Three dots appeared, then disappeared, then appeared again. Then, finally,Fine. But hurry!!!
Did he just need to see for himself that I was still in one piece? Was it concern for his job, so he didn’t feel guilty? Or… did he really forrealwant to be friends?
Well, weekend friends, at least, since obviously nothing that happened here would last once I went back home. It was still nice to think that he might actually like me, though. It gave me the same kind of warm glow inside that I’d had when Edward had brought Teddy to me last night.
I hadn’t wanted to make a fuss when Edward had turned off all the lights, especially after I’d put my foot in it so badly by asking about his husband. But I knew for sure if hehadn’tbrought me Teddy, I probably wouldn’t have managed to get any sleep at all.
Although in the end, it wasn’t Teddy who had helped with that.
I hugged him to me, the warm glow that had just been in my chest spreading out until it waseverywhere.
I had never, not once, actually fallen asleep in the dark before, like I’d managed to last night. But with Edward next to me? No, with Edwardholdingme? It had felt as if anything bad waiting to pounce simply couldn’t, because he wouldn’t have let it.
And that had felt… well, amazing.
“What’s got you smiling like that, beautiful? Tell me, so I can make it happen again.”
Edward’s voice startled me so badly that I squeaked and almost fell out of the bed. I hadn’t even heard the bathroom door open, but now warm steam, scented with something delicious, rolled out into the room from behind him while he stood there in only a towel looking like every good part of a Daddy—the parts from porn and the sweet parts from all my favorite blog posts, too—all rolled into one.
And I… oh God.
I wasn’t the only one staring. Which meant—
I thrashed around in the sheets, hoping enough of them covered my parts that he wouldn’t notice how I was reacting to him. Because no, it may not have been wrong since he wasn’t actually married anymore, but it would still be embarrassing as heck. Especially because, for all his kindness and those endearments that made my heart race, and even after the sparks I got around him and the way he’d kissed my palm, I doubted he wanted me likethat. How could he? I was nothing like the way he’d described Blair, and he’d made it totally clear that Blair had been perfect for him.
And ”perfect”—for Edward or in any other way—was never a word anyone would use to describe me.
For one thing, someone who was perfect would never have ended up practically strangling himself in a tangle of bedding that… that I somehow couldn’t seem to get out of now.
“Good morning?” I said, hoping to distract Edward from the dumb predicament I was in, at least long enough for me to wiggle out of it.
He just laughed, a delicious rumble that didn’t help at all with what I was trying to hide, and then he wasn’tstandingthere anymore, he was coming overhere.
“Careful, sweetheart,” he said, smoothly untangling both me and Teddy from the sheets, then propping us both up on the bed. He sat down on the edge of it, his eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled at me and smoothed his hand over my hair. Then he winked. “If you want to be all tied up, it sounds like this kinky hotel is the right place to be. But maybe you can wait for me next time?”
Oh. My. God.
My body flushed with heat from head to toe, and my mouth gaped open like a fish as my brain shut down completely, my entire blood supply funneling south.
Edward’s smile dropped. “Sorry,” he said, running a hand back through his damp hair. “That was… I shouldn’t have said that, baby. It was inappropriate. I forgot that we’re…”
His voice trailed off.
“We’re what?” I asked, my heart beating so fast from the “baby” he’d casually tacked on that it was hard to concentrate on the rest. Well, that and because of the situation still happening in my sleep pants.
Edward’s lips quirked up, and he lifted one shoulder in a small shrug. “We’re… still strangers?” he said, almost as if it was a question. “Honestly, it doesn’t feel like it, not to me, but I don’t mean to be too forward. I told you last night, I don’t ever want you to feel uncomfortable around me, beautiful. And making a kinky sex joke wasn’t—”
“No, I liked it,” I blurted, then realized how that had sounded and grabbed Teddy, smooshing him against my face. “Oh God.”
It had sounded like exactly how itwas, but still.
Edward pulled Teddy down, then tipped my chin up, his eyes piercing right through me. “You liked it?” he repeated in a husky voice about two octaves lower than it had been before.
I shivered. Then nodded. Then tried not to squirm. “Not, I mean, not that, you didn’t, we aren’t, not just because it was about sex but because you don’t feel like a stranger either and it was funny and… and…” I gulped in some air, then finished in a whisper. “And also, it’s… it’s nice to have someone to talk about… things… with?”
Kinky things.
Oh, except he’d said last night that hewasn’tkinky.
