Needing Happily Ever After - Elena Aitken Page 0,13
The thought angered her, and she crossed the room so she was right in front of him.
He shrugged, but there was nothing casual about him. “I guess I just thought you weren’t the type to sleep around, is—”
She cut him off with a hard slap across his cheek. “Don’t you ever speak to me that way again. I don’t care who you are or how long I’ve known you. Nothing gives you the right to try to slut shame me.” Damon’s hand flew to his cheek, his eyes wide in shock, but she didn’t care. Her entire body shook. “I am a grown ass woman, Damon Banks. I can choose who I want to sleep with and when. There is nothing shameful about being a consenting adult in charge of her own sexuality. I do not sleep around. And even if I did,” she continued, working hard to keep her voice from shaking, “it’s none of your goddammed business.”
Finally, Katie stepped back to give him space, and mostly to keep herself from hitting him again.
“Katie, I…” Damon dropped his hand to his side. “I didn’t mean that the way it came out.”
She tipped her head and opened her eyes in faux surprise. “And in what way did you mean it, Damon?”
He shook his head. “Okay, I get that it doesn’t sound good.” He inhaled deeply and rubbed his hands through his hair, leaving it sticking up at wild angles.
For the first time, Katie noticed that he was dressed in running shorts and a tight T-shirt that showed off every one of his muscles. And dammed if he didn’t have a lot of them. She forced herself to look away. She was mad at him. Not attracted to him.
“I’m sorry, Katie,” Damon tried again. “I really am. I didn’t mean to be an asshole, because you’re right. You’re a grown woman. It’s none of my business who you sleep with because I know that you are fully capable of making your own decisions and there’s nothing wrong with them.”
She waited to see whether he might add something else to dig himself deeper, but all he said was, “Katie, I’m so sorry.”
She exhaled slowly and nodded but before she could accept his apology, he added, “I don’t know what came over me. I just saw you standing there with Jeremy, and then when he said…well…I got jealous, Katie. Really jealous at the thought of you with him and…well…it doesn’t matter.” He looked her in the eye. “I really am sorry.”
Jealous? Damon was jealous? Of Jeremy? With her?
What the actual hell?
Chapter Four
“Are you ready for this?” Damon snuck a look at Katie in the passenger seat of his new truck the next afternoon.
It was at least the tenth time he’d snuck a look at her, mostly to reassure himself that she was in fact sitting next to him and had actually agreed to all of this. Especially after the day before. He’d really stuck his foot in his mouth when it came to the way he’d treated her with Jeremy. In fact, he probably owed Jeremy an apology too. Maybe that one could wait until after this was all finished with. Either way, Jeremy wasn’t likely to be okay with it.
But Jeremy wasn’t nearly as important as Katie forgiving him. He’d been an asshole and even Damon couldn’t believe the things that had come out of his mouth. He never spoke like that. Especially not to a woman. And extra especially not to a woman he cared about.
But he had been telling the truth when he said he was jealous. In fact, jealous was an understatement for what had gone through him when he’d learned that Katie had a relationship with Jeremy. His entire body had burned with the need to grab her and kiss her. To claim her. Never in his whole life had he felt anything remotely like what had surged through him at that moment. He wasn’t proud of it, far from it, but he also couldn’t help but question what was really going on in his head and heart that he’d feel that way about her in the first place.
“I’ve met your dad before, Damon.” She laughed and her smile was so perfect that Damon smiled too. “It’s going to be fine.”
It would be a lot of things, but having drinks with his father after years apart and with his new fiancée who he was using to try to trick him into selling him his childhood home was not