The Private Serials Box Set(38)
“This isn’t a team. This is some sick and f*cked-up game you signed up for seven years ago that you can’t imagine not winning.”
“What would you do if you were me, huh? You’d let your wife f*ck some other guy and then walk away with nothing? I highly doubt it. I didn’t sign up for this. I was forced to play this game, and I’ll be damned if your ego is going to cause me to start my life over from scratch. I’m entitled to what’s mine.”
“And what about me? Aren’t I entitled to what’s mine?” He closed the distance between us and his strong hands wrapped around my shoulders as he hauled me to his chest. “You’re mine, remember?” He brought his face so close to mine our noses lightly touched. “You made that decision. You gave yourself to me, and now you’re mine and I’ll be damned if I let what’s mine walk out the door.”
In the matter of a millisecond, his lips were on mine and my hands were on his chest, trying to push him away, but one of his hands wrapped around my waist and the other cupped my cheek and even though the kiss started urgently, it melted slowly into desperation.
His hands pulled at me as if he was afraid I was going to float away. So I did the only thing I could think of and held on to him. I held on to him just as hard as he held on to me and eventually we found ourselves in that bed again, only this time we weren’t f*cking each other, or even having sex; I was simply letting him hold me.
I fell asleep on top of him, still naked, only covered by the soft blanket, one of his hands cupped around the back of my neck.
I woke up to his kiss pressed against my forehead.
“Hey,” he whispered when my eyes looked up to his.
“Hey,” I said, laying both my hands on his chest under my chin. “Are you still mad at me?”
“I was never mad at you,” he said as he tucked a lock of wayward hair behind my ear.
“Well, all the yelling gave me a different impression.”
His eyes bored into mine for a moment and then he sighed heavily. “Listen, I didn’t mean to snap like that. I’ve just watched him ignore you, treat you poorly, undervalue you, and when you were just going to walk out to go back to him, well, it rubbed me the wrong way. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled and I definitely shouldn’t have yelled at you, but I couldn’t let you leave.”
“I wasn’t going back to him. Nothing about my marriage has changed in the last twenty-four hours, Preston, but I am still married and I can’t let him know what’s happened.”
“He’s not at your house. He didn’t go back to your house last night, either. Your alibi is still intact.”
“Maybe I should hire someone else to handle the investigation,” I said softly. I watched as that muscle in his jaw started twitching, and I braced myself for angry Preston again.
“Not happening.”
“I feel like you’re too involved, like whatever is going on between us is going to cloud your judgment and make things difficult.” I pushed up off his chest and rolled to his side, pulling the blanket with me, keeping myself covered. “There are two very drastically different components to my life at the moment, and I feel like it might be better to keep them separated.”
“I’m in this, baby, whether you like it or not. You can hire someone else if it makes you feel better, but I’m going to get you the proof you need, and I’ll get it faster than anyone else you can find on Google.”
I could see in his eyes he wasn’t listening to me, that he wasn’t going to just let things lie and let me take care of my own business. “I just think maybe you’re too close to it.”
“I’ve never been so close to anything in my life and I’m not about to let someone else handle what’s mine. I’ve got this, Lena.”
I sighed, exasperated, not entirely sure where to go from there or what to expect. So instead of stressing myself out about things I couldn’t control, like Preston, I decided to curl into his side and let him figure out what the next step would be.
Chapter Four
Turned out, the next step was actually pretty amazing. We stayed in bed and naked all of Saturday and then all of Sunday.
I’d never felt more cherished or taken care of. I was treated to breakfast in bed both days and many hours of the most incredible sex I’d ever experienced. Preston was a sensational lover. He was generous but needy, intense but soft, domineering yet giving. He was the yin and yang of sex and I reveled in every minute of it. I could never be completely sure which side of him I was going to get, but I wanted to experience them all, so I followed his lead and let him take me wherever he wanted to go.
Part of me letting him take control was giving in to him when he insisted. He’d requested I not sleep at my house any longer and instead was to stay with him. I compromised by saying I’d only come over late at night after I was sure Derrek wouldn’t be coming back to the house. This compromise was accepted after I agreed to let Preston pick me up and be my escort.
On Monday morning, Preston had me pressed against the tiles in his walk-in shower, gliding in and out of me at a ridiculously slow and leisurely pace, as if we had the rest of our lives to be with each other. The water was raining down on the wall next to us, its warmth cascading down the wall and flowing around me, keeping me warm even as Preston’s mouth moved over every inch of my skin.