He turned then and concentrated on cleaning himself with a towel, his forehead masked by a deep frown. Done, he raked a hand through his sweat slickened hair, pulled on his sweatpants, and drew closer. When he proceeded to clean me, I kept quiet until he straightened and stared at me. “I’m sorry, Sia. I shouldn’t have lost control like that.” He shook his head, jaw clenched. “I hurt you.”
“You’ll never hurt me,” I countered, blanketing my confused emotions for now. He inhaled sharply. I placed a hand on his chest, his heartbeat strummed fiercely beneath my fingers.
His hand covered mine. “I never planned for this to happen tonight. But—”
I lifted my other hand and put a finger over his lips, slowly shaking my head. “None of this made sense since that moment I saw you again, and it will never make sense after this moment. But whatever happened tonight, let it be.”
Drake sighed, taking that hand and kissing the fingers lightly. “You know this is never going to work, right? I don’t want you to get hurt, Sia.”
My lips pursed, I nodded, unable to speak past the constriction in my throat. I was afraid of what I might say. I was emotionally wrung out by the happenings since arriving, and the culmination tonight could make or break me. Either way, someone would be hurt. I closed my eyes and sighed.
“Hey.” His hand on my chin, he lifted until I opened my eyes. “You will make Rayden happy—”
“By cheating on him,” I exclaimed, knowing what he was saying and my heart already at war with his direction.
“Don’t.” His arms cloaked me within his strength. With his chin resting on the top of my head, he held me tight. His scent wrapped around me like a warm blanket on a cold winter’s morning. I couldn’t stop the flow of tears, something I seemed to be caving into a lot these past couple of days. He sighed. “You’re not to blame, Princess. I didn’t give you a choice.”
“But I chose,” I sobbed to his chest, and he caressed my hair.
“You should—”
I leaned back, knowing what he was about to say. “Let me stay a little longer.” I cupped his distressed face in my palms. “Just a little more time to pretend that none of this happened. That I hadn’t walked away from you that morning. That tonight instead of Häagen-Dazs strawberry cheesecake I need, I’ll be sharing a triple chocolate sundae with you.”
“Sia,” he whispered my name on a deep exhale.
“Please.”
In response, he kissed me, a long, mind-drugging kiss filled with succulent sweetness contrasted by hard nips before he scooped me up in his arms and carried me to his bed. When he curved his hard frame around my body, I snuggled into his warmth. With my chin tucked under his head and his arm over my waist, I sighed. Just a few more minutes and I would go back to the man I’d cheated on. Fresh tears fell, and I silently cried for the pain I’d caused one man and the betrayal to the other.
Drake
“ILOVE YOU,” I WHISPEREDinto the silence.
In all my forty-four years, I’d never been that sure of one single thing the moment it popped into my head. Yet, the discovery wasn’t surprising. Some part of me knew I’d fallen in love with Sia the second I laid eyes on her at the airport, and like some cliched romance novel, my heart waited, patient that it would someday come true. If only it had been under a circumstance that did not warrant breaking my son’s heart.
I stood at the bottom of the bed, watching her sleep, battling the desire to hold her, to tell her I loved her repeatedly until she tired of hearing it. To slide down next to her and make love to her one last time despite fucking her raw just over an hour ago in my bathroom. Yet even with the punishment I’d inflicted, she still looked at me with those gorgeous fucking eyes with such conflicted innocence, it was killing me to wake her once more so she could go back to her room and into the arms of my son, where she didn’t belong.
