Every move he made, every swipe of his hand up and down my arm, was perfectly orchestrated in his head — because he’d likely obsessed all day about it. It’s just the kind of man he is.
His only focus in the world was on me now. So when I started arching my back and moaned into his shoulder, it was like snow falling on Christmas to him. Everything about me amazed him, and he shoved his hand into the mattress, pushing himself away from me.
Watching how my face changed through every second of my orgasm, he sped up, slowed down, and went deeper, his lips hovering above my face the entire time.
Everything he did had to be as intense as possible, or, to him, he wasn’t doing it right. So, when he came at last, he collapsed into me, exhausted from keeping everything on his sexual checklist straight in his head.
He was still above me except when he bent away from me to suck in those huge breaths of air as I teased his back with my fingertips. “Thank you.”
He mumbled into my neck. “No. Thank you.”
I rubbed my chin against him until the bit of hair was off his eyes so I could see him in the light from the television. “What are you planning on getting into tomorrow?”
Only enough to see me, he pushed himself up on his elbow. “I was thinking I’d come have lunch with you.” He wiped the sweat from my chest and kissed it. “It’s funny. I’ve been working so much for so long, just dreaming of a day I’d have time to do stuff. And now that I have a few days off, I’m bored as shit.”
He looked up at me, his bright eyes darker and colder as he brushed his chin against my skin. “Besides, I really don’t want you hanging out with the other therapists when I’m not around.”
I pulled the blankets back to me with my toes. “You mean just the one, right?”
That playfulness in him disappeared when his eyebrow flicked up at me. “That’s right. Is that a problem?”
Flipping his hair around my finger, I sighed as my head shook back at him. “Considering we work on the same unit, that’s not very realistic.”
Growling at himself, he rolled his eyes away to my chest. “Every time I look at him,” — his jaw clenched tighter with every word as he curled his fist — “I just want to plant this into his damn mouth.”
I grabbed his hand and brought it to my lips, peeking over it at him. “You already did that once. Didn’t you?”
No matter how hard he tried to hold it back, he smiled at himself anyway. “Who told you?”
Our hands folded together on my chest. “He did.”
“Mmm-hmm.” His eyes bounced all over my face as he nibbled at his lip. “Of course he did. He’s such a fucking punk-ass.”
I vaguely remembered the gossip about Travis and Carolyn, and it seemed like a long time to be holding on to a grudge about something someone said about a friend of yours. “What happened there? You never hid things like that from me.”
Looking like he might vomit on me, he pushed his lips out and puffed his cheeks. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to talk about it.”
I jerked my eyes a little wider. “It mattered enough for you to beat him senseless, and it’s still making you uncomfortable twenty years later. So, maybe we should talk about it. Hmm?”
Pinching his eyes shut, he cleared his throat, pausing to take another breath before he said, “He told everyone you performed a certain sex act on him on the back of the bus on the way home from the state tournament.” When he opened his eyes and saw the look on my face, he cocked his eyebrow at me. “Happy?”
When you’re a poor trash girl with tons of guy friends like I was, you get used to hearing all sorts of unkind rumors about yourself. “Well, no. But don’t all teenage boys lie about girls who turn them down?”
He uncurled his thumb from me and tapped my chest with it. “Yeah, but you’re my girl, and I knew it wasn’t true. So, he got what he had coming. And I didn’t tell you because I’m your man, and keeping dirtbags like him in check when they cross the line is my business.”
Though I was never comfortable with how quick he was to fight someone without thinking it through, his never hesitating to do it for me made my knees weak. I can’t lie about that. “Thank you.”
Settling into my shoulder, he gently rocked his head against me. “He hasn’t changed, Faith. He’s just a snake looking for the right time to strike.”
I kissed his forehead and reached over to the table for the remote. “Yeah, well, we all work together now. So, can we try to be civil, at least?”
The television went off, and he brought the covers over us more. “I won’t start anything, but I’m not promising I won’t drop the motherfucker if I need to.”
Through my noisy yawn, I stretched my back, pushing him off me. “Well, take it back to the ball field if you do, Slugger. You better not lose your job after dangling that housewife position in front of me like that.”
His eyelashes fluttering against my arm stilled, and a gentle pull of his cheek let me know he was smiling when he moved his arm across me. “I’ll try.”
Thunder rumbled outside, and a flash of light from the windows that still needed curtains brightened us occasionally. But, for once, he seemed satisfied all the way through, and not even that vicious storm that knocked the power out made him budge the entire night.