Exposed Exposed (Dom Nation #1) - E. Davies Page 0,36
He looked fond, almost, as he gazed at me. “No, it is you,” he told me.
Wait, what? It was my turn to stare, my jaw dropping as indignation rushed into every nervous space in my heart.
“I don’t want to give you what you want if it’s not what you need,” Rex said, which put a halt to the heat flushing through me. “That’s what makes me a Daddy and not just some random, asshole Dom. I’m not here to give kindness to you and take pleasure out of you like an ATM. I’m here to…”
His voice trailed off into a breathy sigh, and at last, he looked away. Fidgeted with the neat row of spice jars on the counter.
“To what?” I prompted, hardly daring to breathe. I didn’t know how to tell him that everything he was saying was exactly why I wanted him to be my Daddy, or Dom, or both. Fuck.
All of it. Everything he could give me. That was what I wanted from him.
Rex shook his head and pushed himself upright. My heart sank before the words even came. “To drive you back home,” Rex told me, with a rigidity that hadn’t been in his voice a few seconds ago. Like it was a game plan he was repeating to himself.
He was persuading himself, not me.
“And get to the bakery, and get ready to open again tonight,” Rex murmured, tapping his fingers on the counter and moving toward the bedroom. No doubt he was going to get changed or something.
I waited for him, folding my arms like they could hold my heart in place in my chest. But it trailed after him, along with all of my interest. He seemed to bring the oxygen in the room along with him.
“Do you ever take time off?” I asked, raising my voice so he could hear me in the bedroom.
“Maybe I will some weekday soon. After I know when my busy and quiet times are.”
I heard a closet door roll open, and the click of hangers. I furrowed my brow. Why wouldn’t he already know that? Jesus, the man was a million little mysteries knitted together with a healthy dose of sex appeal.
“When did you open?”
There was a long pause. For a moment, I wondered if he’d heard, and then tried to decide if that gave me an excuse to wander over to the bedroom door and sneak a peek at him dressing.
But he’d been self-conscious last night while getting naked, so I drew a breath. Down, boy, I told myself. Be patient. Breaking his trust now wouldn’t win me any points.
Rex appeared in the doorway in trousers and a button-down shirt, which he was buttoning from the bottom up. “Last night,” he told me. For the first time, he looked kind of sheepish.
My jaw dropped. “What? Last night was opening night? And you didn’t tell me?”
Rex shrugged, not looking at me. He patted down his pockets. “Technically you were my first customer.”
That revelation pretty much knocked me out. I stared wordlessly at him until he finally looked at me, his brow furrowing again. Finally, I managed a quiet word. “Dude.”
Rex laughed softly and scratched his neck. “Yeah.”
“And you spent all that time on me? Did I get in the way?” Christ, if he’d closed early for me or something…
Certainty in his voice again, Rex told me, “No.” He strode over to me, closing the gap in a few quick steps.
I only had time to catch my breath before he cupped my face, his thumbs stroking lightly across my cheekbones. “Huh?” I managed.
Great. Real witty rejoinder there. But the hum of pleasure that shot straight to my core—in an animal instinct way, not just a lustful way—made the words on the tip of my tongue take a long vacation.
“Never feel bad about how the night went. This is what I wanted,” Rex said, soft and intense. “A place for people to be safe and happy. So as far as I’m concerned, opening night was perfect.”
Could he hear himself? I ached to shake him by the shoulders and say, This is why I want you, dumbass!
Instead, what came out of my mouth was “Do you open up your home to everyone?”
Rex’s hands slid from my cheeks to my shoulders. He fidgeted with my T-shirt, straightening the seams on my shoulders like he didn’t quite want to let go. “Well, no,” he muttered, his gaze sliding to my chest. “I didn’t mean to.”