Page 54 of Fierce-Hyde

“Can you put your shirt on or I’m going to be distracted.”

He laughed. He wasn’t sure if she was joking or not, but by her glossy eyes, he knew she was serious.

He went to his room and pulled out a T-shirt to slip on fast.

“Better?” he asked.

Her glass of wine was gone, so she must have just downed it like a shot.

“Yes,” she said. “Thank you for calming me. I’m an idiot. I’m sorry for what I said after. I ruined what was a nice thing and now that the thrill of that orgasm is gone I’m feeling very ashamed of my words toward you.”

“A great thing,” he corrected. “Don’t feel shameful. We’ll get past it.”

She forced a smile. “A wonderful thing. A record for me. Or a first.”

He smiled. “Never had two in a row before?”

She shook her head fast. “I’m not a bold person in the bedroom.”

“Then I’m glad you were different with me. Being different isn’t bad. It’s not bringing out horrible things either. It’s just...different.”

“It is,” she said. “I don’t want you to think I’m someone who does that after a few dates.”

“I’d like to think what we’ve got right now is more than a few dates. We’ve had some pretty in-depth conversations and fights. Our emotions have been all over the place and the fact weare feeling these emotions means more than just sex. Don’t you agree?”

“Geez,” she said. “You should be the counselor.”

He pulled her under his arm for a snuggle. “Take a deep breath.” She did and let it out. “One more,” he said. Her body sagged against his. “I’m happy this happened. I don’t regret it and I don’t want you to either. I thought we had a great dinner. Enough that you wanted to spend some more time with me. Something changed when we walked into my place. What was it?”

“I saw what you had growing up that I didn’t. I see parts of your life around here that come naturally to you that make you a good person and I realized that you aren’t what I thought you were.”

“Okay,” he said. “All sounds good to me.”

“Then I felt sorry for myself, which I don’t do, and said it’d be nice to just feel.”

“We both did that,” he said. “Nothing wrong with it either.”

“I panicked when we were done.”

“No shit,” he said. “I’m not even going to ask you why you did. I’m not going to take offense to it. Nothing. I’m going to chalk it up to hormones. I knocked them loose and you lost the ability to think clearly. How does that sound?”

Damn, he was smoother than he thought with the words coming out of his mouth.

She let out a laugh. Not even a forced one.

“I think that sounds good.”

He kissed her on her forehead. Her light brown hair was a mess.

She was wrinkled like a woman well and truly used.

Not that he liked the word used, but it was what popped into his head.

“Can we press the rewind button to before the words came out of your mouth but right after I collapsed on you? I don’t want to forget an orgasm like that.”

She turned her head and looked into his eyes.

There was humor in there now. “Okay,” she said. “No way I can forget mine.”

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