Maybe it would be a boyfriend, but it didn’t matter. He would end up doing just the same.

I hadn't needed Miriam to tell me that Dan was a catch for me to know it, but her words kept repeating in my mind becausethis felt like borrowed time, and instead of bracing myself for the inevitable end with some emotional distance, all I wanted to do was to grab Dan with my greedy fingers, pull him hard against me and refuse to open my eyes against reality.

This– whatever this was, wasn't something that could last, but now that I had slept an entire night beside Dan, now that I had looked into his eyes and seen the vulnerable heart beneath all the grump, I refused to let go of it yet. I just wanted one more taste. One more touch.

Dan’s lashes started fluttering, and soon, his eyes were meeting mine.

He blinked, probably trying to banish the blurriness from his eyes, then he groaned. “What are you doing?”

My lips twitched. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m watching you,” I said, refusing to look away, brushing my thumb against his jaw, which was slightly rough with growing stubble. He usually shaved it every morning, and although I liked a clean-shaven Dan, this unguarded vision of him was quite something too.

Dan groaned. The warmth between us in the bed was making my thoughts foggy, less rational, more hungry, and before I knew it, I was pushing Dan onto his back and climbing on top of him.

Dan’s lips twitched even if he tried to hide it. “You’re a horndog, you know that?” he said, even as my favorite part of him, which was already half-hard as I exposed it to the coolness of the room, slowly became harder under my weight.

My own smile grew, something tugging inside my chest at the sight of his barely restrained grin. “You’re a horndog too, or did you forget last night already?”

He had begged me time and time again for my dick, pushing himself onto it, rubbing it whenever we woke from the shallow sleep we got into before making me ready to go again.

We were insatiable when it came to each other, and I proved it again as I lifted his legs so they would be on each side of my hips and I could rub myself against him.

“Soreness?” I asked, watching him for every little reaction that he might try to hide from me.

Well, I was watching forlies, but I was also more than a little addicted to catching every twitch of his expression, every glimpse of emotion, every insight into what he might be thinking. I was greedy when it came to Dan, for him, for his body, for his mind, for his thoughts. I wanted everything.

Dan's breath hitched, his legs tightening around my hips as he started pushing against me. “I'm not sore.”

“Liar,” I breathed against his ear, biting his neck in retribution. “I won't fuck you again if you lie to me,” I said, voice stern and commanding, the way that I was already learning that Dan loved as much as he wanted to pretend he didn't.

The fact that he was wanton like this, open, needy, hungry for me and not bothering to hide it did something to me. Never in a hundred years would I have imagined I could have him like this, that Dan would show any side of him to me other than the annoyed brick wall he seemed to turn into the second I talked to him for the first time.

But present-time-Dan groaned, his hand going straight to my ass, trying to push me harder against him before I stopped and he let out a small whine that I just knew would play in my mind for the whole day. “I'm a little sore, okay? But not enough not to go again.”

I was just getting to know that Dan was a hungry beast, and the thought that was haunting me lately, that someone would benefit from this after me, came to the forefront of my mind. That someone, like his ex, had had this and had thrown that away.

I started grinding again, this time harder as I pressed my body against him. “Then I'm not fucking you.”

“Andy–” Dan said, using his other hand to pull my neck toward him, our lips a breath away. “I told you not to coddle me”.

“And I told you it was my way or the highway,” I said, grinding harder but slower against him, making shivers go all the way through him, making desire coil tighter in my gut. I wanted to grab him so hard until he was pressed against me and the thoughts of anyone ever having him disappeared from my mind altogether. “I'm not going to hurt you just because you're desperate for dick, you can wait a few days like a good boy.”

Dan groaned, trying to get me to go faster, but I put a hand on his hip, keeping him in place. “Days? You're not serious.”

“I'm very serious, sweetheart,” I said, kissing his neck instead of his lips, as if that would make my chest feel less warm and fluttery than it already felt. The nickname rolled out of my lips like it was the most natural thing in the world, when it wasn't. I wasn't a nickname man, but with Dan it felt just right. It felt perfect. I wanted to say it again and again, especially because it made Dan's breath hitch, letting me see that I wasn't the only one in deep waters here.

We were in over our heads, but none of us wanted to stop.

“Are you this nice with all your hookups?” he asked, voice suddenly tighter.

My stomach also tightened in discomfort, even as my chest fluttered in delight, knowing that he was jealous.

Feeling Dan getting jealous over me shouldn’t have felt nearly this good, but who was going to stop me?

I just wanted more of it.

“You’re my sex toy, aren’t you? I need to take care of you,” I said, and again, I felt Dan’s breath hitch in response–evenmyheart stuttered with the admission.

Why did I want to take care of him so bad?