Her face tightens and turns a dark red. “Really, you’re going to ask me that… after last night?”
Fuck! I’ve pissed her off now, and I may not know her well, but I do know her well enough to know she’s not going to sleep with one man if she likes another. It looks like I’m going to have some groveling to do.
The doorbell rings again and I walk from the room, stalking to the front door.
I pull it open, not knowing what to expect about who the person is on the other side. The man is dressed in a suit and his BMW is parked in the driveway. He’s arrogant. I can tell by the way he raises his nose at me when I open the door.
I puff my chest out at him. I’m sure he has no doubt what I’m doing here. My pants unbuttoned, no shirt, fuck, I may even turn to let him see the scratch marks on my back for good measure. “Yeah?” I ask him.
He clears his throat. “I’m here to see Serenity.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “Oh yeah, she can’t come to the door right now. Is there something I can help you with?”
He pushes his glasses up his nose. “No, I was just checking to see if she needed a ride into work.”
I almost feel sorry for the dude as I slap him on the shoulder. “No, she’s good. If she needs a ride from now on, I got it. Thank you though.”
I shut the door in his face and go back to search for Serenity to ask for forgiveness. I follow the sound of the shower running and she’s in the bathroom in the hallway instead of hers. Did she think she could avoid me? That’s a laugh.
I open the bathroom door, stripping off my pants on the way. When I slide the glass door open, I can tell she’s mad. “I left the other bathroom open for you to use.”
I walk into the shower and under the hot spray. “Well, that’s the thing, I sort of like showering with you.”
I take the sponge from her hand and take up where she left off, washing her curvy body. She grabs on to me and stops my movement. “I’m not easy. I don’t just have men, ya know…”
I shake my head and could kick myself for making her think I thought that about her. “I know. I just got a little insecure for a minute. I don’t like other men knocking on your door.”
She rolls her eyes and tries to turn away, but I grip on to her waist. “I’m sorry. I know you’re not easy. I know that other men are going to want you… and I’ll have to deal with that. But I don’t have to like it.”
She searches my eyes. “Dusty, we just met. It was one night; you don’t have to…”
I kiss her then. I have a whole lot to say to her, but I don’t know if she’s ready to hear it. When I pull back, I tell her, “I told you last night one night wouldn’t be enough. I’m going to make you mine, Serenity.”
She softens against me then and so I spend the next hour showing her exactly what I’m feeling toward her.
8
Serenity
It’s been two weeks since I first started dating Dusty. Well, not so much dating as having him over to my house because I’m not a fan of all the prying eyes. We’ve gone out to dinner and a movie, but after I saw myself on the cover of a tabloid with Dusty and the tagline, “What not to wear,” I’ve done my best to keep our relationship indoors.
He wraps his arms around my waist and whispers in my ear, “I wish you would have let me take you out.”
I turn and reach up on my tiptoes to kiss him. “You don’t like my cooking?”
He laughs and pinches the nonexistent fat at his belly. “You know I do. I think I’ve put on ten pounds because I like it so much. But I could have taken you and Casey out tonight. You didn’t need to cook for my sister, too.”
I shrug and walk away to the refrigerator to grab the salad. I could stay in his arms all night, but I know he’ll know something is up if he looks too closely at me. Dusty has proven to be the perfect boyfriend. Any free time he has, he’s here with me. And even when he’s away on games, he still makes sure to call me every night. The only thing that I haven’t been able to get past is all the public scrutiny. I knew he was a baseball player, but I hadn’t realized that he was as popular as he seems to be. We can’t go anywhere without someone taking our picture.