“Is that why you’re rushing home tonight?” Her eyes danced with light. “To study chemistry?”
“There are worse ways to spend an evening,” I said.
She touched her glass to mine. “I’ll drink to that.”
Dex’s house was dark when I pulled into my garage around nine, so I figured he must have gone to bed already. Even so, I decided to send him a quick text. Hey you. I’m home, but no worries if you’re already asleep.
Setting my phone aside, I gave Piglet some food and attention, but she seemed more interested in her dinner than me. I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and was unscrewing the cap when my phone buzzed on the counter.
In bed but not asleep.
I smiled and replied. What are you wearing?
Not much.
Leaning back against the island, I wondered if I should invite him over. What would it take to get you naked?
Also not much.
I laughed to myself. Do it.
Alone?
If you like. Or you could come over and get naked with me.
I swear he knocked less than a minute later. I pulled open the door, backed up, and gasped in mock horror. “It’s the ogre next door! What shall I do?”
He slammed the door behind him. “Run.”
Shrieking wildly, I took off for the stairs, where he caught me around the waist, threw me over his shoulder and took the steps up two at a time. Continuing to howl, I kicked my feet and thumped my hands on his back. Up in my room, he threw me down on the bed and tore my clothes from my body while I did my pretend best to fight back. After ditching his jeans and T-shirt, he crawled over me, both our chests heaving. “Remind me to tell you how to escape a house. You don’t fucking run up the stairs.”
“Maybe I wanted to get caught.”
He shook his head. “Poor little princess. Do you have any idea how loud I’m going to make you scream?”
“And there’s no one around to hear me in this dark, deserted forest, is there?”
“Nope.” He anchored my arms over my head. “You’re all mine to do with what I please.”
“Is this payback for last night?”
He laughed, low and sinister.
My entire body shivered.
“Did you have a good time at dinner tonight?” Dex’s fingers trailed up and down my back.
“Yes.”
“Where’d you go?”
“Trattoria Lupo. The food was delicious.” Almost as delicious as lying here in his arms. “And we ended up getting the whole meal on the house because Ellie’s family knows the owners.”
“Nice.”
“What did you do for dinner?”
“Blackened some chicken. Not on purpose.”
I laughed. “There was a fiftieth anniversary party at the table next to us.”
“Yeah?”
“Mhm.” I started tracing his collarbone with a fingertip. “That’s a long time, isn’t it?”
“Fuck yeah, it is. I don’t know how anyone does it.”
I bit my lip. “Can I ask what went wrong with you and Naomi?”
He exhaled. “We never should have gotten married in the first place. We did it for the wrong reasons—at least I did.”
“What were your reasons?”
“You’ll think I’m a shitty person if I tell you.”
“No, I won’t.” Picking up my head, I propped it in my hand, my arm over his chest. “Tell me.”
“I cared about Naomi, but we’d been broken up for like six years at that point. I was home on leave and we ended up messing around—she’d just gotten out of a terrible relationship and I’d just served back-to-back tours, my mom had just gotten her diagnosis . . . both of us were lonely and looking for escape, and reliving old times seemed like the answer. It should have ended there, but we got drunk one night and she threw out the idea of getting married. I thought about it for three seconds and said okay.”
“That’s what you said? ‘Okay?’”
“Yeah. Because I’d never had any real desire to get married before, but you know what I did have a desire to do?”
“What?”
“Succeed at something where my dad failed. Prove I was a better man.”
I pressed my lips together. “Oh.”
“Told you it was shitty.”
“I think it’s . . . understandable, given your background.”
“Maybe. But it’s not a good reason to get married.”
“No,” I agreed.
“We did it fast, before I shipped out again. And she got pregnant with Hallie right away. But the long separations didn’t do us any favors, and being married to a SEAL is tough. She hated the absences, the intensity of the job, the questions I couldn’t answer. She always accused me of being distant, even when I was there. Said I wasn’t a family man.”
“So she asked you to leave?”
“Yeah. I probably would have stayed in it for the kids’ sake—or to prove I wasn’t my dad again—so in a way, it’s good that she ended it. Put us both out of our misery.”
“Yeah.” I put my head down again. “I suppose that took a lot of guts for her to do.”
“And it was all for the best. Now she’s going to marry Bryce, and he has to put up with her nagging. Meanwhile, I get to enjoy my freedom and the occasional romp with the princess next door.” He tugged on my hair. “I was lying there thinking about you when you texted.”
I smiled. “What were you thinking about?”
“That I wished you were home already, so I could come over and ravage you. You’re moving out soon, and what if the next neighbor who moves in isn’t as cute as you? I might not want to get naked with them.”
Giggling, I slapped his chest. “You’re not even going to miss me, are you?”
When I tried to roll away, he caught me from behind and wrapped me up tight in his arms, his erection pushing against my ass. “Ogres don’t miss anybody. That’s the best part of being an ogre.”
“Let me go, I can’t breathe,” I protested, squirming in his embrace. “Go back to your lonely ogre cave.”
“I’m going.” He flipped me onto my back and reached between my legs, where I was still warm and wet. “But not yet.”
Playfully, I fought back, beating my fists against his chest as he moved between my thighs. After sliding inside me, he pinned my hands outside my shoulders.
I grinned up at him, but he wasn’t teasing anymore. His eyes smoldered in the dark as he moved above me, and my smile faded. He didn’t kiss me, but his face hovered above mine close enough that I felt his breath on my lips. I dug my heels into the backs of his muscular legs and wove my fingers into his hair. For the first time tonight—maybe the first time ever with us—none of this felt like a game.
Not his body buried deep inside mine. Not the fiery heat between us. Not even the words he spoke as he rocked his hips above me.
“I don’t love you.” His voice was low and raw, straining with urgency. “I don’t love you.”
And he crushed his mouth to mine before I could say it back.