pooled together and built a new block of stables on his property to increase his revenue through rentals.
“I was wondering,” Belinda whispered, leaning against my side, her eyes up front. “Would you like to come by for a coffee after the meeting? It’s a nice night, and I thought we could take thermoses and have a stroll. Kelsey’s staying at Nally’s tonight. They’re trying some new recipes, so I’m alone and thought you’d like to join me.”
And there it was. Not dinner but coffee and an evening stroll.
I wet my lips, choosing my words carefully.
“That’s a very kind offer. Um… The thing is…” I shifted on my chair. “The thing is—”
Belinda touched my thigh. My mouth dried.
“It’s okay. Don’t say it. Can’t blame a girl for trying, right?”
Then I couldn’t help perpetuating my long-standing lie even when I was pretty sure she wasn’t buying my excuses any longer.
“I’m not looking for a relationship right now, Lynn. It’s not you. It’s just…”
“You’re a sweet man, Windsor. Any woman would be lucky to have you. You live such a solitary life.”
“I’m not lonely.” Which was another lie. Up until I’d reached out to Tomi, I’d been the loneliest man in existence.
“I’m glad.”
Guilt was a physical thing as we sat in silence through the rest of Mayor Croucher’s meeting. It was times like this where I felt like a fraud who had no right calling himself Jasper’s chief of police.
I couldn’t sit still for the rest of the meeting. My thoughts spiraled from Tomi to Belinda to John and his belief I was actively and secretly dating someone. Soon, those rumors would be all over town. What would Belinda think about me then after I’d told her relationships weren’t on my radar?
How could I dispel rumors that were mostly true?
How long until people found out the truth?
Tomi and Italy and long nights on a back deck watching the stars come out weren’t things I could hold onto forever. They belonged to someone else. Not a man who didn’t know how to be himself.
Chapter Sixteen
Tomi
One week into August and our new arrangement and we both felt the strain. Out of necessity, we lost a good deal of our extra time. It meant late nights and little sleep when we couldn’t get together until after ten most nights. Dinners ceased to exist, which meant no more sunsets and long chats on the deck.
The cloak of darkness had become our only saving grace.
Our time together had become desperate, filled with sexual release to alleviate the tension and strain that mounted for both of us during the daytime. Windsor woke beside me each morning groggy and stumbling out of bed to get to work, complaining his days of burning the candle at both ends were long behind him.
That morning, he’d shut off the alarm and stayed in bed, kissing me until the heat between us was insatiable, then he found a condom and joined us.
“Call in. Be late,” I said, crushed under Windsor’s weight as he rocked into me, taking us on a slow climb to our climaxes.
He acted like we had all the time in the world, and I wasn’t complaining. I wanted this. Needed this. Craved it more and more with each passing day. If I could freeze time, I would.
“Shh. No work talk. Want to take this with me all day. You. Us.”
His arms trembled where he supported himself, his gaze locked on me as he thrust, unrushed, going deeper, angling in such a way he broke me apart piece by piece.
I gasped, clinging to his hips, digging my heels into his lower back so I could angle myself higher. “That. Right there. Yes…”
“Oh, I know. I can read you, Tomi. I can see it all in your eyes. Just. Like. That.” His thrusts matched his words. Then his mouth landed on mine, hot and searing.
All thoughts of trying to take control in bed had long since vanished. Windsor had a quiet power that I craved more than anything. His voice, his unassuming commands, they did something to me on a cellular level. When he pinned me down, owned me, took his pleasure from my body, there was nowhere else I wanted to be but right there underneath him.
His tongue swirled with mine. He nibbled my lip, groaned, sucked my tongue. His paced quickened. I felt every shiver of his growing climax as it skated over his skin.
Every jarring movement pushed me higher and closer to release.
He broke from my mouth, his messy hair