By Virtue I Fall (Sins of the Fathers #3)(58)

For a moment I thought she wanted us to return to not having sex, and I was most definitely not in favor of that.

Anna rolled her eyes. I supposed my expression must have given my feelings away. “Our teasing and banter. I don’t want it to become awkward between us just because we’re having sex regularly.”

“Are we having sex regularly?”

“I hope that’ll be the case. Don’t you?”

I pulled her against me. “Do you even have to ask?”

She flashed me a grin. “Then everything’s settled? We act like we used to but with the added bonus of regular sex?”

“Fine with me,” I drawled, slipping my hand up her skirt and into her panties. I began fingering her. “Maybe we should define regular,” I murmured, enjoying the feeling of Anna becoming slick around my fingers.

“Daily,” she said breathlessly.

“Daily,” I agreed before I hoisted her up on the table for easier access to her pussy.

After a round of sex in the kitchen, we had dinner, before we opted for a second round in the bed.

It was almost nine o’clock when we relaxed beside each other, both sweaty and exhausted from a particularly long and intense session of me taking Anna doggy style.

Anna yawned.

“Tired?”

“I didn’t get much sleep last night, did I?”

“I was hoping it would be the same way tonight?”

Anna shook her head with a laugh. “I can’t go another round. I’m too tired, and I need to be fit tomorrow. We’re getting our first semester assignment in resourceful fashion design. It’ll account for a third of our course note.”

“I’m here if you change your mind,” I said as I crossed my arms behind my head.

Anna’s expression shifted but I wasn’t sure why. She sat up and slid to the edge of the mattress.

“What are you doing?”

She laughed as if the answer was obvious. “I’m going to bed.”

I didn’t say anything. I’d thought she’d spend the night and now that she didn’t I felt… disappointed.

“Sleeping in the same bed will only make it awkward, right?” She laughed again.

“Probably.”

“How was it with other women?”

I didn’t particularly like talking about other women with Anna. It felt strangely disrespectful, which was complete bullshit considering Anna had caught me in the act. “They shared their beds with their husbands, so the topic never came up.”

Anna shrugged. “I don’t have a husband yet, so theoretically we could share a bed if that’s something you want.”

“What do you want?”

Neither of us wanted to do the first step.

“I’m fine either way.”

“Me too.”

Anna nodded resolutely then got up. “I suppose then I’ll go to my bed. It’ll make it easier to keep it simple and uncomplicated, right?”

“Right.”

She picked up her bathrobe from the floor and headed for the door.

I growled, fucking tired of our games. “Stop.”

She turned with cocked eyebrows. “What?”

“Get back into bed.”

“Why?”

“Get. The. Fuck. Back. Into. Bed.”

Anna rolled her eyes but hurried back and practically leaped under the covers. “All right. Don’t get your panties in a bunch.”

I extended my arm and Anna pressed against me.

“Maybe we need to discuss additional rules of our affair.” Calling it an affair didn’t sit well with me at all, but I had absolutely no clue what else to call it. We weren’t in a relationship. You couldn’t go into a relationship with a set end date. And I wasn’t the type for relationships, had never been.

“What rules?” Anna asked in a low voice that I could feel everywhere.

Even if the words hurt, I had to say them. “That we never forget that you’re Clifford’s. Not mine.”

“I won’t forget, don’t worry,” Anna said quietly. “But this can be yours, this moment, and as many nights as we can carve out until I get married.”

“Not just nights, Anna. If I start fucking you, I’ll want to do it every hour of the day.”

She gave me a warning look. “I told you I can’t go again tonight. I don’t know where you take the energy. You’re ten years older. Is this some kind of man thing?”

“It’s a me thing. I’m the perpetuum mobile in human form.”

“Could you be any more conceited?”

She shook her head with a laugh then slapped my chest.

“I can try.”

“We agreed on daily not hourly.”

“I haven’t left a lasting impression.”

She narrowed her eyes in a way I found more amusing every day. “You know that’s not true, but don’t expect me to stroke your ego.”

I sighed. “I’ve found myself a tough girl.”

Anna was silent, and I realized how that must have sounded. “This has to stop once we’re back in Chicago,” she whispered. “No matter when that is. We can’t keep this up behind my family’s back. It’s different while we’re so far away.”