I swallow hard. “Isn’t it?”
“I think the hours I’ve talked to you have far exceeded the hours I’ve spent inside you.” His fingers are lazy on my back, lulling me into softness. “You’re just conveniently forgetting about that because you’re not sure how you feel about me understanding you.”
My hand falls to his chest, and his muscles tense in response. I test my power over him by scraping my nails lightly across his skin. “I don’t hate it.”
He takes my hand and puts it by my side. “No?”
“No.” I return it to his chest, and this time, I trace his nipple.
A sharp intake of breath escapes before he grips my fingers and yanks my wrist to my side. “This is why I keep having to restrain you.”
I laugh. “Don’t you owe me a story?”
He releases me before rubbing my thighs with the tips of his fingers. “Funny enough, the story’s not that different from yours, minus the proposal. I’d been regularly hooking up with a pediatrician named Felicia a couple towns over for about a year, and even though I told her I wasn’t a relationship guy, on her birthday, she confessed she wanted a future.”
“Oh no.”
“Yeah, but I’m not a monster, so I waited a month before I broke it off.” He continues to paint circles over my skin. “Which is where I’d come from the night I ran into you.”
I move, sitting straighter and turning more fully toward him. “That’s how I ended up in that bar too. I’d had another run-in with Travis.”
“That explains the mood.”
“Maybe I was a bit prickly.” I shift, straddling him.
He settles his hands on my hips, gripping me tightly before relaxing. “Definitely prickly.”
I trail a path down the center of his chest, giving him a sly smile. “When did you know you had me?”
He shrugs. “Couple minutes.”
The laughter spurts from my lips, and I shake my head. “You did not.”
“As soon as you told me you were going to do whatever you wanted, I knew I’d be proving you wrong.”
“Your ego is ridiculous. What about all your talk about not trying to fuck me?”
“I didn’t need to try. You talked yourself into it without my help. I was merely the lucky recipient.” He gives me a boyish grin that somehow manages to make him even hotter. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
Staring into his midnight eyes, I’m completely lost. “What wasn’t?”
“You told me a story, and I told you one.” He slides his palms beneath his shirt to where I’m naked underneath. He urges me closer. “We survived.”
“It wasn’t that terrible, I guess.”
“We can figure out how to do this.”
I’m close enough we’re breathing the same breath. “Do what?”
“Us.”
Chapter 20
Charlie
The bright sun shines through the windows of Earl’s Diner as Jessica plops into the booth and gives her brother and Sophie an aggrieved huff. “I want it noted I’m here under duress.”
“Noted.” I slide in next to her.
