Exposed Exposed (Dom Nation #1) - E. Davies Page 0,26

slender chest, each rib pushing a faint line against his pale, smooth skin. He was almost hairless, just a faint fuzz growing in the very middle of his chest, creeping out sideways like a stag’s antlers.

Christ. He was beautiful.

I shrank back into my pajamas, grateful I’d gone with a shirt and not the gratuitous nudity I’d toyed with earlier.

But he wasn’t built at all like me, so my pj pants were way too big for him. There was a gulf between the waistband and his gorgeous flat stomach with just a hint of abs. Rex held out the strings in front of him like reins, and he swam in them.

If I really looked, I could probably see… things I shouldn’t focus on, if I didn’t want Slate vs. Boner, Round Ten.

So I did not let myself look and instead laughed apologetically. “I don’t have any smaller.”

“Well,” Rex said slowly, “I don’t usually do this. But I’ll sleep in my underwear. Just for tonight.”

It was a struggle to hold back my excitement. Not even in a sexual way, just a deeply human and deeply lonely way. I tried to tell myself I didn’t crave it, but most nights, that was a lie.

The only times I’d gotten to hold him were after he’d exhausted himself using me, and I was bruised and aching all over, but I’d hugged him close and whispered my thanks for breaking me apart with an undercurrent of please don’t go, and he’d begrudgingly agreed.

Yeah. That was healthy, right?

So I waited for Rex to step out of the pj pants as I slowly made my way to the light switch. When the mattress creaked behind me, I turned out the light and blindly followed my memory toward my bed.

I wasn’t used to all my other senses helping me out. The bed shifted under Rex and the sheets rustled, and as I climbed in, the bed dipped nearby me with his weight.

Oh, man.

I gulped, settling the pillow under my head. I scooted toward him, very slightly, and waited for a minute. When Rex didn’t pull away, I scooted again.

“Oh, get over here, boy.” Rex’s voice was soft and amused, cutting through the darkness. He called me that so easily, without ever missing a beat.

I blushed as he called me out. “Yes, Daddy,” I whispered as I obeyed.

Soon, he was pressed against me, my chin against his shoulder and my foot between his legs, my knees nestling in the backs of his.

I didn’t miss the way he relaxed, letting out a breath and all the tension in his body at the same time. I envied him. If only I could relax that easily.

Dammit, it wasn’t fair. The exhaustion was pulling on my eyelids, and yet even if I closed them, I was wide-awake and thrumming with tension that seemed to come from nowhere.

I had to get myself under control—only now, there was nowhere to hide. With Rex pressed against every inch of me, my body was an open book.

Without him there, or even with him on the other side of the bed, I could toss and turn and stew in every damn emotion replaying itself from this evening.

Now, there was the very real risk that my restlessness was going to keep Rex awake, and then his patience would wear thin. All I could do was pray that he ignored me and drifted off to sleep.

One of us ought to get some rest, and it wasn’t going to be me.

With my face nestling right into his neck, I had to keep my breathing under tight control. Every impulse to squirm or shift around throbbed through me, a little harder than the last to resist.

Nothing seemed to help. Instead, my pent-up energy bounced around me, stuck in an infinite loop of amplification. And still I was too exhausted to even cry about it, but my lungs burned anyway.

I’d been reduced to a wreck at other men’s hands, but as the long minutes dragged on, I was trapped in a lonely torture worse than any I’d ever known.

Why couldn’t I just be happy that Rex was staying the night? I should feel sexy, or flattered, or excited about what it meant. Yet here I was—suffering through the best thing I’d experienced in years.

How fucking broken was I?

6

Rex

Slate really thought he was sneaky, didn’t he?

I drew on my knowledge of meditation to avoid falling asleep. Deep breath in, and deeper breath out. Focus.

The bed was comfortable, and his arms were firmly locked around me,