adults. I want you, and I know you want me, too. And, Daph, I want to do dirty, dirty things to you.”
He knew what he was doing, damn him. She watched while he swirled his fork in the meringue and then licked it off the tines. The entire action was Intro to Seduction 101. Daphne’s girl parts woke up and started chanting, “Do it, do it, do it.”
“You sure are cocky,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
He smiled at her then, and it was so devilish that she couldn’t help returning the smile. “Okay, so I’m attracted to you. I’d have to be dead not to be, but it would be foolish for us to throw caution to the wind and . . . engage in . . .”
“Fucking our brains out?”
Daphne covered her face with her hands and groaned. “You’re too young for me.”
She uncovered her face and tried to level a no-nonsense glare at him, but he dipped his fork into the chocolate pie and took another bite. “No, I’m old enough to know exactly what you need and smart enough to understand that it’s just about sex.”
“Complicated sex.”
Clay shook his head. “Sex isn’t complicated. It’s natural. Lady, you’ve been turning me on for days. I watch you, and all I can think about is touching you, kissing you, tasting every inch of your body.”
At those words, her girl parts stopped chanting and applauded wildly, but it wasn’t just those parts of her that needed his words; it was the part of her that had been so hurt when her husband left. Rex had made her feel dowdy, unattractive, and worthless. At first when he left, she thought he would come home the next day and say he was sorry for acting like an idiot. But he didn’t come back. A month went by. Then another. A holding pattern that suggested he was waiting for her to do something. The more time went by, the more Daphne knew they were over. Still, her heart hurt, and her ego felt shattered. Especially when Rex took Cindy out for dinner. He’d professed it was because he needed someone to talk to, but Daphne knew.
The next day, she filed for separation.
Rex didn’t want her unless she went back to being the doormat she’d been before. Unless she gave up the joy her career had brought her. The signs had been there even before she’d signed the second book deal, but she’d been blind to Rex’s neediness, to his snide asides about her career, to his covert jealousy of her success. On the outside, Rex had been a supportive husband. On the inside, he writhed with pettiness over her getting the accolades. At times he was plain mean, talking about her gaining weight or how her author picture made her look older than she was. Other times he moped around, talking about how he should have done something more than AC repair. How he should have gone to college and majored in law like he’d always wanted. Before he screwed up his life having sex with her after formal.
So Daphne wanted to believe the words coming from Clay’s mouth because she needed them the way parched earth needed rain.
Clay watched her as he ate another bite of the pie. The way he ate was like he was making love to the damned fork. His perfect lips sucked the chocolate off before his tongue darted out to rescue a tidbit of the flaky crust. Daphne felt herself lean toward him.
Setting the half-eaten pie on the coffee table, Clay leaned back and patted the couch once more. “Come on. I won’t touch you.”
“Unless I want you to?” She said the words before she could stop herself.
“Exactly.”
“Fine. I’m not afraid of you,” she said, scooping up her wineglass and plopping down next to him. She had to prove to herself that she wasn’t going to do what her body wanted her to do. She was not. No way.
“Thank God, because that would be a travesty,” he said, lifting the bottle of wine and filling his own empty glass. He arched an eyebrow and looked at her half-filled glass, and though she’d already had 2.5 glasses of wine, she held out her glass.
“So what should we talk about?” she asked, taking a gulp. Then another. And then another. The room had already started tilting a bit, and her thighs felt oddly numb. Okay, so she was a little drunk.