Her hair is still a mess, her lips swollen from my kisses and her body is relaxed and hidden under an oversized pink Matiz Cosmetics T-shirt.
I left her to sleep. I couldn't stand the jackhammering that was happening in my chest. It was making me weak, so weak that I wanted to confess all my sins and secrets to her.
I can't yet. We fucked once, and although we've clearly blown the just friends line out of the water, I don't want to weigh down what's blossoming between us with shit from my past that will alter her view of who I am.
"I couldn't sleep." I pat the area on the lumpy sofa next to me.
I own this goddamn building with my brother. Our father passed it off to us in a business deal that involved us giving up stake in one of his land development companies in exchange for a portfolio of rental properties.
I lend a hand when Kade needs it, but he runs the show primarily on his own.
I hate that she lives in this dump and that her hard earned money pads my bank account.
She moves to where I am, sinking into the fabric. "Are you all right?"
Of course she'd ask me that after I fucked her to the edge. I left bruises on her hip, bite marks on her breast. I took because I needed to and branded her because I wanted to.
"I'm sorry if it was too much." I look at her face. She's staring at me, but her eyes have lost the wonder that was there when I entered her.
It was too fast, too much but she took it. She wanted it as desperately as I did and fuck, if I don't want to go at her again right now.
"It was perfect," she offers with a touch of her fingertips to my forearm. "Do you want to come back to bed? We can sleep for a couple more hours."
I glance down at the phone in my hand. I answered emails and made notes about today's meetings in Boston after I crawled out of her bed, put on my boxers and pants and came out here to pick up her panties and shoes.
I didn't want Sydney t
o see them, although she did see me when she walked in, alone, an hour ago.
There was no flirtatious look in her eye, she didn’t try and flash me her lingerie. She gave me a knowing nod and went into her bedroom, closing the door behind her.
"It's almost five." I tap my finger on my phone's screen. "My day starts now."
Disappointment laces her expression. "Do you want to talk about what kept you up?"
That's a conversation that will take too long and more emotional energy than I have to give right now.
"Was I snoring?" She laughs with a hand over her mouth. "Please tell me I wasn't snoring."
"You snore?" I huff out a laugh. I'd pay good money to be witness to that. Maybe I should have stayed put and let my beating heart lull me to sleep.
"Ellie told me I did when she lived here." She fingers the hem of the T-shirt and I see her bare pussy underneath. "I'm sorry if it kept you awake."
I'd pass on sleep for the rest of my life if it meant she'd rest peacefully. I know the demons inside of her own her sleep at times, just as mine do.
"You didn't." I reach over to run my index finger over the seam of her cleft. "Let me lick this again, Ad. I want to smell like you all day."
She inches closer, allowing me to sink my finger inside.
She shudders as her hand reaches for my bare shoulder. "I'm super sore."
I nod. "Tonight, then? You can come over for dinner. I'll be back from Boston by seven and I'll eat you under the table."
"I have plans tonight."
I don't pry, even though I want to. I want to know where she is every second of the day so I can picture it in my mind and so I can rest easy knowing that what I just experienced last night won't be felt by another man ever.
"We'll talk later?" I ask with a smile. "You'll tell me all about the animals whose lives you saved today."