AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“They’re wet too,” he murmured, his lips close to her ear. “I have some clean boxers for you to put on.”
He expected her to insist on returning to her place for clothes, so he was surprised when, instead, she slowly released his wrists, allowing him to continue.
Pulling the panties down, he encouraged her to kick them off before he knelt once more, helping her into the boxer briefs. He tried to be a gentleman, tried not to look at her, but he failed.
That was when he admitted he hadn’t really tried at all.
His teammates’ comment that she was his girlfriend kept pinging around in his brain, and with each passing minute, the truth of that statement became more and more obvious.
Now that he’d opened his eyes to it, it was glaringly obvious.
Unfortunately, Erika was either as oblivious as he’d been, or she didn’t view him in that way. After all, she’d been on a date tonight with Doug…the tool. He realized just how immature and jealous his feelings toward the other man were. Especially considering he’d only met the asshole once and he had seemed nice.
Not that it mattered.
Doug was trying to steal Blake’s…girlfriend.
Fuck it. He wasn’t going to pretend she wasn’t that anymore, wasn’t going to keep using the wrong signifiers. She wasn’t his neighbor or his best friend. Or at least, she wasn’t just those things.
No. First and foremost, she was his girlfriend. But given the hellish night she’d had, he knew tonight wasn’t the night to drop that bomb on her.
Once she was changed, Blake led her into his bedroom. Pulling back the duvet, he pointed at the mattress. “Lie down.”
Erika’s brows furrowed, but he refused to give her a chance to argue.
“Your skin is still cool and clammy. You need to get warm or you’ll get sick. Besides,” he added, “I’m not letting you go home until we talk about what happened tonight.”
Erika sighed. “I don’t suppose we could just chalk it up to a bad night and forget about it.”
He crossed his arms. “What do you think?”
The fact that she gave in, lying down on the bed without making a fuss, told him just how beaten down Erika was.
Returning to his dresser, Blake pulled out a pair of lounge pants for himself. He stepped into the bathroom to change, not willing to press his luck with her. She was in his bed, where she belonged, and he intended to see that she stayed there.
He didn’t bother with a shirt. He probably should have grabbed one, but it wasn’t like Erika hadn’t seen him shirtless countless times before. The idea of building on the intimacy between them appealed to him. And even though he had no intention of doing anything more than talking to her tonight, he wanted her to become comfortable with him in his bed.
“Stay there.” He headed toward the door that led to the hallway. “I want to lock up and check on Corky.”
Once again, he worked fast, locking the door to his apartment, then checking Corky’s bowls. She had plenty of food and water. She’d sacked out on the couch, lifting her head when he entered the living room. When he started back toward the bedroom, he grinned when he heard her little feet tapping on the floor behind him. On nights when she was with him, she always slept in his bed. She was a very affectionate dog, which meant, she didn’t sleep on her half of the bed but on his side, with him. If he rolled away in the middle of the night, Corky would shift so that some part of her body was snuggled next to him. It was adorable.
Blake turned off the hall light when he entered the bedroom. Because of the cloudy skies, there was very little light provided from outside, so he crossed to the bathroom, turning that light on before closing the door, leaving it open just a few inches. He wanted to be able to see Erika’s face as they talked, wanted to read her emotions and comfort her if she started to cry again.
He crossed to his side of the bed, crawling beneath the covers. If Erika was surprised by that, she didn’t reveal it. Blake lay down next to her, facing her. The two of them chuckled softly when Corky hopped on the bed, prancing right between them, settling down in the middle.
Within seconds, the sweet puppy had closed her eyes and fallen sound asleep. Blake figured it wouldn’t be long before she started snoring softly.
Erika lay on her back, hugging the edge of her side of the bed. Despite the fact she was obviously tired, her eyes were wide open, starting at the ceiling.
“Roll over, Erik. Look at me.”
She did as he said, her sad eyes focused on him.
Reaching out, he brushed a strand of hair away from her face, then cupped her cheek. “Are you okay?”
She started to nod, then changed her response to a one-shoulder shrug.
“What happened?”
