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His face adjusts visibly, his forehead contorting into a massive frown. “Why do you say that?”
I chuckle, almost uncomfortably, but fully confident in my honesty. “Well, you slept with three women last year—on the low end, I’m assuming.”
His face falls as he realizes where I’m headed. “I’ve slept withtwoguys in my entire life, so…there’s that.”
“Shit, Rey. I didn’t—”
I hold up a quelling hand. “I know, Alex.” I shrug as my mouth turns down. “I’m not the norm, and I’m good with that.”
I place that same hand on his creased forehead, smoothing the indentations of frustration. “Just as I’m good with you being a normal man with normal desires and a wholly healthy sex life. Youneverneed to feel like I would judge you. Foranything.”
He relaxes visibly, the previous tension ebbing away under my absolute lack of condemnation.
“Damon was my boyfriend in high school, and I was in a sort of friends-with-benefits situation with Todd, a guy at Pearson.” I shrug, easily disclosing these intimacies despite the tender age of our relationship.
I quirk a devilish brow while my mouth lifts on one side. “What’syournumber, pretty boy?”
His face pales slightly, and his eyes widen. The sight is all too hilarious, and I struggle to contain my threatening laughter.
“Umm…well, I think…umm…it’s not as many as all that…umm…”
His floundering is too much. “Oh, Alex. I’m kidding.”
He narrows his eyes at me before playfully mopping his brow. I giggle at his easy recovery, emptying my glass.
“Favorite movie?”
I snort. “Can I plead the fifth?”
He sits forward, depositing his glass of wine on the coffee table as his vibrant eyes sparkle with intrigue. “Not a fucking hope, Sunshine.”
I expel an almost pained sigh before deadpanning. “Top Gun.The original!”
His mouth twitches, mine mirrors it, and suddenly our joint laughter rings out across the penthouse's vaulted ceilings.
“Christ, Rey. I think we need to have a designated movie night going forward.”
My laughter turns to hiccups before I abruptly stop. The events outside Bergdorf Goodman, along with the casual mention of a timeline that hasn’t been ironed out, encourage the next words to tumble from my mouth.
“And how long do you reckon those movie nights would run on for? A month? Two, perhaps?”
Alex’s smile dies on his face before his eyebrows pucker together. He scoots closer on the seat, gently plucking my glass from my fingertips to deposit it on the coffee table before enfolding my hands in his much larger ones.
His eyes are brimming with a deep resolution that I can’t put my finger on, but it affects me down to my marrow.
“Reyna, when I said I don’t have a timeline, I wasn’t referring to me being a part of your life. You can rest assured that, in one capacity or another, I will have your back. Rule three willalwaysstand.”
He draws me in against his chest, allowing me to breathe a heavy sigh of relief. I pinch my eyes closed tight, my next words spilling heedlessly from my lips.
“I-I feel something for you, Alex. Something I can’t quite place. And I’m terrified of letting myself get too close.” I swallow roughly, huffing a mocking laugh. “I don’t let people in, and I’ve been alone for so long.”
His arms tighten around me almost painfully, and I revel in the clear fact that my words have resonated with him.
Silence envelops us, allowing me to focus on the lulling cadence of his deep, even breathing and the low, steady thump of his heartbeat beneath my ear. A feeling of complete and utter peace and safety surrounds me, and I slam my eyes closed while committing this feeling to memory, needing to file it away for nights to come.
“My mother used to hurt me. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. She was a twisted individual who pretty muchruinedmy faith in humanity.”
* * *
