Page 100 of Fierce-Hyde

The minute he did he thought for sure they were going to fight again, but she burst out laughing.

“I’m not. I think I’ve done that stupid stuff too much lately. I’ve internally bragged I’m my own person and yet am letting outside forces make me doubt myself. I do it enough I don’t need anyone else doing it.”

“And you’re going to stop doubting yourself, right? At least with me, or are we going to have another round of that?”

She opened the oven, turned the chicken over, and then shut the door. The water bubbled so she added salt and then dumped the pasta in.

“We aren’t going to,” she said. “Raina said something to me at lunch. She said I’m cutting my teeth on you.”

He weighed the words. “Not sure I understand and am trying not to get insulted so I’ll wait for you to explain.”

“That I’ve had boyfriends and not relationships. We’ve talked about that. I prefer to say I’ve got walls up rather than self-sabotage.”

“I won’t argue with that. Go on.”

“You’re my first real serious relationship. Where I’m with a guy and think, he could be the one I’d see myself with if we can get to that point.”

His heart was racing, but it shouldn’t be.

They’d said they loved each other already even if they didn’t say it often.

“I think we can,” he said. “Do you? Just because neither of us is rushing to live together means nothing. Does it to you?”

“Nope,” she said. “It doesn’t. We’ve had a rocky start. More enemies than anything. Do I think we are going to have more rocky issues? Yep. I do. I said you bring the worst out of me, but I’m starting to think that what you’re bringing out of me is just growth. You’re pushing me out of my comfort level. That is hard for me to admit, especially in the field I’m in when I teach this to kids. But it’s also good that I can say I’m experiencing it too and sometimes it’s like diaper rash. Itchy, irritating, but easily corrected with a bit of time and nurturing care.”

He laughed, not sure he liked being compared to a sore ass, but got it.

“Being an adult isn’t easy,” he said. “But I like that. Growth. That’s what we are doing. Growing.”

“We are,” she said. “In a good way. And if I continue to look at it that way, my doubts and insecurities are less.”

“And maybe your walls are getting chipped away too?” he asked, hopeful.

“Definitely that,” she said. “Now hand me that jar of sauce and the cheese. The chicken is done. You watch the pasta. When we are done eating I’m going to cut my teeth on something else.”

He looked into her eyes. There was arousal there for sure. Her face was bright red on top of it.

“You can’t tell me that and expect me to wait until we eat dinner,” he said.

He turned the water off on the pasta, then shut the oven off leaving the chicken cooked on top. Nothing would be ruined in twenty minutes. If the pasta was too mushy, they’d make more.

“What are you doing?”

“Waiting for you to use your teeth,” he said, tossing her over his shoulder again and all but running to his room.

She was laughing harder than him.

It’s not that he wanted her to think the move was funny.

It had more to do with the urgency he was feeling to get her naked.

But when he dropped her on the bed, she moved off of it quickly and got on her knees in front of him.

He hadn’t expected that move. Nor did he think her teeth were going there when she’d brought it up.

She hadn’t done this once and he wasn’t sure if it was something she didn’t like and he wasn’t going to be some guy to push either.

He wasn’t that way.

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