For a moment, I feel a bit like them. Maybe not ugly on the outside, but it’s taken me a while to realize I behave pretty ugly on the inside sometimes, and now I have so little to show for it.
Dex is right to make me work this hard. It feels oddly satisfying to do it, to see him enjoy the effort I’m putting in.
‘Everyone deserves to be loved,’ I finally answer.
He smiles, and it reaches his eyes. Swaying into me, his groin bumps against mine, and he puts his hands to my chest for a moment, like he’s feeling my breath. His eyes are locked on mine, and god, they are so pretty.
‘B plus,’ he spells.
It takes me a long second for my brain to catch up, and my eyes widen with outrage. ‘B?’
He shrugs. ‘Not a perfect score, but a good one.’
I was never a B student. Fuck, what more could he possibly want from me? I’m incensed enough that I raise my hands and ask him that.
He gives me a pointed look. ‘You’re still hiding your feelings,’ he says. ‘What you’re thinking. You’re afraid of me.’
He’s not entirely wrong. But it’s not him I’m afraid of. It’s what he represents. It’s what he can do to me. It’s how I know he will turn my life entirely upside down with no way to turn it back if everything between us falls apart.
But I also have to admit, like the cold, corporate businessman that I can be, Dex is low risk, high reward. He’s given me so much. He’s stepped into my world instead of demanding it be the other way around.
I think I could be happy with him.
No. IknowI could be happy with him.
I swallow heavily. ‘What does a B plus get?’
He meets my gaze, then smirks as he signs, ‘Follow me back to my place and find out.’
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
DEX
Rome is stillnervous by the time we get back to my place. I can tell from the way he flicks his eyes from mine to my hands, waiting to see what he gets. But I’m going to make him wait and see.
‘Water?’ I ask, moving to the kitchen and grabbing two bottles from the fridge.
Rome stares at it. ‘That’s what my B+ gets me?’
I bite back a grin and roll my eyes. ‘Yes, just water.’
I crack open a bottle and take a sip, remembering that first time he was here and how I poured it into his mouth and drank from his lips.
He must remember, too, because he shifts on his feet and swallows. I hear that cute little click in the back of his throat, and my cock perks up between my legs.
‘Take off your clothes,’ I tell him after setting my water bottle down and leaning against the kitchen counter.
He blinks at me but doesn’t move fast enough.
‘You want your reward, yes?’
His eyebrows meet in annoyance, but he does as I ask. Does it slowly. He peels his shirt off his head and tosses it aside, nipple rings glinting under the harsh kitchen light, then he undoes the button on his pants. I watch it all with hooded eyes, the strip show he’s giving me turning me on.
I’m fucking burning for him.
He finally kicks off his shoes and pants, leaving him in just his underwear and socks. He pauses a moment, and then his thumb drags the waistband of his boxers down slightly, exposing the V of his hips.
I wet my lips, and his eyes meet mine, lust flickering through their depths.
