to seep into my fluttering mind. Is it possible that was just run-of-the-mill, average sex, and he came quickly because he couldn’t be bothered to go longer with me? Why isn’t he speaking?
“Are you alive?” I ask, shaking his shoulders to make sure he hasn’t fallen asleep from boring sex while his dick still twitches inside me.
“Barely,” Dean croaks before breathing deep and rolling off me.
The cool air hits my skin, and I grab a sheet to cover up, feeling strangely self-conscious now. “How was it?” I blurt, not attempting to play it cool.
Dean lies on his back and closes his eyes. “How was what?”
“How was what?” I give an indignant huff. “Oh, I’m talking about the charcuterie from earlier tonight, of course.”
Dean turns and eyes me sleepily. “What are you talking about?”
I sit up on my elbow and pin him with a look. “I’m asking how the sex was, you idiot.”
“Oh…that.” Dean looks at the ceiling casually. “It was good.”
My body instantly deflates. Good.
Good, not great.
Good, not perfect.
Just…good.
Disappointment flutters in my belly. If someone called my croinuts good, I wouldn’t sleep until I changed the recipe nineteen times and made myself sick sampling all of them. Good is a three-star review from a food critic. Good is below average.
I nod awkwardly and bite my lip. “Then I guess I have work to do.”
“Come again?” Dean asks, lifting his brows at me.
I sit up in bed and run my hands through my hair. “There’s no point in having fake sex if it’s just good. I don’t do things to be good. I do them to be great. If sex isn’t something I’m great at, then I need to figure out what the hell I’m doing wrong.”
“Norah…” Dean starts, but I ignore him as I hop off the bed, dragging the sheet with me.
“I’m taking a shower. I need to think.”
“Norah.” Dean repeats, but I quickly walk away from him, ignoring the silly knot of rejection forming in my throat.
I stand in front of the mirror and slather some toothpaste on my brush. I can’t look at myself as I brush my teeth. Why did I agree to this whole situation in the first place? I was doing fine on my own. Yes, I wasn’t having sex, and yes, my mother was up my ass and practically arranging a marriage for me, but I was good. I was running a successful business. I didn’t need a fake boyfriend to deal with my family issues. I certainly didn’t need fake mediocre sex to add to my to-do list. Why am I putting myself through this? I have enough going on in my life, and now I have to figure out how to up my sex game? Stupid, Norah! So, so stupid!
Suddenly, Dean’s warm body heat presses up behind me. I see his naked reflection in the mirror. “Sugar tits.”
“Don’t shooga tiiis me,” I mumble around a mouthful of foam.
He tilts his head and hits me with a playful smirk. “I didn’t mean what I said.”
I huff and spit into the sink, wiping the dribble on my chin with the back of my hand before replying, “You seem to misspeak a lot when it comes to me.”
Dean’s jaw goes tight. “That’s because I’m an egotistical dick.”
“Clearly.”
“And because if I told you that was the best sex I’d ever had, I lose all my man cards.” His brows pinch together as he continues to stare at me in the mirror.
I shake my head and rinse my toothbrush. “It wasn’t the best you ever had. Don’t patronize me.”
“It was top three for sure,” he says, wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his head on my shoulder. “But only because you were in the moment, and I’ve never seen you like that…it was disarming. I lost it way earlier than I meant to, and I’m not used to coming that quickly.”
I blink back my confusion. “You premature ejaculated?”
His body shakes against my back as he laughs. “I wouldn’t call that premature…just…I didn’t give you that twenty-minute dick I promised you, and I’m disappointed in myself.”
The darkness that had overcome me slowly starts to wash away with his confession of losing control so quickly in bed. My lips part with a slow smile that spreads across my face. “So…good really is good?”
Dean exhales heavily. “In this case, good is great. Good is mind-blowing. Good is seriously good. But now you’re psychoanalyzing and sucking all the fun out of it. You need to chill the fuck