“That’s true.” His breathing evened out, and for a moment, I was afraid he’d fallen asleep, but after a few minutes of comfortable silence, he cleared his throat. “Did you like the books?”
I hummed, my eyes burning with fatigue. Since the incident at the police station, I’d kept busy. Work. Sleep. Work. Sleep. It was a pattern I could live with, and it kept my mind occupied so I didn’t have to think about Yukio. Now the long hours at the college caught up to me, and even though I had slept, the time hadn’t been restful. I’d had a lot of nightmares that involved everyone laughing at me, and I’d woken up every morning feeling worse than I had the night before.
Tonight... I could sleep without issues.
“I only looked through the first one,” I murmured with a sigh. “I really like it. I’ve never studied much about ancient Japanese history. It wasn’t my major focus. What I know mainly has to do with the trade lines of the ancient empires.”
“Is it something you could be interested in?” His tone took on a soft lull, and I thought he was tired, too.
“I’m definitely interested in it.” I stared up at the fan on the ceiling as it circled slowly. I must have left it on this morning before I went to work. “Yukio, if I give you another chance, you need to promise me never to do anything like this again.”
“I promise. I fucked up. I acted childish and I’m sorry.” He made a pained sound. “I’ll never forgive myself for what I did to you because I never meant to hurt you. I thought.... Well, I don’t know what I thought. I didn’t think about anything except myself at the beginning, and I regret that. I was an asshole.”
“I agree.” Tears tickled the corners of my eyes and one slid down my face and onto the bed. “But you can be my asshole. There are terms, though.”
“You name them,” he said quickly. “And I’ll do everything in my power to make them happen.”
I rubbed my chest while my heart gave a tug. My shoulders jolted involuntarily as excitement surged through me at the thought of being with him again. “No more fighting with Alex. He’s my son and I love him. And I.... Well, I like you. I don’t know how you’ll make it work with him, but please try to be friendly. I want you both in my life. We need to figure something out.”
“Done. I’m not sure how easy it’ll be to talk to him, but I’ll try to make it work. I promise.” The determination in his voice made me smile.
“Good. I’m not sure how to do this.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “My birthday’s the seventeenth of December, by the way.”
“Ahh. Nearly a Christmas baby. You had it worse than me.”
I laughed and pressed the phone closer to my ear. I was sticky and sweaty, but I didn’t care right now. “Yeah. It was horrible trying to have a birthday party. The friends I did have went away for the holidays.”
“Tell me more. I want to know everything I can about you.”
I finally made myself move even though I didn’t want to. Grabbing the dirty toy, I shifted off the bed and rose, taking it with me to the bathroom. I threw it in the sink and grabbed some toy cleaner out of the medicine cabinet. “Like what?”
“What’s your favorite food?” He chuckled.
“Pizza.” I shrugged, not ashamed. With the phone pressed between my shoulder and ear again, I began to wash the dildo. “Pepperoni.”
“So, you love meat.” His laughter doubled, and I snorted at his bad joke. “Are you one of those people who believe pineapple belongs on pizza?”
“Absolutely not.” I scrunched my nose up at the thought. “That’s disgusting.”
“Okay, what’s your favorite Greek god or goddess?” He sounded smug and he had a right to be. That was a difficult question and he knew it. I’d told him before that I couldn’t choose who I liked more.
I sighed. “You know that answer.”
“Try.”
I groaned and braced myself with one hand on the sink. I stared in the mirror. My curls were a tangled mess, but my eyes were brighter than they’d been since the fight with Yukio. I looked more human. “Never. I will never choose.”
“Micah Carrington, you choose right now.”
I chuckled and lines crinkled around my eyes and mouth in a way I hadn’t seen in a long time. “Fine. Zeus.”
“That horny bastard?”
I laughed harder. After I’d calmed down, I wiped tears from my eyes, but this time they were from happiness, not sadness. “If you want to start making it up to me, then you could come over tomorrow night. Have dinner with me?”
“Fuck yeah. Name the time, and I’ll be there, Hanii.”
