He took her hand in his as his whole body loosened into his smile. “Good. Then stop fighting me on this. There have been a lot of times I’ve wanted to make your life easier, and I’ve held myself back, because I thought you’d hate it. So do me a favor and let me take care of you this one time.”
Who was Elliot Hodges? This man who’d dropped into her life and saw so much of her. Who wanted to care for her. It would be so nice to let him. It would feel so good—so safe—to trust him in that small way.
“Fine,” she relented, trying very hard not to look pleased.
Right there in the dark, he drew her into another breath-stealing kiss. “This is real,” he whispered, not to her, but to himself. As though reminding himself he hadn’t fallen into a dream.
Elliot held her close all the way to his truck, past the bench where Mark, whose sliver had apparently escalated into something requiring a full arm cast, was waiting for a ride home.
Then, back at the house, Elliot held her in bed all through the night and late into the next morning.
Chapter 17
A Retainer and My Sluttiest Pair of Shorts
32 Days until the Longest Day of the Year
Dating her husbandhad its advantages. The greatest being that there was no ill-defined “what are we?” period when they were with each other but also very possibly not. They were alreadylegallycommitted. Now they were alsootherwisecommitted.
In the mornings, Lainey woke to the feeling of Elliot’s lips pressed to her forehead as he rose out of bed for his morning run. Her coffee materialized beside Elliot’s bed, not on the kitchen counter. She no longer concerned herself with the length of her showers or timing of Elliot’s runs. Now they orbited each other in an easy rhythm as they prepared for the start of busy season.
They had managed to finish the deck on Forest’s Bridge the day before their first booking for Memorial Day weekend. According to Elliot, the two of them had architecture internet all agog, which was great for business but had only increased the number of lookie-loos on their property.
“I can’t believe I’m dating the patron saint of Groff Reddit,” Lainey cooed as they sat out on the newly finished deck, enjoying the fruits of their labor before having to pass it off to strangers.She had trouble referring to Elliot as her husband in earnest. She wasn’t sure why, but he never pushed it.
Elliot pulled her onto his lap with one hand while balancing his coffee in the other.
“You’re like a god on there. All they talk about is you. And they speculate wildly about your grandmother. There’s a whole thread dedicated to Vincent’s ambitious levels of infidelity. He wasnota good husband, by the way. Seriously, why do you always smell so good?” he asked, bouncing from one thought to the next, breathing her in like a drug.
She laughed, feeling the sensation of his breath low in her belly. “It’s my good soap. You smell like it, too.”
He pressed his nose into her wall of red hair. “No, I don’t smell likethis. It’s something about you.” He set his coffee down and lowered her back onto the deck. “Specifically.”
Her stomach tightened at the feel of his mouth trailing languidly down her neck and the scrape of his short stubble against her skin. His fingertips swept under the hem of her shirt. The warm breeze kissed her stomach.
When they were like this, she only ever saw Elliot’s confident side. His dominant side. He never touched her with nervous or tentative hands. He grabbed. He took.
His mouth ghosted down the length of her stomach, desire behind her eyelids. Her attraction to him had its own gravity. It pulled time and space inward, collapsing the universe to a single sensation. She never wanted it to end, but, by design, their relationship had the shelf life of a package of Chips Ahoy.
She wished she felt less for Elliot. Less was simpler. With her history, she knew to be wary of big feelings. It terrified her, the way her heart careened in her chest whenever she thought of him. But she couldn’t help how different it all felt with Elliot. Heasked her questions. He listened to her. He paid attention. He was always looking for little ways to make her happy, and somehow, it didn’t make her want to pull away. Instead, she was eager to do the same for him. She couldn’t help but crave more of him.
Unfortunately for her, they weren’t, at present, in a place where she could have more.
“We can’t do this here,” she panted out.
He grinned up at her wolfishly. “Who’s going to stop us?”
She let out a breathy laugh. “You posted that the deck was finished,” she replied. He inhaled sharply, his head dropping onto her stomach. “We’ll have people wandering the grounds any second, and we have to leave now if we want to make your surprise.”
His frustrated groan vibrated against her skin. “You’re right. Later,” he promised, putting her back together and walking her in the direction of her packed car. “You’re really not going to tell me why I’m packing a retainer and my”—he cleared his throat to read her text from his phone—“ ‘sluttiest pair of shorts’?”
“You told me you can’t sleep without your retainer.”
She whistled for Waffle, who gave her legs a wet sniff and hopped into the tiny coupe through the only operational door. Elliot dropped himself into the passenger seat with practiced finesse, followed closely by Lainey in the driver’s seat.
“And what about the shorts?” he pressed a few minutes later.
“The shorts are need-to-know,” she explained, pulling up to the traffic signal in front of Norman’s Coffee and Meats Shop. “You really have no guesses?”
