I feel him sigh against my back. “Am I really that bad?”
“Are you forgetting how you spoke to me when I asked to borrow your van?”
I’m met with silence, and I scrape my fingers over the wood of the kitchenette bench.
I know there are things he isn’t telling me.
I know he’s not a horrible person.
I exhale, but I only have myself to blame for expecting him to open up and tell me everything he’s been holding inside just because we slept together. Shit takes time, and he’s had more than a decade longer than me to perfect his defenses.
He nudges my ear with his nose. “Kiss me.”
“You don’t deserve it right now.”
His body tenses. “Why not?”
I smile to myself. “Because you haven’t brushed your teeth.”
Tek slaps my ass and I instantly bite my lips because I need to keep it together.
“I’ve gotta go.” I step out from in front of him and take my wetsuit from where it spent the night on the driver’s seat.
Tek looks down at me as I sit on the edge of the bed to start pulling it on. “Are you trying to run away from me?”
“Not at all.”
“Then why does it feel like it?”
I stand up and pull the wetsuit up my legs. “I can’t control how you feel.”
“Not true,” he smirks. “You’ve been in control of my thoughts for weeks.”
“Are you sure you’re not getting that confused with beinginyour thoughts?”
“I’d say they’re the same thing.”
With my arms in the suit, I zip it up. Taking the socks, I sit back on the bed and roll up the bottom of the legs so I can slip on the socks then pull the legs back down over the top. Standing again, I gently push against Tek’s chest so he steps back. “You’ve been in my thoughts, too. But I chose kindness.”
“That’s because you’re an angel… When you’re not being a shit.”
I act coy and he growls, grabbing at my waist and trying to pull me closer. It’s possessive, and everything I want from him, but, “I just got into this thing, and I’m not getting back out of it till I’ve been in the ocean.”
“Do you plan on always being a tease now that you’ve broken me down?”
I push against his chest and lean back. “A tease?”
“Yeah.”
I act like I’m contemplating his question. “Maybe.”
“I’m gonna kill you.”
“Not if I kill you first.” I wink, grab my wetsuit cap from over his shoulder, then slip out of his hands. “Why don’t you start breakfast while I’m gone?”
“Don’t wanna.”
I look at him with an expression that sayssince when do you speak like that?“And why not?”
