AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I frown. “I think I’m totally the commitment kind.”Or I wouldn’t have camped out at your place all these nights.Instead I add, “Just hadn’t met the right girl yet.” I nod toward Dakota sleeping in the back of my car. “The rightgirls.”
Marlow shivers and I run my hands down her arms. “Let’s get you warmed up,” I tell her.
I open her car door and she gets in, and I feel the distance from her again. Did I say the wrong thing?
On the way to her condo, we’re both quiet and for the first time since I started staying over here during the night, I wonder if maybe I should go to my place tonight. Maybe she needs some space.
But I get Dakota inside, tucking her under the covers. Marlow bends down and kisses her goodnight and I follow her into the hall. We leave Dakota’s door cracked and then Marlow puts her arms around my neck.
“I’m so sleepy, but I need you,” she says, leaning on her tiptoes to kiss me.
“You’ve got me,” I say against her mouth.
I put her legs around my waist and carry her to the bed where we get lost in each other all night long.
Just as I think she’s falling asleep, she does something to set me on fire again. It’s like she can’t get enough, and it should make me ecstatic that she wants me like this—it does every single night normally—but tonight I can’t shake the feeling that something’s wrong.
CHAPTERFORTY-ONE
GREEN
MARLOW
I’m dragging the next day.
Fortunately, it’s a Sunday so I don’t have to be at work, but Wyatt’s working today, and I feel bad for keeping him up so much of the night.
I felt desperate for him. I don’t know any other way to describe it. I’m almost embarrassed by how much I craved him. It was like he knew that I needed extra…everything, and without asking any questions even though I felt them unsaid between us, he gave it to me.
I nap while Dakota watches a movie and could still sleep a few more hours, but I force myself to get up. Dakota and I go for a long walk, and when we get back, I start working on dinner. All day I’ve tried not to stay in my thoughts, but they’re there, screaming at me.
The desire for normalcy and to keep things as they are is at war with my new reality. When Wyatt comes over after his shift and we’re cleaning up the kitchen, Dakota already in bed, he turns to face me and I come so close to blurting it out then. But he pulls me against him, and I rest my head on his chest instead, letting the warmth of him fill me from the inside out.
“You distracted my thoughts all day,” he whispers. “In the best way.”
“I hope you weren’t too tired to think straight.”
“I’m tired now, but I was still on an adrenaline rush from loving you up all night.” He laughs and my skin heats.
I’m thinking about how glad I am that he can’t see my face right now when he tilts my chin up to look at him.
“You gonna tell me what’s going on with you?” he asks.
My mouth parts and I just can’t get the words out. I lift on my tiptoes and whisper against his mouth, “Soon.”
He looks disappointed, but he nods. “Okay. I guess I can live with that.” His forehead crinkles in the center of his eyebrows. “You can tell me anything. You know that, right?”
I nod and take a deep breath, bracing myself to just spit it out already, but his hands fall from my waist and he takes a step back.
“Okay.” He kisses my forehead and turns away. “I think I’m going to head to my place. I’ve got a crazy week at work and I need to put some time in tonight to get ready for it.”
I try to keep my face from falling, but I think I fail because he smiles, and it’s so sweet, it breaks my heart a little more.
“You know we won’t get any sleep if I stay,” he says.
“I think I’m too tired tonight to do anything but sleep,” I say, but he still walks into the living room and grabs his backpack.
I want to stop him. I really do.
