Page 114 of Dex

“Sound to me like she was getting to know you.”Rio winks.

“You’re insufferable.”

“She’s …different,” I say, thinking about our days at the honeymoon resort.

“Define different.”

“She’s not clingy, or needy.Or desperate for me.”I think about how she was so vulnerable in front of me, of how she trusted me enough for me to stroke her clit and make her come, but she doesn’t act like she’s tied to me.It unnerves me slightly, that I am becoming obsessed by her.Maybe it’s because most women fall at my feet.Or get on their knees for me.They do it so easily, but Daniela doesn’t.

“I can’t work her out,” Rio confesses.

I bristle at his words.“Don’t even try, brother.”I don’t want him looking at my wife.

“Dude!It’s not like that, I promise you.I like the chase, remember?”Rio rushes to reassure me.

And then I do remember.“I forgot.You’re chasing her friend.”

“Who?”

“Nice try.You don’t fool me.You weren’t on the flight home with the others.What did you get up to?”

“My lips are sealed.Don’t even waste your time asking about her.”

I stare at him incredulous.“You’renotchasing her?”

“Conquered and ditched.”

This man impressed me.He can so easily put his emotions to the side.I thought I could, too.Except that I’ve now met a woman who seeps into my cells and has left her imprint.A woman I can’t easily forget or discard.The coming months are going to be a test, which is why I need to get out of this sooner than I planned.“I can’t get emotionally involved.”

“Dude, are you?”Rio leans forward, dark eyes wide open, the perfect picture of shock.When I don’t reply, “Damn.You really do have feelings for her.Dude, you’re an idiot.”

I scowl.“You got anything helpful to say?”

“You feel for her.You care.You weren’t supposed to make this complicated.”

“You think I don’t know that?I’m walking away in seven months.”

“What?” Rio’s face twists in disbelief.“What the fuck?Why?”He stands up, his muscles tensing like I’ve dissed him.

“I was always going to.I just didn’t tell anyone.”

“Why are you telling me now?”

“I don’t know.”Maybe a part of me wants him to talk some sense into me.

“Dex?”

“I have to.”But even as I say it, something inside me twists.I’m falling for her, and I don’t know what the hell to do about it.

Rio takes a sip.“You sure about this, walking away?”

The fucker doesn’t even try to talk me out of it.“Yes.”But it doesn’t sound convincing.

“Then I guess you should, because it looks to me like you’re suffering, and you’ve not even been married for long.”

“I’ll get over it.”I have to.One thing I’ve discovered is that this can’t go on for a year.Our living situation is dangerously intimate.

Impossible to handle.

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