Page 58 of Contingently Yours
I’msonotgood. I have no idea what just happened. One moment, we wanted to rip each other’s throats out, and the next, he was looking at me like I’d cracked the code to his soul, and it showed me the sensitive little boy who lives inside the prickly man. And then he turned me into a puddle with a few words and kisses that made my toes curl. The worst part is that I still feel like a puddle and want more of those kisses, but he’s trained me to be afraid to want those things with him.
“So…” I preface to fill the silence, having no idea how to. I remember something from our sparring in the sunroom, though, and now that I have, I can’t get it out of my brain. He said he fucks interns. Am I just like another intern? Does he get some kick out of having dalliances with people in his family’s employ? “What’s with the intern kink?” I venture, holding my breath for a bitter truth I don’t want to hear.
He snorts and glances over at me. “That’swhat you’re thinking about right now?”
I keep my gaze fixed on the ceiling and shrug. “I just wondered…did you do it on purpose to piss your family off or…do you have a thing for messing around with co-workers?”
“Interns aren’t exactly co-workers. It’d be pretty shitty of me to be the son of the owner of the company and take advantage of someone who’s trying to get their foot in the door.”
“Wait…so, you didn’t sleep with any interns?”
Sighing, he retrieves his arm and reaches for the comforter, tucking his long legs underneath it. I scramble to do the same when he holds it aloft for me, baffled on so many levels. When I lean back again, he slips his arm behind my shoulders for a second time, and I realize this feels a lot like we’re about to go to bed naked. Together.
“I took one of the board members out one night, and the chief of editing a few months later. There was one intern who asked me on a date—that I declined—but she wouldn’t give up, bless her.” Flashing me a smirk, he adds, “Can’t say that hurt my ego, but apparently my dad and brother noticed and assumed the worst.”
“So…you let them think so?”
Grimacing, he shifts lower, nestling himself deeper into his pillow. Deeper and closer to me. “It may have coincidentally been the same week that the bill from my company card came in, and they saw charges from the Super Bowl on there. In my defense, I took two of their best-selling authors to the game with me. I still don’t see how that’s not a valid corporate expense, but they didn’t exactly give me a chance to explain.”
I don’t understand him. How does he not see he’s the orchestrator of his own misery?
“Why would you let them think the worst?”
Scoffing, he rolls to his side and tugs for me to do the same. It’s awkward and perfect all at the same time, even though I’m not sure where to put my hands, so just leave them squishedbetween us. He’s so warm and smooth, strong and…real. God, I didn’t know how much I missed having a body next to mine.
“They were going to think it anyway,” he mumbles, eyes closed. “What’s the point?”
There are so many arguments I could make against that, but I find myself at a loss on how to address them. I’m too baffled. He possessed enough morals to know it would be wrong to fraternize with an intern, and yet he has no qualms letting his family think otherwise because they assume he’s capable of that behavior? Why bear a cross you don’t actually own?
“Get some sleep. You’ve got a house to sell tomorrow,” he murmurs, brushing his nose over the hair at my peak and running his open palm up and down my back.
As I lie here mystified, everything seems to fade away except one glaring fact. There’s no pillow between us, and that was a cognizant decision on Andrew’s part.
???
In the morning, the dream I’m having turns out not to be a dream at all. The damp lips on my neck, placing kisses there. The hot, hard flesh rubbing back and forth against mine. The firm grip on my ass cheek, urging my thigh to slink over the top of his. Andrew is ravenous, and I’m helpless to follow in his footsteps, gripping his back to press him more tightly to me for more of that satisfying friction between us.
“G-good morning,” I pant awkwardly, not knowing how long I’ve been fondling him.
“Mm, morning,” he purrs, nipping my earlobe and jerking his hips hard into mine. “Thanks for the unexpected wake-up.”
“Wh-what?”
“Looks like I’m not the only one with a dick-grabbing problem in his sleep. Zero complaints from me, by the way.”
Shit. I did not. Did I?
A chuckle resounds in my ear. “You did,” he whispers, as though reading my thoughts.
Crap. I’ve been around him so long, I’m adopting his habits. I’m about to apologize, but he said he has zero complaints. Plus, it’s getting difficult to concentrate on a clear thought. He smells so good, and I’m enamored of the way his muscles flex beneath my touch. I’ve never felt this light during sex, as though my body could float away. I’ve also never wanted to crawl inside someone the way I feel like doing right now. I can’t get close enough. With each slip of his glans over mine, a flurry of sparks plumes inside my navel, amplifying that need. How has someone I couldn’t stand become so addictive?
“I never sleep naked,” I rationalize, remembering I should explain my new wake-up behavior.
His grip on my ass cheek shifts. A fingertip traces through the seam between my cheeks, and he nips my lower lip. “That’s a shame.”
When his fingertip taps my ring like he’s knocking on a door, I gasp at the twitching sensation his touch invokes there. Closing my eyes, I dig my fingers into his shoulder, hoping it’s the equivalent of becoming invisible. Except, typical Andrew doesn’t miss a thing. His hot breath floods over my lips.
“Fuck, you kill me when you react like this,” he practically growls.
