He continues to watch me as I pull on my bra.
“The furry ones you always wear. Gangster, Thug, whatever it is you call them. You have great tits.”
I pull my hoodie over my head to stop distracting him.
“Thank you, but, Koa?” His eyes are still on my chest, even though it’s covered by my hoodie.
“What?” His eyes are finally on mine again.
“I don’t know what boots you mean, I don’t have a pair of furry Gang—” I stop what I was about to say and cover my mouth with my hand to hide my grin. He’s been so sweet and attentive, picking my outfit and bringing it to me, that I feel guilty that I’m about to totally take the piss out of him. “Gangster boots?” I question him.
“Yes. You need socks to go with them, or are you good?”
“Yeah, socks would be good to go under my boots, thank you.” He starts to walk back into my wardrobe.
“Koa?”
“Yeah?”
“Just an FYI, they’re called UGGs, not Gangster, not Thug. UGGs, babe.”
I bite down on my top and bottom lips and watch him as he tilts his head and stares at me, his eyes narrow.
“You fucking with me, Essex?”
“Would I, Cowboy?”
“Damn straight you would.”
I open my mouth to protest, but then I close it again because I totally would.
I’M UP INKAI’S NEWLYdecorated bedroom putting the freshly washed and ironed sheets and quilt cover on his bed.
I’d spent last night at the cabin alone, while Koa had spent the night and all of today in Aspen with his little girl.
The last few weeks have been a whirl wind, and it was nice to have yesterday afternoon, last night and today to myself, although, if I’m honest, I did miss him.
I thought that I’d end up spending my alone time overthinking and dissecting our relationship, but I didn’t.
Much.
I’m happy. Koa and I are in a good place. We enjoy each other’s company, we talk nonstop about every conceivable topic and the sex is off the charts.
I’ve been in America for almost three weeks and yet I feel like I’ve found my home. It’s only really struck me since I’ve been here, just how lonely I’ve been since I lost my mum.
We were exceptionally close, and as much as I love Kod, my mum was my best friend until she died. Kod and Rod had filled the gap to some degree, then along came Reggie. It’s only just hitting me now, how shallow our relationship was. I was so desperate to be a part of a relationship, to have a someone to build a life with, that I settled forsomething, rathernothing, which was not only wrong, it was selfish.
Reggie was never the right man for me, and I shouldn’t have let things progress the way they did, and now I have a problem. Reggie had called Kod, claiming he had put our apartment on the market, there had been an immediate offer made and he needed to talk to me about accepting it urgently.
It was all utter bollocks, but before she’d had a chance to call and warn me, Reggie had started with his calls. When I’d ignored them enough times, he’d started texting his apologies for letting things slide between us and proposing a reconciliation, as well as marriage.
I hadn’t deleted his number yet because I felt like I owed him a call and an explanation as to why I was refusing his offers. I’d just been putting off what I knew needed to be done.
Procrastination, I was the queen of that shit!
It had taken Koa entering my life to make me realise how wrong Reggie and I were for each other. Koa and I had an undeniable connection and obvious chemistry. We’d accepted both of these facts, all that was left was to see what they led to. If this new, lust-filled relationship had legs and would lead us to a path of permanency, or if, with enough sex, we would just work each other out of our systems.
The prospect of either happening terrified me. I was falling for Koa, hard. Everything about him appealed to me like no other man ever had. It wasn’t just the sex, it was our conversations, the way we laughed together and at each other and the way that the silences were never uncomfortable.