“Touché.”
A hand glides across my belly, making the muscles twitch. It’s a reminder—as if I could forget—that I’m not alone in bed.
“Sonofabitch,” Lyle hisses. “Damn you and your super squirrel powers—you got me off topic.”
“I bet I can get you off,” Dex whispers in my ear.
Yes he can.
He deserves a medal for how many times he got you off last night.
Like the Medal of Honor?
More like the Medal of Orgasm.
He should totally be voted in as the mayor of O-Town.
Truth. He is what liquid dreams are made of.
Great, now you got the song stuck in my head.
Me too.
Me three.
“My gift is my curse,” I say to Lyle, arching deeper into Dex’s hold. If Lyle doesn’t hurry up and get to the point, we are going to discover a whole new meaning for phone sex.
“You’re lucky I love you, bitch.”
Oh, someone sounds like they’re pouting now.
Don’t be mean to our GBF.
Isn’t Sammy our GBF?
A girl can never have too many GBFs.
Fact. Every strong woman needs to have a gay best friend behind her telling her how fierce she is.
“Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Ly. Maybe you should ask Holly if you can borrow some frosting and let Kyle put you in a better mood.”
“Mmm,” Dex hums against me. “Sounds delicious.”
I reach back, blindly feeling around for his mouth to shut him up. I need to wrap this call up.
“What did you need my help with, Ly?”
“I need you to get your cute little ass up here, bat those baby blues of yours, and flash your dimples so people start stripping off their shirts.”
“My shirt is off,” Dex informs me, as if I could forget.
“You’re ridiculous.” I’m not sure which man I’m speaking to.
“Yet you love me anyway, doll. What does that say about you?”
“It’s a well-documented fact that I’m not normal.” I spend more of my day conversing with fictional characters than talking to people in real life.
“You got that right,” comes from Dex, who flips me to my back when I pinch his side for the dig.
Braced above me, his arms caging me in, I get another one of those weird cardiac flips while taking him in. Bedhead, pillow creases slashing across his cheekbone, eyes a little heavy with sleep—he looks like the reason people started having morning sex.
“I gotta go, Lyle.” I don’t even wait for his goodbye before I end the call.
“Morning, sunshine.” There’s a smirk I’m used to seeing playing across those delectable lips, but the way he’s looking at me is different.
“Ahoy, matey.” I pull out my pirate humor, needing to break the tension of what is giving me pause.
I need to get out of this bed before he uses his magic wand to put a spell on me. Sure, he can bibbidi-bobbidi me into the land of rolling orgasms where the coming never stops and the party in my pants is the event of the century. I can handle that. My underutilized hormones fully support that, claiming Dex is my glass slipper and fits me perfectly. Well, maybe not perfectly if the tenderness I feel is any indication.
It’s the affection, the adoration swimming in his chocolatey gaze that has my heart turning into a pumpkin.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Maddey may have been voted most likely to wish upon a star, but I’m the one who’s having all their dreams come true.
Finally taking the crab’s advice and kissing the girl? Check.
Finding out what she looks like when she comes? Roger.
Fucking her brains out in a hot tub—twice? Jackpot.
Holding her all night long as we slept? That was my favorite part.
There is absolutely no better way to wake up than with the woman you love in your arms.
After avoiding spending extended time with her since my feelings for her started to change, being immersed in her life now is a head trip. Lying in bed, touching her, feeling the way she reacts and responds to me while having a ridiculous conversation with one of her friends is an experience in and of itself.
It feels like our lives have been irrevocably altered in such a short amount of time—me realizing the depth of my feelings and throwing caution to the wind—but in reality, we’ve been a lifetime in the making.
Yet, as I look at my sleep-rumpled girl, I get a tingling sense that she is fighting what I already know to be true. I should have been prepared for it, but she still manages to slip out from under me and bolt for the bathroom.
The door shuts without the click of a lock—not that it would stop me—followed by the sound of the shower starting up.
“Let me talk to your mom and then we’ll go out, bud,” I tell Trident when he lifts his head from where he’s sprawled out in a sunny spot by the glass doors.
I riffle through my crumpled bottoms on the floor, searching out the small packet of lube in the pocket, and I don’t bother pulling on my boxer briefs since I plan on stepping right into the shower. It’s cute how my girl thinks she can run from me.
Though it’s a logistical nightmare with her having a stalker out there, one of my favorite things about Maddey’s house is all the natural light the massive windows let in. Even now, she didn’t bother turning on the lights.
“I should have locked the door.” She keeps her head tipped back, face turned into the spray when I come up behind her and wrap an arm around her middle.
“Baby.” I nuzzle into the space where her neck meets her shoulder. “I kick in doors for a living—a little lock wouldn’t have kept me out.”
“What if I told you I needed a minute to myself?”
“Not even then,” I say unapologetically.
I’m done hiding from my feelings. I’m not going to let her run away from hers.
“Dex.”
“What did I say about calling me Dex?” I suck her earlobe into my mouth.
“Can you be serious for a minute?” She sighs and I tighten my hold, mulling over my options. The time has come for me to lay all my cards out on the table.
The water beats down on us, the temperature cooler than I would have suspected she would like.
It might be the SEAL in me, but I’ve always thought Maddey looked cute wet. There’s something about how the water sticks to her blonde lashes and the way her hair gets slicked back from her face, keeping it from being obstructed from view that I could stare at all day.
“You want serious?” She nods. “How’s this for serious?” I spin her around to face me and pin her to the tile wall with my body, elbows bracketing her face on either side.
The rain shower head above keeps us wet, and I do my best to block most of it from hitting Maddey in the face so she can see me. Dropping my hands to cup her head, I use my thumbs to wipe away the droplets along the ridge of her brow, tangling my other fingers into her hair and tugging to tilt her face to mine. I need those icy eyes on me while I say the most important words of my life.
“I love you.”
She gasps and shakes her head. “No you don’t.”
“The fuck I don’t.” I bring my forehead down to rest on hers. “I love you and have loved you for years.” Even if I only just made the connection.