Page 75 of Never Let You Go

“Fuck.” My dick is furious for all this teasing. I pull back from her, pull her pants back on, slowly release her breasts, her hips, her whole body.

I keep her head cupped in my hand.

She frowns. “You look upset.”

“You’re perfect,” I explain.

A slow smile spreads on her face. “That sounds like a good thing.”

Not really, but my mind is too fuzzy to get into that right now, and I don’t think I can find the words to explain how her being perfect is really not a good thing for me. “We need to keep this to ourselves,” I summarize.

“Okay.” Her voice is small.

I move one hand up to her adorable face and play with a strand of her hair. “I need to keep it professional between us. In appearance. At work. In town. It would create too many problems.”

“Of course,” she whispers. Her eyes get bigger with understanding. “Skye can’t know.”

She gets it. I knew she was perfect.

“Yeah.”

“I don’t want her to hate me, and I don’t want her to get hurt.”

“She’d never hate you. She’d just get it in her head that you’ll stay with us. And, when you leave, she’d feel abandoned.” I almost say abandoned again. I don’t know if there was ever a particular moment in her life when Skye realized that her mother had left her. It’s more of an ongoing feeling of not having ever been wanted by her. I can’t have her feel this, again, even differently.

“She’d hurt,” Alexandra repeats.

I cup the back of her neck. This woman is so different. So wholesome.

“I guess I’ll just go out with the girls,” she says. “I like going out,” she adds as a manner of apology.

I picture her in that little fuck-me dress and those fuck-me pumps, shaking her ass on the dance floor, me on the sidelines because I don’t want the gossip mill to hurt Skye.

“I know you do. I’ll take you out. Couple counties over.”

“You don’t have to—”

“I want to.”

Her eyes widen. “You want to?”

What does she think? That I just want to fuck her? Christ.

“We also need to protect ourselves,” I say.

She frowns. “I’m on the pill. You have condoms?”

That’s not what I mean, but speaking of which, I’m not sure I do. It’s been too damn long. I make a mental note to order condoms online, next day delivery. It’s either that or drive two counties over to save appearances. “I mean, no expectations, right. We’re just two adults letting off steam, having some fun until you leave.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course.” She smiles softly, but her gaze drifts to the side. “I always knew that.”

“Knew what?”

“Whenever life throws me a curveball, I focus on the little things, and that makes me feel good again.”

“And the curveball is…”

“This apprenticeship.”

---