Page 60 of Love You Like That (Excess All Areas 4)

When her hips rolled against his, he knew he had to move, or they’d be fucking before Jase could say, “Little Jase.” With one last kiss, he climbed out of his bunk and lifted Zoe down to the floor.

Quietly, they dressed, Zoe opting to just pull her hoodie over her plaid pyjamas. Alex slipped on his trainers and hoodie as she put her hearing aids in. Knowing his hair would be a disaster, he pulled on his beanie. Alex winced as the bus stairs creaked beneath his foot. Adam, their driver, lay asleep on the sofa. The bus door whooshed as it opened and closed, exposing them to the elements.

Fierce winds battered them as they made their way into the service station. Once inside, he raised his thumb and then tapped the right and the left side of his chest with his fingers.

“Good morning to you, too, Alex. Why are we up so early?”

“I’m starved and want a fry up. Let’s go use the toilets then eat.”

Within fifteen minutes, Zoe looked down at her plate filled with the scent of sizzling bacon and sausages, beans, juicy tomatoes, hash browns, mushrooms, and toast. “This looks so good.”

Alex looked at his own plate. He’d ordered an additional two eggs and extra sausage. “Eat up before it goes cold.” He ripped open five packets of HP sauce, pouring them over everything.

“Got enough HP?” Zoe asked.

He took a bite of sausage and let the sauce electrocute his taste buds. “You can never have too much,” he mumbled.

“I didn’t catch that.”

He swallowed his food. “Sorry. I said you can never have too much.”

“I don’t even know if I can eat all this, but it sounded so good.”

“I’ll eat what you can’t finish. I wasn’t eating Chinese food at nearly midnight. Which reminds me. I don’t want to know, but I need to know. What happened between you and Mark? You said you didn’t kiss him.”

Zoe placed her knife and fork down. “He was a nice man. And I feel kind of shitty because I feel a little bit like I used him. I’d never have gone with him. Ben suggested it would take me going with him for you to see sense. But you seemed quite intent I should go.”

“I want to be mad at my interfering brother, but seeing I woke up with you, I can’t.” Alex wiped his hands on a napkin and took hold of hers. “That’s the end of it though, yeah?”

“He kissed my cheek. We swapped numbers. I saw a message from him while I was in the bathroom. I feel like I owe him an explanation.”

He thought of Nan’s advice to not crush the petals of the person you were spending time with. While he didn’t love the idea of her making conversation with Mark, he appreciated her kind heart. “Set him straight, yeah.”

“I will. But you don’t need to worry, Alex. I realised within minutes of sitting across from him that I was sitting with the wrong person at the wrong table. But this table, at ungodly o’clock, with a service station fry-up, with you, I’m definitely in the right place.”

“Ihave a question,” Zoe said as she steamed his black wide-leg trousers he intended to wear that night. She’d become frustrated with his efforts, which he’d been okay with, and taken over. But the seriousness in her tone worried him. He wondered if it was the fact they’d got adjoining rooms thanks to a phone call he’d placed to the London hotel after they’d had breakfast. Maybe the move made her feel pressured.

He slipped his hands around her waist and nibbled at the side of her neck before turning her in his arms. “What’s that?”

She placed the portable steamer down and switched it off. “When it comes to us having sex, the whole…what we do and stuff…” She bit down on her lip.

Alex held his breath. “Just say it, Rocky.”

Zoe rested her palms on his chest. “You obviously have infinitely more experience than I do. I mean, I’ve had sex. Just not with lots of people.”

“You’re nervous?” he asked, letting out the breath on a whoosh. There was a very fine line between nerves and excitement. They often felt exactly the same.

“No,” she said, furrows wrinkling her brow as she shook her head. She blew out a breath. “Okay. Let me try this again. I worried I’ll miss cues of what you want and need. Because I don’t have the same experiences. Because I’m heterosexual. So, I want to make sure you know you can tell me, too…what you need.”

It was stupid to think his heart had started to beat again when it had beat approximately sixty-two times every minute his whole life. But her quietly spoken words took the battered version of his heart and soothed the bruises, eased the pain. So, instead of burying the vulnerability that could lead to more hurt, he decided to be honest.

“The sex between us is going to be epic, Rocky. Because we’ll communicate, and we’ll work on it until it’s what we both want. But you’re already giving me what I need more than great sex. You accept me. I don’t have to hide any of the pieces of who I am. But I worry that will change. It has in the past. A lot.”

“Alex,” she sighed, brushing a curl behind his ear. It made him feel nurtured and safe.

“We both have our reasons for feeling insecure, but let’s work on those too. Because I want this, Zoe. I want us.”

A loud hammering on the door was followed by the yell of Ed’s voice telling them it was time to go.

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