Then, suddenly, that guy—the man who'd given me not one, but the two best orgasms of my life—disappeared, and the Ice King took back over.
He raised up, removing his heavy weight from my sensitive body.
"I need to get back to work," he said as he pulled out with cool efficiency.
Did he?
"Cole..."I began to say as he stood and began to redo his pants.
“Actually, I should take a shower first." He glanced around, like a man who'd lost something. "Change."
"Cole,"I said again."Don't..."
I trailed off, the "run away" dying in my throat when he swiped his shirt and cufflinks off the ground, making it obvious that was exactly what he couldn't wait to do. Like getting away from me couldn't happen fast enough.
"Did I...?"It had felt so beautiful, our first time. But I had to ask."Did I do something wrong?"
He stared at me, like I was some alien who'd somehow appeared completely naked in his bed. Then he repeated in the iciest monotone,"I need to shower and get back to work."
A chill ran all the way through me, pinning my heart to the back of my chest. What he meant was that he needed to wash my smell off him. Erase all traces of what we’d done before he went back to work.
What had been so beautiful for me just a few moments before became ugly. So ugly, tears formed in my eyes without warning.
"Okay,"I finally agreed, forcing them back down, turning my head away so Cole wouldn’t see how much he’d hurt me.
Hold on. Just hold on for a few seconds,I told myself. The coast would be clear after he disappeared into the bathroom. Then I’d be free to run back to the guestroom and cry like a not-very-big showgirl without him ever being the wiser. I waited for the click of his bathroom door.
But the click never happened, and eventually, the bed depressed to the side of me.
“I thought you were going to take a shower,”I said when too many excruciating seconds passed without him saying a word.
I raised my head to find him sitting on his side of the bed,watching me try not to cry.
"I feel like I need to get away,"he admitted.
I nodded, the way one does after getting kicked in the stomach."Yeah, that was pretty obvious."
"But I also feel like I'm in violation of one of your conditions."
"Which one?" I asked, honestly curious about how the Ice King processed the emotions of us mere flesh-and-blood humans.
"Number one,"he muttered."Probably number three. Maybe also number two….You're supposed to tell me when I fuck up, remember?"
I did remember that. I took a deep breath and confessed,“I have some issues, I guess. I should have thought about big ones before agreeing to this arrangement.”
"Okay."He heaved an aggrieved sigh."You're aware I'm not good at conversations like this. I go out of my way in my day-to-day life not to have conversations like this."
"I mean, I guess not officially aware, but not surprised, either,"I answered carefully. I was not even a little bit sure where this was leading.
Did he want me to apologize? And if so, for what? The terms he was so obviously uncomfortable with, or daring to have feelings?
"I cannot express enough how much I would have preferred that your terms be straightforward and quantifiable,"he answered, as if I'd spoken my questions out loud.
I nodded again."Noted."
Silence. Cole just sat there, gripping the shirt he'd picked up off the floor so tight I could see the whites of his knuckles.
“You don’t have to talk to me." I was more than happy to let him off the hook if it would end this excruciating conversation. "Just go to work. I’ll be fine….”
