Tilting his head to the side, Zeus pressed a lazy kiss to her neck.
“Mmm.” She made the little sound in the back of her throat.
A small smile curved his lips.
If making sure she was sexually satisfied was the way to her heart, he was pretty sure he was already more than halfway there. Even if it wasn’t, he figured this was a pretty damn good start.
Chapter 25
Yasmine
Head pillowed on his shoulder, Yasmine tried to ignore how comfortable she felt with Zeus’ arm around her shoulders, the way he felt for her to curl up against. Sure, cuddling was probably against the fuck buddy rules, but aftercare wasn’t. And after getting her world rocked the way he had, she’d needed some cuddling to ground her, so she hadn’t objected when he’d gotten them into position.
He knew the score, after all.
If he felt like this was fine, when they were just fuck buddies, she could be fine with it, too.
“Question,” she said, clearing her throat as she stroked her fingers up his chest, playing with the wiry hair that covered the top of his pecs. “You’re smart. You’re thoughtful. You’re good in bed. How are you still single?”
“Same reason you are.”
“You’re cursed?”
“None of my other relationships ever worked out.” He caught her hand and pulled her fingers up to his lips to press a kiss to the tips. Yasmine watched, fascinated for a moment, before what he’d said—and what he was doing—tipped off her alarm bells. Alarm bells from the kiss, but also some indignation over his reference to her curse or lack thereof.
“But why didn’t they work out?” she pressed, sliding her arm around his body rather than going back to playing with his chest hair. Sure, this was more cuddly, but it cut off the opportunity for fingertip kisses, which somehow felt more intimate.
Definitely too relationship-y for her, even if it wasn’t for him.
She had to watch out for what her own head was doing.
“I’m too intense, I think.” She felt him shrug, his shoulder moving against her cheek and ear. “Once a girlfriend doesn’t need me, she moves on. Or, in the case of my last girlfriend, she cheats on me, and I move on.”
“That’s awful.” And filled her with a well of anger. Cheaters always did. There was just no reason for it. If you didn’t want to be with someone, just break up with them. If you did want to be with them, don’t cheat. It was a choice, and she did not understand the people who chose poorly. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not. I don’t think we were going to last, anyway. I thought that maybe I could help her… but she was one of those people who didn’t actually want to be helped. She just wanted to be able to complain.” He said it almost philosophically, but because she was pressed so closely against him, Yasmine could feel the increased tension in his body when he talked about her.
As much as he might try to sound like it hadn’t affected him, it had.
“What about your other exes? What do you mean by ‘after they don’t need you’?”
“Ah, well. If you’re cursed with your exes moving on to their ‘happily-ever-after’ after dating you,”—his tone was more teasing than serious, the big jerk—“then I’m cursed with women who need my help, then move on once they don’t.”
“Well, that’s also terrible,” Yasmine said indignantly. She wanted to hunt down every one of Zeus’ exes and give them a piece of her mind for making him feel used because that was what it sounded like.
“It’s not that bad.” He chuckled, his fingers trailing over her shoulder. “Right now, I’m enjoying helping you, for instance.”
Yasmine opened her mouth to tell him she wasn’t using him, but then she had to close it. Because she kind of was. That’s basically what fuck buddies were for. Sure, they were using each other, but…
Hm.
“Were they ex-girlfriends or more ex-fuck buddies?” she asked.
“Ex-girlfriends, a few of them. Women I dated.” His chest moved beneath her head. “You’re my first fuck buddy.”
Oh. Well, maybe that explained why he was cuddlier after sex than she’d expected. He was used to relationships. That made sense.
“You’re my first, too.” Which was true. The other men she’d seen between him and Mason weren’t a regular thing. Another thought occurred to her. “So, does that mean you’re not sleeping with anyone else right now?”
