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Chapter 3

Did she just say that she wanted to stay here? With him?

When Dax had looked through the peephole and seen Ginny on his doorstep, he hadn’t believed his eyes. Now she was saying that she was going to stay with him and he couldn’t believe his ears.

“What?” He was sure that he’d heard her wrong.

She licked her lips nervously and his body responded as if it was a seductive motion instead of one fueled by anxiety. He lifted his eyes to meet hers, hoping to distract himself from the damp glisten of her full lips that were calling to him like a beacon in a storm.

“Um, yeah. You said that instead of me going to a hotel or an Airbnb I should stay here. I mean, I’ll pay, of course. You know, rent a room. If not, it’s no problem.” She could hear herself rambling but was powerless to stop it. “I don’t have to stay here. I just thought…well, I felt so safe here and no one would bother me. It’s no big deal. You were probably just saying it not thinking I would ever actually show up…”

“I only have one bathroom working.” First, he hadn’t believed what he’d seen, then he hadn’t believed what he’d heard, now he couldn’t believe what he was saying.

Was he actually trying to talk her out of staying with him? That was insane. All he’d been able to think about since she’d left was seeing her again and now, not only was she standing in front of him but she was asking to stay at his house and the first word out of his mouth was “what” and not “yes”?

“Oh, okay…” She started towards the door. “Well, thanks. I’m so sorry I bother—”

Shit. She was leaving. Thankfully, that snapped his brain into action.

“No, you didn’t…you’re not bothering me.” He cut in as he stood and stepped towards her. “I just…there’s only the one bathroom. That’s all. I didn’t mean that you couldn’t stay. I want you to stay.”

Indecision filled her baby blues and Dax could see that she wasn’t sold on his sincerity. He started to make his case again, but just as he opened his mouth a song started playing. Loudly.

“Sorry.” Ginny shook her head as she reached into her pocket. “I have to take this.”

Her lips turned up in a tight smile as she brought the phone up to her ear. “Hey, Mama.”

The cheery tone was in direct opposition to her tense expression. Dax remembered the call she’d taken from her mom the night that they’d stayed up all night talking. She’d had the same strained look on her face that she wore now. From what she’d said she and her mom were really close. In fact, sometimes she said she felt like they were too close.

She turned so that her profile was facing him and he took advantage of her preoccupation to study her. Her hair was pulled up with small wisps framing her heart-shaped face. His eyes traveled along the slope of her upturned nose. He tried not to linger on the fullness of her lips, knowing that would only get him into trouble. She had the kind of luscious lips that reduced men to grunts and chest pounding. The kind that caused beads of sweat to form on the back of men’s necks at the thought of what those pillow perfect lips would feel like pressed against their own mouth and wrapped around their dicks. It wasn’t a conscious thought. He hadn’t meant to imagine it. That’s just the image her mouth inspired.

“Yes, I’m here. Safe and sound.”

She licked her lips again and he knew that if he continued to stare, the place his mind was going would stand up and demand attention. He continued lower, down the graceful and delicate lines of her neck and collarbone. The red, long sleeve cotton shirt that she wore was not form fitting or revealing in the slightest. The material covered her upper body completely, the neckline started just below her collarbone and continued down over her hips. But the area that kept demanding his attention was where the material pulled tight across her chest. He felt like he was back in middle school before he’d seen or touched a pair of boobs, when they were still this great mystery yet to be discovered.

To Dax all women were sexy. He’d never gone through the girls are gross and have cooties stage. He’d always loved women in all shapes, sizes and colors. He loved short women, tall women, curvy women, skinny women, fair to dark skinned women and everything in between. His hormones did not discriminate. He was an equal opportunity appreciator of the opposite sex. So it wasn’t surprising to him that he found Ginny sexy. What was surprising to him was the magnitude of her appeal.

Dax had been with his fair share, probably more than his fair share of women. His experience had given him perspective but in some ways had jaded him. He knew that lust could easily be mistaken for love. He knew that desire could be misconstrued as devotion. He knew that compatibility could be misinterpreted as commitment. He knew that feelings were fluid. They could and would change. They weren’t something that you could depend on. They weren’t something that you could control. They weren’t something that you based decisions on.

So finding himself so overwhelmed by what he was feeling was not something he was used to.

“Um, I’m not sure yet. I’ll let you know when I know.” Ginny sliced a look at him out of the corner of her eye. “I’m fine, I promise. Just have fun and don’t worry about me.” There was a pause and the smile on her face grew slightly bigger. “Well, then at least have fun.”

Dax put his hands in his pockets and dropped his gaze down at the floor. He knew that his body would definitely start to show a reaction if he stared at her any longer.

“Okay, mom. I will. I promise.”

He could hear the tension building in her voice and he lifted his eyes to see that her eyes were closed and she was letting out a slow breath. Her shoulders rolled back as her head nodded. “I am. I just got here but I’m going to write after I get settled and take a nap and I’m meeting Chase for our first session tomorrow.”

The realization that she was here and she wanted to stay with him finally cemented itself in his foggy brain. He determined in that moment that there was no way she was going to stay somewhere else.

As he waited for her to get off her call he started planning what he would say. How he would explain his odd behavior. He’d been accused, more than once, of being honest to a fault. His mom and sister had referred to it as him having no filter. He’d always maintained that he just didn’t see any point in lying. The truth always had a way of coming to light, why not just start with it.

So instead of trying to cover up why he was shocked to see her, he planned on telling her that he’d been thinking about her. A lot. And that he’d love for her to stay with him so they could get to know each other better.

“Okay, I’ll talk to you soon. Tell Brad I said hi. Love you. Bye.”

She replaced the phone in her pocket and turned so that she was facing him again. When her sky-blue eyes met his, her stare hit him with a force that made his chest tighten and he found it difficult to breathe. It was so intense he felt it like a punch in his solar plexus.

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