Page 83 of Rough Around the Hedges

“It’s the most godawful noise I’ve ever heard. Can’t you hear it?”

“Nope.” She wiped her hands off on her dress and gave the coop another glance over. “Although, it does somewhat please me that you can hear it and hate it. Maybe I should buy another.”

“What would you do with another one of those?” I held open the gate for her.

She swept through it. “Pull it out whenever I see you so it squeals at you. Like an anti-Oliver deterrent.”

I snorted, locking the gate. “If you want me to avoid you, perhaps you should stop wearing things in front of me that turn me on.”

She smacked me in the shoulder. “Your horniness, your problem.”

I knew she’d say that. “I didn’t say it was a problem. In fact, I’d rather you did keep wearing things I like.”

“Please send me a list of your likes and dislikes at your earliest convenience,” she replied. “So I can make sure I never wear something you like again.”

“As you wish. But if I tell you I like anything you wear, will you run around naked?”

She tilted her head to the side as if she were considering it. “I would, but something tells me you’ve got an answer along the lines of how you like me naked, too, so it doesn’t matter.”

I faked a heavy sigh. “You read my mind.”

She opened the gate to her plot, shaking her head slightly. “You know, if anyone heard this conversation, they’d think something was going on between us.”

I watched as she walked over to her shed and opened the door, then joined her there and leant against the doorframe, folding my arms. “Can you really say there’s nothing going on, princess?”

She jerked around, shooting me a sharp look with those gorgeous hazel eyes of hers. “There isn’t anything going on between us. That one night was just that, and the other day was… an accident.”

“An accident.” My lips pulled to one side. “Yes, yes. It was quite the accident how you squeezed around my cock and told me to fuck you until you hated me again.”

Her hand darted out, and she yanked me into the shed before slamming the door shut behind me and pressing me against it. “Can you not?” She clapped her hand over my mouth, peering up at me. “What if someone hears you? What little credibility I have left will be absolutely destroyed if anyone knows what I’ve done with you.”

I reached up and clasped her wrist, pressing a kiss to her palm before pulling it away from my mouth and interlacing our fingers. “What am I, your dirty little secret?”

“You’re certainly not a public display of affection!” she ground out, yanking her hand out of mine. “I’m not joking, Oliver. That was an accident. A mistake. It never should have happened, and it’s never going to happen again, so stop this.”

A mistake?

I pulled her back towards me and swapped our positions so she was against the door. I pushed one knee between her thighs, pinning her in place, and rested my forearms either side of herhead, looking down at her. The spark of annoyance that’d fizzled through my veins at her referral to us having sex as a ‘mistake’ was still well and truly alive, and I closed the distance between our faces until the tip of my nose brushed against hers.

“A mistake? No, princess. A typo is a mistake. Tying your shoelaces too tight is a mistake. Knocking over a mug and spilling water is a mistake,” I said in a low voice, pulling back just enough that our gazes met. “You actively and willingly consenting to squeeze your pussy around my cock as you come all over it is not a mistake. Not when you wanted it.”

Her breath hitched. “I—”

“Are you going to tell me now that you didn’t want it?” I interrupted whatever she was going to say, my voice dangerously quiet. “Because we both know that’s bullshit, Rose. You wanted it just as much as I did. Thinking you made a bad choice with the benefit of hindsight… Regretting it… Do that all you want, but don’t you dare tell me it was a mistake. You knew what we were doing, and you did it willingly.”

A red flush rose up her cheeks, and she swallowed, her throat bobbing with the force of it. “Fine,” she whispered, averting her gaze down to my shoulder as her hips flexed into my leg. “You’re right. I did want it. But that doesn’t mean I want anyone else to know—or that I want to do it again.”

I chuckled, bringing one of my hands down to her bare neck. I trailed my thumb down the side of it, making her twitch. “Then why, exactly, are you pressing yourself against my thigh like this? Any harder, and I’d think you want to use it as your own personal sex toy.”

She squeaked, weakly pushing at my chest, but I didn’t loosen my hold on her. Her body was reacting to me, whether she liked it or not, and she was going to have to acknowledge it.

Therewassomething between us. God only fucking knew what, but the more she denied it, the worse it was going to be.

For us both.

Because, fuck.

I would be damned if she wouldn’t let me touch her again.

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