Full Contact (Worth the Fight #2) - Sidney Halston Page 0,34
after we had dinner, he read me a book. As a matter of fact, it was an old Jane Austen novel I had lying around. He got so caught up in the book that he fell asleep. Too tired to drive back, he did the gentlemanly thing and slept on the couch.”
Chrissy burst out in a fit of giggles.
When they arrived at the Pier, Jessica leaned over to give Chrissy a peck on the cheek, thanked her, and hopped out of the car. “Hey, I talked with JL. Girls’ night soon!” Chrissy yelled through the open window before taking off. Jessica nodded and ran inside, clocking in one minute before her shift was to start.
The next two weeks were a blur of work and Slade. She had spoken to Patsy and Jett and they’d given her two additional shifts a week, so she was busier than ever. She was surprised that Slade was so supportive. Dennis had been like an anvil holding her down. Now she was finally released, and she felt like she was slowly resurfacing. She didn’t want anyone’s negative opinions about her life plan. She hadn’t told Slade why she was working so many hours, but the fact that she was so busy didn’t seem to bother him. Sometimes he would stop by and have lunch with her at her job. Other times he’d pick her up after work.
To his credit, he was busy too. It turned out that Slade was kind of a control freak and did a lot of the work renovating the Academy himself. He would hire a crew and then work alongside them “to make sure it was done correctly.” On a few occasions, Travis had stopped by the Pier when Slade had been too busy with the Academy, bringing her a bag and a note from Slade: “Lunch. I miss you. See you tonight.” Once Slade had knocked on her door early in the morning with donuts and coffee. “Just wanted to make sure you’re eating,” he’d said. “Gotta run.” He’d been in a hurry and ran back to his bike and took off.
If Slade wasn’t at WtF, he was with her, or texting her, or calling her. They’d reached a great balance of dating and personal space. And every time he did something unexpected, she fell a little harder for him.
She also went to the Academy often and helped out as much as she could. She helped paint, and she ordered the flyers for the grand reopening. And she too would stop by with some food when she wasn’t working and he was stuck at the gym.
At least once a day, usually when she needed it the most, he’d text her some corny joke or some naughty thought he was having. It always brightened her day. And the nights—holy crap, the nights were out-of-this-world hot. She’d never known sex could be that good. Even when they did it up against the wall, he never made it feel like just sex.
But the kicker, what made her really feel like she was something more to him than just a good time, was how encouraging he was about her yoga practice. On mornings when she was just feeling too tired from work to go to the Om Spot, he’d gently nudge her out the door, reminding her that once she got dressed and got to the studio she would be glad she’d gone. And it was true. By the time the class ended, she was euphoric and energized enough to face the rest of the day. Even though her yoga practice meant less time for them to be together, Slade seemed to understand. That was new to her. Dennis had been all about Dennis’s needs. Slade was all about her needs.
When she wasn’t at yoga or at work, she was in a postcoital haze. Apparently Slade was insatiable. But even more surprising was that she too seemed insatiable. When they were together, either at his house or at hers, they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. The weeks flew by in a happy daze.
One especially rare evening when they were both free by six, they made plans for dinner. Within twenty minutes of Slade arriving at her house, they were lying together naked on his bed after a quickie, dinner forgotten.
Her fingers lazily tracing the tattoo that ran along his naked body, she asked, “You know all my fantasies. What are yours?”
He cocked an eyebrow in confusion. “I know your fantasies?”