Page 59 of Man Candy

“What does Bridget think?”

“She doesn’t know. No one knows.”

“I understand your feelings on this. I do, more than anyone probably.”

“Yeah, maybe you do. Then you understand why I want it a secret.”

“Okay, it can be a secret, but not from me. No secrets for us. Can I read it?”

Her eyes flared. “No!”

“No? You are a bad girl. You’re corrupting me, you know. I’m young and impressionable.”

Now she rolled her eyes. She shifted and I let her go. Picking up the pizza box, she turned and set it on the floor on the side of the bed. Then she came back to me, leaned down. Kissed me.

“I want to corrupt you some more then.” She bit her lip and her eyes took on a playful look.

“Yes, ma’am.” I grabbed her and pulled her beneath me. I’d learn more about this romance writing thing. Not now. She wanted to corrupt me? Game fucking on.

27

LINDY

* * *

I didn’t build a berm when we went to sleep. If I was a more fanciful, complicated writer, I’d think of the berm as some kind of metaphor for my resistance to Dex. As soon as I gave in to the idea of a fling, the berm disappeared.

My emotional berm was gone. It was oddly liberating.

Had I been so controlling over what I wanted that I ignored the here and now? Was I looking to the future and not enjoying the present?

The answer was definitely yes, but with a big asterisk. I was enjoying the now, knowing that it was temporary. That I’d deal with the emotional fallout later, because there would be one. I’d been able to miss everything about the hockey world until now, but I had a feeling I’d be seeing Dex everywhere. With a town like Hunter Valley thinking we were dating, or even living together as Aspen mentioned, there were going to be questions.

I wasn’t the only one who was going to be disappointed Dex left. The entire flipping town was going to miss him.

But that was later. I was in fling-time and people in flings were carefree and orgasm-sated. That was me. All week.

Tuesday morning, I woke on top of Dex. Then I was on top of Dex. Riding him. I skipped my yoga workout for a much more pleasurable kind. There was still a lot of deep breathing and panting. And sweating. And being bent into lots of weird positions.

Wednesday morning, I woke with Dex’s head between my thighs, licking me to orgasm. I was late for work, and I didn’t even panic because I was too satisfied to really care.

Thursday morning, I woke to him behind me, but he pushed me onto my stomach and took me from behind. I skipped yoga. Again. Aspen would understand.

Friday morning, I woke to him packing.

“Where are you going?” I asked, my voice soft as I wrapped around my arms around my pillow.

“Finland,” he said, tossing some gym socks into a duffel.

I sat up, adjusting the strap on my nightie. For some reason, Dex didn’t want me naked in his bed while we slept. He liked the little outfits I wore, found them sexy. He didn’t take them off me when he fucked me, and I felt… ravaged. At first, I felt like he didn’t want to see me naked, but he saw everything anyway. It was often gathered around my waist as we fucked, as if he couldn’t wait another second for me to take it off for him to be in me.

“Finland? Why?”

“Exhibition game on Sunday.”

“Exhibition game. That means you’re playing a hockey game for fun… in Finland.”

He looked up, gave me a smile. Outside of the photos online, he was dressed in the nicest clothes yet. Dress pants and a button up shirt. He looked hot. Or I was in withdrawal from lack of morning sex. “Pretty much.”

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