Page 73 of Love You Like That (Excess All Areas 4)

Their room.

“Climb in,” he said.

When they were seated, he took the hand that wasn’t holding her tea and brought it to his lips. “You know it doesn’t bother me, right?”

“What?”

“You need quiet, you tell me you’re taking it.”

Zoe sighed. One of relief. He saw the wrinkle in her brow release. She took a large gulp of tea. “I’m glad you think of it that way. I tried to date a guy two years ago, and I swear he was embarrassed by my hearing aids. Always encouraged me to go without them when out with his friends, which was when I needed them most.”

“Sounds like a dick.”

Zoe shrugged. “People are complicated. That’s the strange thing. He was nice in other ways.”

Alex thought about her words. About his mum, stuck with his dad. “You need someone who will be nice to you in all ways, Zoe. Nobody should have to compromise pieces of themselves to fit into a box where they are likeable or popular or loved.” Even as he said them, he knew even he sometimes struggled to believe them.

“But nobody is perfect, Alex.”

“That’s the thing, Zoe. You are someone’s perfect. We all are. That sense of humour your ex called irritating will be someone’s joy. Your preference to stay home that an ex said was boring, will be someone else’s idea of the perfect night.”

Zoe finished the last of her tea. “Thank you. For the cinnamon buns and sex and talk. We packed a lot into the last hour.”

Alex grinned. “You’re welcome. I’m prescribing lather, rinse, repeat. Fuel, sex, communicate.”

She placed her cup down on the floor. “I know there’s laundry to do, but I need sleep.”

It was progress, her telling him what she needed. He drank the rest of his tea and then wiggled down beneath the sheets. “Come here.”

Zoe curled up next to him and closed her eyes.

Alex placed one hand over her waist and joined her.

Running his fingers through Zoe’s hair, he massaged her scalp, smiling as Zoe moved slightly so he could get closer to her neck. He increased and decreased the pressure as he moved, hoping the action soothed whatever was bubbling inside her. The muscles at the base of her skull were tight, as were the ones on the side of her neck. He brushed his thumb along her temple and the side of her jaw.

Curled up with him like this, she was open and soft.

His.

Such a funny word.

An ugly thought crept into his head. Was this what it was for his father? Was ownership of his mum the only thing that had him coming back from the rigs? To make sure his belongings, his house, his wife, and his sons, were still where he left them? Still his?

Was the fact that his mum accepted his behaviour because she felt like she was his to do whatever he pleased with?

Alex opened his eyes and looked down at Zoe. She looked utterly breakable, with her relaxed fist up by her face. And, fuck, if it didn’t make his dick twitch as the criss-crossed neural pathways in his head conflated protecting her and loving and owning every piece of her with the wanting to fuck her seventeen ways to Sunday.

He sighed, let his eyes close again, and wrapped his arms more tightly around her. Held her close. Hoped the pressure would ease whatever anxieties or worries filtered through her brain.

Because they both deserved a person who would protect them from everything wrong with the world.

“Thanks for coming with me,” Alex said as he pulled his car up outside his parents’ house. Memories hit him hard as he looked at a building he’d never felt completely safe in. Never felt completely at home in.

Nowhere ever had.

Even the rental he lived in now.

It was simply somewhere to sleep, to leave his belongings.

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