He jerked like I’d just slapped his face.
“Ah…no. Not sure where you heard that.”
I scoffed and made my way toward my bedroom to get clothes on.
“From her. Y’all didn’t hide your conversation too much in the barn yesterday.” Glancing over my shoulder, I added, “Remember? The nanny was there last night.”
Anger moved over his face.
“You didn’t get the whole conversation then. I told her I was staying at my folks’ place last night.”
I pressed my lips together as I walked to my dresser. It was hard to hide my joy over hearing that Tripp had turned Mallory down. I took a moment to revel in that bit of news before turning around to him. “I’m sure you’ll make it up to her tonight.”
He didn’t say a word and that shot down any happiness I had briefly felt.
I grabbed the first thing I saw in my drawer, and damn it all to hell if it wasn’t a pair of red panties.
The second drawer down wouldn’t open. I tried jerking it. The pain shot through my entire body causing me to wince.
“Let me. Don’t hurt yourself.”
Tripp gently moved me. I couldn’t help but notice how his thumbs brushed over my skin as he touched me.
“I can get it,” I insisted as I tried to push him out of the way. All that did was cause another shooting pain, and I bent over, which caused more pain. And made my towel come apart.
“Ohmygawd,” I cried out as I was hit with the pain twice over.
“Harley,” Tripp said, his arms wrapping around me and lifting me up. My entire body flamed at his touch. It didn’t help my stupid libido when I realized that the towel fell away, and I was stark-ass naked.
“Put me down,” I yelled.
“Let me get you to the bed so you can rest.”
“Tripp! Put me down now! I’m naked!”
He froze when he realized. Slowly, he set me down and stared at me, his eyes roaming over my body with nothing but desire swimming in them.
We stood there like two idiots. Me, naked, and Tripp staring at me. This time, I let my eyes roam over his body and realized he had on thin sleeping pants and a T-shirt that said, I’m hot for pancakes. I couldn’t miss the outline of his erection through those thin pants.
God, why are you so cruel?
My mouth watered, and I wanted more than anything for him to pull his pants down and demand that I take him in my mouth. I always loved how demanding and strong Tripp was in bed. He was the only man I had ever been with who knew what he wanted and wasn’t afraid to tell me. He was the only man who ever tied my hands to his bed post, blindfolded me, and made me come more times in one evening then I had in the years we’d been apart.
Darting my eyes back to his, we continued to gaze at one another. My body was desperately waiting for him to do something. When he didn’t move, I remembered my robe on the bench at the end of my bed. Turning, I put it on. My breathing was heavy as I kept my back to his, trying to get the fog out of my head. I had been so close to begging him to touch me. So close to wanting to touch myself while he watched me with that veiled look of lust in his eyes.
How pathetic am I?
When his hands touched my shoulders from behind, I jumped, and the entire world felt like it stopped. It was only the two of us, and my body hummed with the delicious memories of Tripp making love to me.
“Harley.” His breath was hot against my neck, but he didn’t kiss me. Instead, he moved his hands and I felt the instant loss of heat from his mouth and hands.
“Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes.”
Tears fell down my cheeks. When the door click echoed in the room, I let my sobs quietly spill…ignoring the pain in my ribs, suffering in silence.
My head dropped against her door, and I squeezed my eyes shut. My stomach rolled when I heard her sobs.
Fucking hell. What the fuck do I do?
Seeing her naked brought every single memory of us back in one fell swoop. It took everything I had not to pick her up and put her on the bed and make love to her. But I couldn’t do that to Mallory. I couldn’t cheat on her…I wouldn’t cheat on her. We were exclusive, and even though I had every intention of breaking things off with her, I wouldn’t be that much of an asshole.
I pushed off the door and headed to the kitchen. Grabbing my phone, I hit Steed’s number and waited for him to answer as I put the last of the bacon on a paper towel to dry.