Page 25 of Inked Devotion

Hi, my name is Brenna, and I live in complications. That’s sort of what I do.

I rolled out of bed, searched for my clothes, and pulled out an old T-shirt of mine that barely covered my ass but thought it would have to be enough for now. I got the rest of my clothes to change into once I showered because I needed to shower. My legs were sore. I vaguely remembered getting up to deal with theafter. Well, that was good. We had used a condom. We had been safe. And that was as good as it was going to get.

Because I had slept with Benjamin.

The shower went off quickly, and I braced myself. Benjamin walked out, duffle in his hand, a towel wrapped around his waist.

It wasn’t fair. His dark hair was wet and slicked back, his blue eyes vivid. Not a single cloud of hangover or regret in them.

And maybe I just wanted to see something.

What, I didn’t know, and that should worry me, but all of this worried me.

Water dripped down his body, and the towel was almost too small for him. I nearly groaned as the slit went high on his thigh, showing all muscle, tan muscle.

“When did you have time to tan your thighs?” I asked, and he blushed as he looked up at me.

“I have a pool. But I still have a decent farmer’s tan if you look at my arms against my legs,” he said, and I looked up to see blush over his cheeks.

“Oh. I don’t know. I was picturing you standing naked in the sun or something, and now I should not picture that.”

He let out a chuckle, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes.

“Maybe we should talk about the fact that you’ve seen me naked.”

“Did I? Maybe I don’t remember. I’m going to go quickly shower.”

“Brenna.”

“Shower first. Thanks for coming out so I can shower.”

“Don’t know why I brought the bag in any way,” he muttered. “I’m not firing on all cylinders right now.”

“That’s the title of my memoir.” I scampered into the bathroom, closed the door behind me, and caught my reflection in the mirror. My hair was tousled and looked like I had just had sex. Delicious sex. I had a hickey on my breast, and I could only see part of it with the V-neck on my T-shirt. I stripped myself down, and I saw another bite mark on my hip, another bruise that had felt so good at the time, and still did, right below my breast.

That had been the roughest and hottest sex of my life, and while I remembered every bit of it, I kind of wish I didn’t. My girl parts wanted to do it again. Every other part of me knew it would be a mistake. And hell, so did my breasts. They wanted to do it again too, but every other part of me knew I shouldn’t. So I wasn’t going to.

I quickly showered and then spent the time to blow dry my hair after getting dressed in a decent outfit. I was going to see my mother later today, and she would know I’d had sex. She always did. However, she thought I was dating Benjamin, so maybe she wouldn’t overthink it.

I know I wasn’t dating Benjamin. No, I had drunken sex with him, and now we were going to have to forget about it.

I’d never had a one-night stand in my life, and of course, my first had to be with a man I saw weekly.

After I finished doing my hair, I opened the door, realizing I was hiding from him, taking up space, and looked out to see he had made the bed, packed up everything, and had put all of my things next to my bag. He stood there, looking far too sexy as he spoke on the phone.

“Yeah, Beckett, we’re safe. We’re going to head to her mother’s soon. Don’t worry about us.”

He was on the phone with his brother. And I had no idea what he had said to him.

Benjamin gave me a look and shook his head, and relief poured through me. Something must have flashed in my face, and hurt crossed his, and I felt terrible for it. I shouldn’t make Benjamin feel bad, but I also knew we couldn’t do this again. We couldn’t.

Even if that wasn’t something that would be easy for either one of us to work through.

At least for me, that was.

Benjamin hung up and gave me a look. “I didn’t tell him. Because we should talk first, and I know me telling my brother over the phone that you and I slept together in a drunken haze is probably not the best thing to do.”

“You’re right,” I said. “I have no idea what we’re going to do.”

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