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With a chuckle, David promised, “I will.”
When Ashley opened the door, he was momentarily struck by her appearance. It seemed geared more toward going out with friends than staying home with a child, but decided it could’ve been because she hadn’t changed after getting home from work.
After the usual awkward pat on the head (which now seemed jarringly awkward to David, when compared to Paige’s interactions with Jacob the day before), Jacob headed down the hall toward his room. As soon as he was out of earshot, Ashley’s somewhat pleasant demeanor melted into one of indifference.
“How was your Thanksgiving?” he asked politely.
“Fine,” she answered, less than politely. “How was yours?”
“It was good. Paige came over for a little while and met Jacob—”
“On Thanksgiving?”
“Yes.”
Upon hearing that, Ashley’s expression soured. “Well, I hope you all had a really good time, especially Paige—”
“Look, I know you hate her,” he said, trying to keep his tone neutral, “despite the fact that she’s never done anything to you—”
“Well, you did toss me aside like garbage because of her, so—”
“Not true. I didn’t toss you aside like garbage. I ended our toxic relationship, which is a totally different thing. And I didn’t do that because of her, I did it because of you, so I don’t want to hear that shit from you ever again.” He gave her a hard look, abandoning the neutrality. “I also don’t want you talking shit about her to Jacob, either, understand? Not a word. In fact, feel free to not talk about her at all. Okay?”
She just blinked at him.
“Okay?” he repeated.
Ashley’s eyes narrowed. “Jesus. Okay, I won’t.”
He was about to push it—because he didn’t believe her—when Jacob came back down the hall, putting an end to the conversation. David crouched down for a hug, one hand pressing against Jacob’s narrow back and one gently palming his buzzed head. “I’ll see you on Sunday,” David promised.
Chapter 42
Paige awoke to the feel of David’s fingers ghosting along her arm, his morning erection—or, rather, his late-morning erection, given that it was almost eleven—pressing against the cleft of her ass. For a split second she froze, but it was only a few seconds and then she relaxed; she was getting better, her response time getting shorter. One day, she hoped it would be gone altogether.
With the exception of the hours spent binge watching old episodes of Sons of Anarchy, she and David had literally spent most of the weekend in his bed, indulging in serious amounts of sex, followed by equally serious amounts of sleep.
She’d been a little curious to see how different sex would be between them since trading in their temporary arrangement for a real one, and the difference had been quite startling. It felt more intimate and more emotional, and as they repeatedly got lost in each other’s bodies, Paige could feel the connection they’d been developing during the past few months getting even stronger.
That led her to contemplate the future they were embarking on, one she hoped would have no limits, which got her thinking about the final frontier.
“David?”
“Hmm?”
“Have you ever had anal sex?”
His hand stilled on her, and she figured it was because the question had come out of nowhere. However, when he didn’t answer right away, she decided it was because he didn’t want to answer, which made her wish like hell she could take back the stupid motherfucking question.
“You have.” Sharp disappointment flooded her as she was faced with the unwelcome knowledge he’d done it with someone else. To her, anal sex was a big deal; it was letting someone into your ass, for Christ’s sake … and he’d been in someone else’s ass.
“Paige,” he began, only to stop and release a deep sigh.
“I know, I know,” she muttered. “Ignore. The. Elephant. But you know what? This ignoring the freaking elephant rule is seriously not working for me anymore. Well, not that it ever really did, to be honest. Mostly because it’s a big elephant, with a lot of baby elephants—a whole herd of them. But also because this rule is completely one-sided. You don’t have a damn elephant to ignore because I don’t have an elephant. Not even a baby elephant. Nothing I did with any of the men I went out with counts as an elephant, to include having my boob grabbed by that guy on the douchebag spectrum.
“Plus, it doesn’t align very well with the complete honesty pact we made, which is now even more important as we go forward for real. So I’m officially done ignoring the elephant, which means we need to talk about the elephant like adults.”
He didn’t say anything.
