As if I haven’t spent most of the past two hours willing my boner away every time I glance at Hailey’s annoyed face. Her piss-poor attitude is as much of a turn-on as the eye-rolls.
“That you fucked half the girls at the table,” she spits out. “And that none of them could hold your interest no matter what they did, so there’s no chance I will.”
“And what did you tell her?”
She shrugs, feigning nonchalance, but her chin tips up an inch, telling me she’s proud of herself. “That she tries too hard.”
“That’s my girl.” I smile, moving my hands onto her hips. She swats them away, still not appeased. “Hailey, you had my attention when you looked up at that window after stepping out of your dad’s car at Lakeside. I was there, watching you. I haven’t stopped since. You don’t have to do anything to hold my interest. You’re fucking fascinating even when you sleep.”
“Even if that’s true, I just metfourofyour sex dolls.”
“Exsex dolls.”
“It doesn’t matter.” She pushes me away, vaulting down from the island.
“I can’t change my past, Hailey.”
“I know!”
“Then why are you so mad?”
She spins on the sole of her bare foot, jabbing a finger at me.“Turn it around. Would you be pleased if you were cornered by four men I’d slept with?”
She’s slept withno onebut me andit’s a goddamn godsend because imagininganyonetouching her the way I do, seeing her come, hearing her moans stirs fucking hell in my brain. I wouldn’t put it past me to track down the motherfuckers and break their necks.
“I’d be pissed off, but I’d take it out on them, not you.I wouldn’t make you feel like shit for having a life before you stumbled into mine,” I grit out, losing my patience. “What did you expect? That I’ve never had sex? It’s called apastfor a reason. I’m with you now. I can’t change who I was and I sure as fuck won’t apologize.”
“I know you have a past! But that doesn’t give you the right to rub it in my face!” She storms away, climbing the staircase to the mezzanine.
“I didn’t mean to. I didn’t fucking think,” I say, watching her hips sway with every step. “Hailey—”
“Don’t,” she snaps. “Just... ugh!” She enters the bedroom, her footsteps echoing one way, then back again as she leans over the railing, throwing me a pillow. “You’re sleeping on the couch.”
I laugh.
Not because it’s funny. It’s not, although given I was taking the couch anyway, it is a bit amusing. It’s also fucking infuriating but I laugh because Ilovehow domesticated this feels. Like a husband and wife.
Too bad she can’t read my mind the way I do hers, and takes it the wrong way, her cheeks growing red as she disappears back into the bedroom.
I don’t know if it’s good or bad that she still doesn’t trust me. I’d fucking lose it if I could feel her skin against mine right now. She’d writhe beneath me, coming so many times she’d losecount. I’d work the anger out of her one bone-melting orgasm at a time.
Sex douses the inferno of a fight like ice-cold water.
My imagination runs on autopilot. I imagine gripping her by the waist and tossing her onto the bed. I’d hook my thumbs over the elastic of her panties—beige today—and inch them tantalizingly down her legs before latching onto her pussy. Fuck... I can almost taste the sweetness of her wet clit.
I’d drive her as crazy as she drives me and only when she begged for release would I let her come. Once, twice, and again, and again.
I snap out of the daydream, snatching up the pillow to take the stairs two at a time, barging into the bedroom five seconds later. Hailey sits on the bed, arms crossed over her chest.
“I’m sorry I put you through that,” I say, crouching before her, both hands firmly on her soft, warm knees. “It was my mistake. I promise it won’t happen again.”
She gives me nothing. Not so much as a scowl. It’s like talking to a brick wall. I’m overcome with love for this girl. Why the fuck can’t she see that she’s my focus point? That I don’t want anything or anyone more than I want and need her?
She turns her head the other way, giving me the silent treatment.
I’m done.
I grip her chin, forcing her eyes onto me. Her lips part in silent alarm, but a hint of lust glints in her blues, so I don’t disengage.
