was ‘spill my guts’ day.
“I think about it every time I come to the library.”
“Do you?”
“I’m thinking about it right now.”
I closed my eyes and paused in my step, chest tightening. “Now who’s being mean?”
He chuckled and tugged me along. “Come on, we’re almost back to your place. It’ll be dark soon and you know what happens when it’s dark.”
“The animals come out and eat me?”
“Well that, too, but that wasn’t what I was thinking.”
“What were you thinking?”
“Dark is your deadline to talk, after that it’s stroke my cock by the fire time. And Daddy isn’t going to let you touch.”
Five
AIDEN
I went straight to my room to change while he went to the washroom. I needed time to clear my head. He’d been so romantic and sexy in the woods, the contrast of his soft side and his daddy side—for lack of a better term—swirled around in my brain. He was more than I’d ever expected him to be. More than even my fantasies had been. Or maybe I was thinking about it entirely wrong. He was a caretaker and he was going to do that for me however I needed it to be.
I liked him. This was more than sex. Much more. I stripped off my clothes and slipped into my bed, pressing my face into the jersey, soft and welcoming but even my sheets felt lonely today. Pulling a pillow over my head, I groaned. If our library exploits were over, what would I have to look forward to?
I curled up, picking up the book off my side table. The pages well-worn from the many times I’d read Sleeping Beauty. The book fell open to my favorite scene. I scanned the words but started to drift before I was more than a few paragraphs in. Mental exhaustion had that effect on me.
I didn’t feel any better when I woke up. I had too many thoughts mixing around. I wanted to stop thinking, but none of that was going to stop unless I played with Jensen. And he wasn’t going to until I talked, which would only make me think more. I was in a never-ending spiral.
I forced myself out of bed, hearing Jensen doing something in the kitchen. My curiosity getting the best of me.
“What are you doing?” I asked, slipping out of the bedroom to find Jensen heating something on the stove.
“I wasn’t expecting you to be up for a while.” He had ingredients lined up on the counter. Straight lines. Always straight lines. Everything with Jensen was orderly. I wasn’t sure how he felt about my chaos.
“I want to enjoy the sore.” I pushed the cocoa out of his line when I came over to lean against the counter. He eyed what I’d done but didn’t put it back. He’d come a long way from high school.
“You should nap.”
“I tried.” I jutted my chin out and pushed another one of his ingredients out of line.
He grabbed my wrist. “You’re like a fucking cat.”
“How do you figure?”
“Causing mayhem and destruction until I pay attention to you.”
“You’ve been paying attention to me this whole time,” I replied, trying to pull out of his grasp.
“Are you going to push everything off my shelves when I have you over?” He tightened his grip on my wrist until it burned.
“No, but I will turn stuff so you won’t notice they are all off-kilter until I leave.” I spoke through my teeth. “Wait…invite me over?”
He released my wrist and grabbed the cocoa, and instead of fixing it like I’d expected, he measured and poured some into the pan. “We are only having sex at your place then.” He gave me a stern look.
I laughed. “What did you mean ‘invite me over’?”
“I told you we were going to talk.”
“I told you I didn’t want to talk.” I started to make a circle out of his line.
He held my gaze. “We still aren’t having sex until we talk. You are running out of time…” He glanced at the window and I followed, the last rays slashing over the snow, projecting rainbows in every direction.
“Maybe I’ve gotten all the play I wanted.” I was a little smug about it. “You assume I want to have sex again?” Spoiler: I did. I hated he was sticking to what he’d said. I might have respected it a tiny bitty bit, but it was way more infuriating.
“I’m not assuming anything. Merely telling you my stance on it.” He didn’t look at me when he said it and the