Page 73 of Colton's Secret Weapon
Maybe she’d read him wrong. Their joining that night had been so much more than before, and she hadn’t thought that possible. But maybe, what to her had been perfection, a call for more, to him had been…goodbye?
Was that what had made it so powerful? And so sweet, too? He’d been kissing her goodbye?
“No expectation, no commitment.” His words, slow in coming, had her heart pounding. “How does monogamy play into that? It definitely speaks commitment. And expectation, too.”
So…he wanted to have sex with her and be free to sleep with other women, too? Could she be good with that? “I’ve never actually considered the point before,” she told him honestly. She’d never wanted enough sex repeats for the situation to arise. “So maybe wearedone.” The words sent a sliver of fear through her. But she had to say what was in her heart. What she knew to be true. “I don’t think I’d be okay knowing that you’re sleeping with other women at the same time we’re coming together. I apologize for leading you on. I just… In my mind, sex is sacred to the moment. For however long the moment lasts.”
Instead of turning his head back on the pillow to go to sleep as she’d expected, Mitchell raised up on his elbow, hand bracing his head. “I don’t know about the sacred part,” he said. “Can’t say I’m briefed on the matter, but I agree with monogamy. It’s smart. Practical. You can’t control how others feel, and if another partner outside the twosome has jealousy issues or expectations, they can then become a part of your situation as well.”
“The case that was just in the news about the jealous cop who killed her lover after she saw him having dinner with another woman?” It had happened a couple of towns over but had reverberated through their part of the state.
She hadn’t seen a discussion of current events being a part of that particular conversation, but the fact that he was still engaged in the topic at all was filling her with joy.
He nodded, so close, his head just above hers. Making her feel, in those seconds, as though she was his whole world.
Giving herself an inner mental shake, Dove smiled up at him. Not her whole world, just a lovely portion of her current one. A gift given to her precisely when she’d needed it.
Life at its best.
“I guess, before I can answer your initial question, I need to know a little bit more about what you’re envisioning.” Mitchell’s words cut into her celebration.
She reached up, touched his cheek. “I’m not good at planning the future in detail,” she told him. “Which is why I came to you in the first place, if you remember. A business needs that kind of skill. I’m more day-to-day, going where life takes me.”
As soon as she said the words, she felt his withdrawal. Or thought he withdrew. At the moment she wasn’t sure which part of herself she was accessing. Mind or senses. A state of affairs that didn’t sit well with her.
“Let me ask you this,” he said then, his tone more one of curiosity than interview, and relaxing, she nodded.
“Do you ever see yourself getting married?”
Eyes wide she stared at him. Surely he wasn’t…no. The easy look on his face, that tone—a getting-to-know-you, not something more personal—relaxed her. “Not really,” she told him. “My life, being kind of an outcast in a small town, based on my own choices—choices I’m good with—just didn’t lead to me seeing someone wanting to take that on. Nor could I see me giving up what I know, what I believe, how I feel and think, in order to have someone share my life with me.”
When he didn’t back away or show any sign of disappointment, she said, “I wasn’t raised like you were, Mitchell.” He was a scholarly man. Looking to understand something he hadn’t yet come across. And she was suddenly eager to fill him in.
“I grew up in an essentially single-parent family, with my dad, my mom’s husband, sharing time with us whenever he was around. Their marriage was untraditional, my upbringing wasn’t like any of my friends’. And certainly nothing like yours. I didn’t have two parents, let alone an aunt and uncle, siblings and cousins. I just had me. And I’ve always, for the most part, been happy. But I don’t fit the socially accepted, traditional lifestyle.”
He sighed. Kind of smiled. And Dove was left strangely…letdown. “How about you?” she asked then, to let him know that her differences didn’t have to change anything between them. His beliefs, goals, life plans were as important as hers. She wanted to know them and would accept them without question.
“I think you already know the answer to that,” he told her. “I’m more of a traditional kind of guy.”
She nodded. They were opposites. They’d both known that long before they’d formally met. But, “How does that fit with ushaving more time together?” she asked, the question consuming her.
He leaned down and kissed her. Softly. But with hunger, too. “I’m traditional,” he said, “but I’m not a fool. As long as it’s working for both of us, we’ll be having sex.”
With that he lay down, closed his eyes and in less than two minutes was breathing deeply.
A man right with his conscience could fall asleep that easily.
With a smile on her face, Dove closed her eyes and was right behind him.
Chapter 22
He didn’t have a plan.
Not nearly enough of one, at any rate. Dove was capable of flying in the wind and landing on her feet. Mitchell, not so much. He didn’t take off without the flight plan firmly mapped out, recorded and called in with responding verification of receipt.
Aviation laws were in place for good reason. Without them there would be plane crashes, with untold number of deaths, on a regular basis.
He could do the sex part. All day long. And night, too. He just needed the plan.
