Page 16 of Tangling Hearts

Chapter Eleven

Annie

Dream: walking down a path. Wearing: a white dress and flowers in my hair. Eyes: fluttering open because someone’s looking at me.

“What time is it?” I ask on a stretch, smiling at Brendan’s sleepy face. His hair is sticking up in funny places, and he looks crazy-adorable.

“I have no idea,” he smiles, reaching to move a lock of hair from my cheek. “I closed the curtains sometime before dawn.”

“Mmm.” Snuggling up to him, I kiss his shoulder and trace the angles of his collarbone, coming up to circle his Adam’s Apple with the tip of my finger. “I left my purse in the stadium.”

He chuckles. “You mean my living room?”

My eyebrows go up innocently. “You mean they don’t hold the World Series there? They could.”

He laughs. With a firm kiss on the top of my head, he mumbles, “I don’t know what time it is, and I don’t care.”

“I have to meet the contractor today.” My legs stretch out and I let my whole body follow, pulling away from him. “So let’s hope it’s still early so we can lie in bed some more and do filthy things to each other.” I climb out of his enormous bed and look over my shoulder to make sure he’s watching. He is, and when his eyes rise to meet mine, I grin. “You should see your face. Do you have a robe?”

His hand languidly points to the door on the wall that stands between the bathroom and hallway doors.

“Let me guess. You’ve got a closet the size of my apartment, too.”

“I haven’t seen your apartment,” he says, behind me.

Throwing him a flirty look, I call over, “Play your cards right and you just might get to.”

His mouth spreads into a groggy grin, and he adjusts the pillow, both hands sliding under his head, his biceps flexed fan-fucking-tastically. “If I’m lucky…”

“That’s right. If you’re…” I open the door. “HOLY SHIT!”

He busts up laughing. “Jesus. You’re making me feel obnoxious.”

His closet would make a male version of Martha Stewart cum in his pants at the sight. Dark wood. Floor-to-Ceiling shoe shelves. Middle island. A wall of ties sectioned off, and a high-end cubbyhole each filled with its own hat or cap. I grab a thick, navy blue cotton robe, slipping it on as I walk out. “Your baseball hats are spoiled. I bet when you bought them they thought they were going to be shoved in a gym bag with someone’s smelly shoes, not kept in a palace shrine to be bowed down to.”

“The way your mind works.” He smirks. His eyes change and I see the hunger in them again. “My robe looks better on you.” His legs are sprawled out under the blanket – mountains of muscular length with a tent popped up where they meet.

I have no choice but to walk to him and climb on top, the oversized robe impeding my progress but not enough to stop me. “Mmm…”

“This is good. I like this.”

“You like me straddling you like this, huh? I can’t imagine why…” I lean down and kiss him, and rise back up to adjust my legs, moving the robe up a little. “I think the blanket should get out of our way, too, don’t you?”

He nods to one of the nightstands. “We should get a condom.”

Mood: killed.

Not because I don’t use condoms. I used them with Christiano until we decided we were exclusive and I went on the pill, which was in the first month of our meeting. That’s probably why I keep forgetting to use one; I haven’t in years. But now that Brendan’s brought it up, it just reminds me that we are most certainly not exclusive. He made it clear that’s not how he rolls.

So I bend and kiss his forehead. “I need to make sure I’m not missing the meeting with my contractor.”

As I walk barefoot to the door, he calls out, “We have to use one, Annie.”

I flip around, surprised at the straight-on confrontation of what I was hoping to avoid. I touch the wall, looking at the perfect paint job. “I know. It’s okay. I just have to find out what time it is, that’s all.” I glance to see him somberly looking at me. “Brendan – I have no problem with condoms. I don’t want to get pregnant, that’s for sure.”

I just have a problem with thinking of you sleeping with another woman. It dries me right up.

“I can see it bothers you.”

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