I stare at the wall, unable to form any kind of sentence for a few drawn-out moments. “That was…I don’t even know what it was.”
“Yeah,” he agrees with a soft laugh vibrating through his chest as he reaches around me and deals with the used condom. He tosses it across the room to a trash can and I have to grin at the basketball hoop he has attached to it.
He pulls his blankets over me and runs his hand up and down my back as I listen to the steady beat of his heart. “Are you still denying that there’s something going on here?” he questions.
I smile against him, burying my face into his chest. “I want to but I don’t think I can anymore.”
“Damn fucking straight,” he says. “You were mine the second you walked through the doors.”
I roll my eyes at his cockiness. We both know he’s exaggerating. There may have been an attraction on that first day, but to say that I was his is a big leap. “You wish,” I say, finally taking a chance to look around his room when a familiar leather jacket catches my eyes. “Is that my jacket?” I ask, indicating to his desk chair that has my jacket carelessly thrown over the back of it.
“Yeah, I think your bra is there too,” he says, reminding me that I’d run out of Damian’s room so fast that I’d left all my things there. “You know, I’m still pissed that you went to Damian that night instead of me.”
“You weren’t pissed enough not to join in.”
“Would you have preferred I sat back and watched my best friend fuck my girl?”
“I wasn’t your girl then, and no,” I say with a grin spreading wide. “I’m definitely glad you joined in, but I don’t get why you did. Most people would have just walked out.”
“You said you wanted to forget, and Damian, he would have just fucked you and you would have walked out of there regretting it all and not having forgotten a damn thing. Besides, I wasn’t going to miss a chance to see what you tasted like.”
My cheeks flame as I recall the memory of his head between my legs and the way he licked his lips afterward. I’ve never seen anything so erotic. The image still flashes in my mind every single night before bed.
“You’re an idiot,” I tell him, attempting to throw the blankets back, only to have him stop me.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Home,” I say. “Where do you think I’m going? It’s the middle of the night.”
“Stay here tonight. I’ll drive you back in the morning.”
“You’ll drive me all the way back up the street?” I grin, teasing him. “My God, I’ve hit the jackpot.”
“Shut up. I don’t want you walking down the street in the middle of the night, just stay here with me and sleep.”
My lips pull into a tight line as I think it over. “I don’t know,” I tell him. “My knife…”
He lets out a breath and I sense the understanding rock through him. “You don’t need that knife anymore, Virago,” he promises me. “You’ll be safe here. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
I consider him a moment and realize that no matter what, I can trust him. I don’t understand why or how that even happened, but at some point, he went from being the one guy in Aston Creek that had the potential to hurt me, to being the one who never could.
“Okay,” I tell him, sliding off his big chest until I’m curled into his side. I push up and gently brush my lips over his in a soft kiss. “I’ll stay.”
Chapter 23
I slide out of Slade’s arms peeling the blanket up just a sliver, not wanting him get cold. What was I thinking spending the night here? Shay is going to be beside herself, Blake’s going to be tearing down people’s doors while Ben is probably down at the police station filing a missing person’s report.
I duck around his room, grabbing my clothes and trying my best to get dressed without waking him. He looks so peaceful, nothing at all like the tough, intimidating guy that I’ve come to know him as.
Last night was incredible and I find myself excited to do it all over again, yet I don’t know if I’ll ever get a chance. I don’t know where we stand. I’m a little shaky on the details due to my post-sex fog, but I’m pretty sure I admitted that I was into him. Things were said and I know he called me his girl, but how did he mean it? Are we together or was it just one of those things you say to the girl who just made you come?
I don’t know what kind of Slade I’m going to get next and the thought has nerves creeping in. I hate it. I like being strong, I like knowing what I’m up against, and right now, there’s a whole lot of confusion. Hell, I’m not even sure what I want from him myself.