Exposed Exposed (Dom Nation #1) - E. Davies Page 0,47

kitchen and the living room with its stunning view, the bedroom tucked away behind a thin wall yet sprawling in its own right.

It felt as spacious inside my own heart as it did here. Being here was like cutting all those ties that had held me back from seeking and finding throughout the years. Unlike my own house, there were no ghosts or shadows to slip into the corner of my eye.

“You’ve been clear what you want from me,” said Rex, setting down his bag.

His fingertips trailed down the back of my arm until they rested on my palm. I shivered with anticipation, turning to face him and closing my fingers around his. “Yes…?” It was impossible to keep the hope from my voice.

Rex led me toward the living room, stopping in the vast expanse of floor between his kitchen island and the living room. Then he stopped and looked at me, facing me like he was preparing for battle. “I’m the one throwing up walls.”

Understatement, I thought. One corner of my mouth quirked upward in a half-smile I couldn’t quite hide. But I didn’t need to say it; Rex’s smile grew sheepish when he saw mine.

“I can’t explain,” Rex said.

“Can’t?” I echoed, taking his other hand and squeezing it. I swung his hands gently, hoping to diffuse the tension that sparked through his muscles, the hardness of his body which was so clearly on display without so many clothes to hide behind. Then I took the risk. “Or don’t want to?”

Rex’s brow furrowed. His lips pinched together, and then he huffed quietly, his gaze sliding from mine toward the ceiling. “You won’t let me take an inch more than you want to give, will you?”

I couldn’t resist. A grin spread across my face. “I didn’t think you were the type to take any inches.”

“Just to be clear, I’m not,” Rex told me, looking like he wanted to swat me for my impertinence. But the amusement danced under his words, too. He stepped closer. “And I’m not soft or gentle, whatever you might think.”

Yet he wasn’t pulling away or shoving me around to prove himself. His touches had been gentle all evening. His words stood in stark contrast to the truth, which made me wonder.

Did he really see himself as harsh and uncaring? Or did he see the other Doms who were and compare himself negatively? I ached to know what the hell was running through that layered mind of his.

“I also expect a lot less sass than I seem to get from you.” Rex was smiling now, and suddenly a spark of danger was in the air.

A pleasant danger—charged with warning that I wanted to run toward. How the hell this reflex had ever evolved in humans, I didn’t know. Surely the idiots who got mauled and liked it wouldn’t live long.

But fuck, I needed to feel the harsh parts of him like shards of ice dragging across the heat that simmered uncontrollably under my skin.

“That doesn’t scare me, just so you know.” I smiled back at him, tilting my chin up stubbornly. “I’m tougher than I look. Which is pretty tough.” I gave him a self-deprecating wink. I wasn’t an idiot. I knew I looked my age—maybe a little old for my age.

Somehow, Rex didn’t seem to mind. The comparisons I’d drawn when we first met had fallen away, and it seemed impossible to hold on to them in the face of the energy he brought to us.

“But you like the unexpected,” I told him, letting go of his hands. I walked my fingers up both of his bare arms, shivering with delight at the smooth, warm skin under my touch. When I reached his shoulders, I drew the fingertips of both index fingers across his shoulders, like I could frame his spirit in the gesture. “You’re not all rigid routines.”

For all his words, he’d shown me more than he thought about what kind of Daddy he was. I might be gambling with my statement, but the odds were good. After all, he’d adapted quickly to what I offered, like my sidewalk service.

Surprise flickered across Rex’s face, and then his eyes narrowed like he was catching control of himself again. “Correct,” he murmured, his voice off-kilter. “What else have you noticed about me?”

There it was—a vulnerability he probably didn’t realize leaked from his words. I only recognized it because I felt it keenly in my own spirit. For some crazy reason, he was a little bit afraid of