He laughs. “Yeah, then I work some more.”
“Is that… fulfilling?” I ask.
He shrugs. “If I didn’t do what I do, someone else would. And this other person, whoever he’d end up being, would be far worse than me, believe it or not.”
“How do you de-stress?” I ask. “Do you date?”
“I haven’t dated in years,” he says, pinning me in place with his golden eyes.
“Let me guess,” I say, voice growing breathy. “Until me, you didn’t evenwantto date?”
“Say that cynically if you want, angel, but it’s the truth.”
“But I’m just so special and so unique and, yep, I just came along and changed something inside you, huh?”
He looks at me sincerely, ignoring my sarcasm. “Yep.”
“It was one night.”
“One night that changed everything for both of us,” he snarls. “One night that stopped everything, Ava, for the first time in my life. A night that gave us Theo.”
“It was… a good night,” I say carefully.
I’m doing my best to keep my shields up, but the fact is, I agree with him. Everything he’s saying, I felt it that night too. I remember the sense of adventure and excitement that blossomed inside me, the certainty that finally,finally, I got to experience what seems to come so easily to everyone else.
“It was better than good,” he says fiercely.
His eyes swim with meaning. My heart hitches. Under the table, I press my legs together. He’s taken off his jacket, and his arms are on full display, tight against his shirt, huge and powerful.
“Do you think about it often?” I ask.
“All the time,” he says.
“Me too,” I admit. “I…” I bite down. Has the champagne gone to my head? Impossible. We’ve had barely a glass each.
“You don’t just think about it,” he says, his voice heavy with awe. “When it hits you…”
I nod, trembling slightly.
“Fuck,” he whispers, staring like he’s going to leap across the table and devour me instead of his steak. “How many times?”
Tingles dance all over my body. My defenses and my lofty promises seem meaningless as he savages me with his gaze.
“I don’t know, Rafe. It’s been a year… quite a few.”
“Me too,” he groans. “Several times a week, Ava, I think of you. I think of your curves and I remember the way you moaned. I remember how… howrightyou felt in my arms. I remember your taste, Ava, your fuckingtaste.”
My body flushes with liquid tension, bubbles that have nothing to do with champagne pumping through me.
CHAPTER 14
RAFAEL
Ava watches me from the side of the road as I rock Theo back and forth, murmuring softly. He started crying during the car ride home. When I offered to comfort him, and she agreed, I felt like the happiest man alive.
Ava looks at me with that wide-eyed hunger she’s been throwing my way all night. It’s like she’s existing in a constant state of inner turmoil. But whenever I touch or even mention our son, the confusion drains away for a moment, replaced with unashamed, certain hunger.
Once Theo has settled down, I put him back in the car seat. We get into the car, and Ava watches me from the passenger side, her hands jammed between her thighs, pressed together as if to trap them.
