Teddy hummed and brought his hand to my chest, chasing a stray bead of sweat with his fingertip. “To answer your question, it was... fun, no? I like a man who does not hold back, though I think there were moments when you did.”
“When?”
He glanced at my throat. Damn it. How was this dude fucking psychic on top of being satanically attractive?Fucking A.I had enough overly perceptive men in my life like that already.
You have one.
You havehim.
Shadows threatened the filthy peace I’d found with Teddy.
I pushed them away. “Maybe I was hoping for a rematch so I didn’t play all my cards too early.”
“Tenacious?”
“Or optimistic. You just let me know, mate.”
Teddy said nothing. I wondered if it was my cue to leave, but I didn’t move. His quiet flat and complex company was everything I desperately needed, and I couldn’t give it up just yet. “What do you do for a living? You look like a banker.”
“Do I?”
I rolled over to face him. “I think so. Then, to me, every toff in a suit is a banker or a lawyer.”
“I’m not a lawyer.”
“You work with money, then?”
“Doesn’t everyone?”
I couldn’t argue with that. There weren’t many people I knew who worked for fun. I didn’t. My life was complicated enough that everything I did was so intimately entwined that I’d lost my sense of self, but work was still work. I didn’t enjoy it—I just had to do it. “If you’re a financial advisor or some shit, now’s the time to let me know. I could do with one of those.”
More dry humour danced across Teddy’s pretty face, and it still didn’t feel like he was laughing at me. Slowly, he pulled his hand from my chest and reached behind him to the other bedside table, not the one with the condoms and lube.
He opened it and withdrew a notepad. He tore out a page, rolled it up, and tucked it behind my ear. “I have a proposition for you.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes.” He brought his hand back to my chest but didn’t touch me again. Just hovered there, making me thrum with anticipation, my cock rising again as if it hadn’t been all of five minutes since I’d shot my soul through it. “I don’t see people I sleep with more than once, but if you fuck me again before you leave, for this—the advice you need—you may call me if you wish.”
It was the strangest proposition I’d ever had, but it seemed like a win-win. I’d been half joking about needing a financial advisor, but the problem with half jokes was that they were always based on truth. I needed help from someone outside of my day-to-day life. Why not him?
And if I got to fuck him again for the privilege?
Hell to the yes.
I took the notebook page from behind my ear and stuffed it into the cigarette box I’d dropped to the floor by the bed.
Then I came upright and shoved Teddy onto his back, climbing over him, pinning him down as his flinty gaze lit up with a challenge that made my blood sing. “Shirt Dude, you’ve got yourself a deal.”
3
Teddy
I watched my biker friend leave my apartment from the coffee shop across the street. I’d left him while he took a shower. I wasn’t a fan of goodbyes, even with people I liked. And I liked him. He was trouble—I felt it—but perhaps that endeared him to me. Difficult things pleased me.
His eyes pleased me too. They were obsidian dark. Everything aboutCamwas dark—his hair, his smile, the dirty sounds he made when he came—but the deep brown of his eyes held a warmth that could tear my soul apart if I let it.
I wouldn’t. But I couldn’t deny he’d left a lasting impression on me. If I closed my eyes, I could still smell him. While he’d drowsed between fuck sessions, I’d taken deep breaths of his scent. He’d smelled like home, which was an odd concept, as it had been years since I’d had one.
