Page 25 of Ghosted By Texas

And the gold medal for quickest man out of a woman’s body and bed goes to…

“I don’t even understand how that even happened. What in the hell are you still doing in my apartment?” I asked while jumping up and running for the bathroom. A brisk waddle was the more apt description, considering my thighs were clamped shut in an attempt to avoid leakage before I could get to the toilet and empty myself out. Sex was wonderful, but there were some gross aspects too. The cleanup afterward was always an iffy thing. Sometimes, the cleanup could be just as sexy as the act itself, if done right with a partner who cared. This was not one of those times.

“After your emotional breakdown, I stuck around to make sure you were okay. I guess I fell asleep.”

“In my bed without your clothes on?” I asked through the bathroom door.

“I kept my underwear on. It’s not my fault I woke up to you pulling my dick out of them this morning.” There was a pause before he corrected himself. “Afternoon.”

I heard shuffling from the other room as I cleaned up quickly and grabbed my robe off the hook on the bathroom door. Thankfully, I’d put it back where it belonged the last time that I’d used it.

When I opened the door, Austin was hopping on one foot while stuffing his other one into the dark denim pants he’d worn the night before. He glanced at the digital clock beside the bed again.

“Shit,” the man muttered.

“Late for something?”

“Actually, yes. I was supposed to meet with the crew from last night to go over how everything went, so we could train on what to do or not do when we officially open.”

“It was kind of an asshole move to make that a mandatory meeting the day after the longest night in history.”

“It only felt that long to you,” he countered.

Well, if that wasn’t a slap in the face, I don’t know what was. Then again, the confession that the night was like my own personal hellscape did hang in the air between us.

“I didn’t mean it like that. Most of my employees have been working clubs and bars for years. They’re used to the late work hours and the physical labor that goes with it.”

“Sure,” I agreed, even though it sounded like a bullshit line to me. “Can we just forget that my dream got out of hand, and we ended up doing that?” I pointed to the rumpled mess of a bed.

“No can do, Trouble,” he responded.

I narrowed my eyes on Austin. “Do not call me that.”

The bastard smirked. “If I didn’t have to run to work, we would continue our conversation where we left off last night.”

“No, thank you.”

“We’re going to talk about it until we both come to terms with what happened. And that,” he pointed to the bed, “definitely happened and I won’t forget it anytime soon.” He grabbed his jacket off the chair that sat in the corner near the door. “Gotta run, but we’ll talk later.”

I stared longingly at my laptop as he took off. Maybe a trip to Europe could be in the budget? No, that wouldn’t work because I didn’t have a passport. Suddenly, that seemed like poor planning on my part. Then again, I figured I’d be too broke to travel for the foreseeable future anyway. There had to be an alternative. I’d gone six fucking years without ever running into the man, or his lying whore-friend, around town. There had to be a way to go back to the status quo I’d grown used to.

The knock on my door as I got out of the shower was unexpected. The fact that it took me all day to get up and shower because I didn’t want to wash away Austin’s scent from my body was ridiculous.

“What are you doing here?” I asked as Austin pushed through the door the minute that I opened it.

“I told you earlier that we were going to finish our conversation.”

“Funny, I’m pretty sure I told you there was nothing to finish. We covered everything last night.”

“Nah, not everything Becs. There was something pretty damn important that I think we both left off.”

“What was that exactly?”

“The fact that neither of us wanted it to be over back then. We had an amazing connection. What happened last night is proof that it never died.”

I chuckled at him because it had to be a joke. “Seriously? What happened last night was proof that I had a sexy dream and started to act it out in my sleep and you took advantage of that.”

“Whoa, wait a minute, I didn’t take advantage of you,” he defended.

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