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He went still and cleared his throat. “Yeah, I came home when I was alerted that someone was in the house and I saw you crying.”
“Wait, what?” I looked around, not seeing anything out of the normal. “How did you know I was crying?”
He looked away as if he was a bit ashamed. “There’s hidden cameras all through the house, except for your room and the bathrooms.”
“Oh. So you’ve been watching me since I’ve been here.”
He nodded. “I had to know Bow was safe, Sam. It’s nothing against you. I just had to know she was being taken care of. You can’t always trust background checks. Sometimes the people you want to trust the most aren’t worthy of that trust.”
I knew he was talking about someone that wasn’t me, but I understood why he’d hidden cameras. It was smart to do it, and had the roles been reversed I’d have done the same thing. In my mind I went over everything I’d done since I got here, and I groaned.
“Oh my God, you saw me dancing in the kitchen as I cooked and cleaned, didn’t you?” I laughed and closed my eyes in embarrassment. I couldn’t dance worth a damn despite having lessons at my mom’s insistence.
“Yeah. I may have watched you dance around.” He shrugged and grinned at me. “I thought you were cute.”
I sobered up a little and looked deep into his green eyes. “Dax, why did you kiss me?”
“What do you mean?”
“Was it solely for Aimes’ benefit?”
He hesitated and reached up, pushing my hair back from my cheek before leaning in and gently touching his lips to mine again. This kiss was different—softer—but every bit as explosive as the last one.
Dax tempted and teased my lips before sliding his tongue inside my mouth and coaxing me to participate in the deep, drugging kiss. Everything in me stilled at the meeting of our lips. He was kissing me, this time not for show, but because he wanted to kiss me. We were alone and there were no prying eyes or cocky asshole athletes. This was about Dax and me, nobody else.
“Wow,” I breathed when he pulled back, his eyes searching my face.
“I want you, Sam, but I’m not cut out for relationships anymore.” He looked down at my lips. “I can’t offer you more than sex and friendship. Hell, when I placed that ad for a marriage of convenience, sex wasn’t even on the table. I go to Deviance when I have to get my physical needs met.”
“Deviance?”
“It’s a sex club, BDSM club, but everyone has sex whether it’s in the private rooms or out in the open.”
I swallowed hard. “You have sex in front of people?”
He shook his head. “No. I use the private rooms because of my job, but I do pick up women when I need one. It’s been a long time since I’ve been there, though.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to talk about that part of my life, Sam.”
“No, why do you cut yourself off from relationships?” I searched his eyes. There was so much anger and sadness hiding there.
“I thought I was in love once. She wasn’t the person I thought she was, and I ended up a single dad. As much as I love Bow, I won’t go through that again.”
“I understand loving someone and not knowing who they are more than most people, Dax. I’ve been there.”
“Not the same. If she had cheated on me, that would have been a blessing compared to what actually happened. Anything more than sex is out of the question. You have your life. I have mine, and Bow is the focus of it all. Can you handle that?”
Could I? I didn’t know. I wanted him. I liked his company and who he seemed to be. I loved the way he was with his daughter. You can tell a lot about a man by how he treats the people around him and the women in his life. He was always a gentleman with me, and he was amazing with Bow. She was crazy about her dad, and I was kinda crazy about him too.
Would sex and friendship be enough for me? I had no freaking clue, but I was willing to find out. I was here for a marriage of convenience. If that came with the perk of a friend and mind-blowing sex, then why not? I just had to keep my head and my heart out of it.
