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Shifting my weight on the stool, I glance around the room that suddenly feels twice as small with his broad frame filling the space. “Where do we go from here? Are you going back to work? Do we text each other later and set up something?” My migraine pounds harder as I think about the outrage Detrick would wreak if I touched my calendar. “Maybe we should have our assistants set up something?”
“Come on.” Thorin ignores my questions, taking my hand and leading me off the stool back towards the hallway. “Which room is yours?”
I point towards the one diagonal from us. “Why are we going in here?”
“You need to nap. I can work from my cell while that happens.” He stops at the foot of the bed and turns towards me, determination written across his face. “Get in bed.”
“I don’t think this is how you get into my bed by being bossy,” I huff.
“Sure it is when all we’ll be doing is being platonic at the moment. Now, get in.”
Walking in a bit of a daze, I climb back into my bed and sit up to watch him. Thorin begins to unbutton his shirt before showing off the toned olive skin he keeps hidden. When his hands reach for the fly of his slacks, I yank the comforter up and over my face like a prepubescent teenager who’s never seen a cock. “What are you doing?” I yelp. “You don’t need to get naked!”
“I’m not getting naked,” he chuckles. Somehow his laugh seems deeper, richer and stirring filthy thoughts in my mind as the rustle of fabric loudly echoes in the room. “I’m taking my nice clothes off so they don’t wrinkle. Is that a problem?”
“Shouldn’t you have asked thatbeforeyou started undressing?” I demand.
“Where’s the fun in that?”
Yeah, my ovaries agree immediately as butterflies are sent into a frenzy in my stomach,what’s wrong with it? Take a peek!
Absolutely not. I tighten my fingers on the comforter in case my vagina and brain suddenly have vastly different ideas on what should be happening here.
The bed dips beside me as Thorin slips under the covers. “There,” he muses, “now you can’t see anything.” With that passing comment, he whips the comforter out of my hands until we’re left staring at each other. His broad chest distracts me. All the dips and valleys of sinew muscles enhance the appeal of his form. “My eyes are up here, Bex.”
Snapping back into reality, I flush at being caught in my perusal. “Don’t climb into my bed if you don’t want to be objectified.”
“Oh I have no objection whatsoever. Take your time.” He tucks his hands behind his neck, flexing his biceps in the process and leans back into the bedframe. “Let me know when you’re ready to take that nap.”
Never, my vagina cheers.
Ugh. I absolutely hate being a woman right now. Forcing myself to slump down in the bed, I jab my finger in his direction from my new vantage point. “Don’t get any ideas.”
“Too late there. I’ve seen you naked, remember? I already have ideas.”
“Do you want me to stab you?” I glare at him.
He purses his lips. “Not particularly.”
“I don’t remember you being this cocky.”
Thorin frowns as a thoughtful look crosses his face. “I’m not usually. It’s been a long time since I’ve joked around with anyone. Typically I’m too serious, too holed up in my office or business dealings to entertain the idea of fun, regardless that I’m known tolikegoing out. I just like it when it’s a controlled environment, like atDeliriumwith the boys, where I don’t have to deal with the people at the bar or on the dance floor, but still soak in the ambiance.”
“Sounds a bit lonely.”
He shrugs unrepentantly. “My image and myself are two vastly different things. You should know that better than anyone else.”
“To be fair, most people tend to know you’re an asshole nowadays.”
He smiles at me. “True, but I keep a pretty good lid on just how much of my assholery gets seen by the public. You’re the only one who seems to see every side of me. There’s no mask, nothing to hide or shame away from. I can be myself.” He slips down a little further on the bed, still resting his back against the headboard. “Maybe someday I can be the same for you.”
“Maybe.”
“In the meantime, I’ll prove that I’m not the same twenty-two year old with his nuts in a vice who doesn’t know how to break up with someone because he’s afraid of disappointing everyone. I know how unhealthy that mindset is now. It’s not something I plan on repeating. Though if the past is to give me a guiding light, you’ll probably be the one walking away this time.”
“Yeah? What makes you so sure of that?”
Thorin looks at me with a steely glint in his dark eyes. “Because, Bex, I never wanted to divorce you in the first place. I never wanted to let you go. It was my own actions that caused the entire events to unfold, but it never stopped me from wanting you. After everything happened, I still thought about you from time to time. I wanted to look you up, check in, but it felt like I burned every bridge there was to have when Jessica and I ended things so outlandishly. It felt like I was giving you as much peace as I could, all things considered.”
