Page 91 of Waste of Worth

Karen’s tongue wet her lips again, a soft trembling moan following the action. “Sometimes I think when I feel so strongly about something—someone—that it must be clear enough that I don’t have to say it, too.”

She watched him under her lowered lashes, never once stopping the rhythm of her body moving on top of his. Every lower of her hips was accompanied by the slap of skin against skin, and the clench of her inner muscles around his length.

It was almost teasing.

“Karen,” Dino started to say, wanting to stop her from saying something she couldn’t take back.

Or worse, that he might have to take away.

Because while he was entirely distracted by her—by fucking her—he still heard her. He heard what she was saying, or rather, what she was trying to say to him. He understood those feelings she didn’t vocalize, because he felt them beating through his bloodstream every single time he was in her presence.

That didn’t mean he had to say it.

Right?

Shouldn’t she just know?

He knew.

“I forget that just because I feel something, it doesn’t mean you know I feel it,” Karen continued.

He was worried he was going to break her heart someday.

He was frightened that because he couldn’t give her something healthy—something normal—that they would never be good enough for one another.

He was scared she wouldn’t understand.

Still, Dino was all too aware that with this—like with the way she saw him—it wasn’t something he was allowed to have a say in. It seemed he had already had his say in her feelings where they were concerned, and his fears simply didn’t factor into it at all.

Karen was allowed to feel.

She was not like him.

She didn’t have to hide from it.

So he let her say it; he let her whisper the words in his ear after he’d twisted them around and put her on her knees. He’d let her tell him exactly how she felt because she had every right to say it after he’d pounded into her from behind and made her beg for more.

“I love you,” she’d told him.

Three little words.

Spoken quietly.

Quickly said, mumbled into a pillow.

He loved her, too.

It just wasn’t that simple.

“Coffee?” Dino called out to Karen.

“Tea—it’s in the same spot.”

He thought that was a little odd, considering Karen rarely, if ever, drank tea, but he didn’t question her on it, simply grabbed the box of decaffeinated tea and dropped a bag into the steaming mug.

“Want me to bring it in there, or are you going to peel your ass out of bed?” Dino asked.

Karen laughed lightly from the bedroom. “I’m comfortable, Dino. It’s my day off and I’ve had a crappy week. Stop judging me. Milk and one sugar.”