Page 73 of Contentious

“Um, well, the other night, you said this thing that’s happening between us wasn’t going to happen, and since it seems to be happening… I guess I’m a bit confused.”

“So am I.”

“What do you mean?”

“I meant what I said the other night. I’ve never wanted to be involved with anyone this way, but this… It’s different.”

“How so?”

“I want to be with you, and not because I’m worried about what Marlon might do next. It’s because of you and how I feel when I’m with you.”

“How do you feel?”

He blew out a deep breath. “I feel so many things, it would be hard to list them all.”

“Try.”

“Let’s see…” While he thought about it, he ran his fingers through her hair, as if he couldn’t bear to be close to her without touching her.

She was more than fine with that.

“I feel excited to be around you. When I came back to get you after taking Ty to school, my heart did this weird lurching thing when I knew I was going to see you again.”

Cresley smiled. “That’s a good one. What else you got?”

“It was fun to have dinner with you guys and to tuck Ty in with you. I love being around him.”

“I love the way you two talk to each other like old friends.”

“He’s an amazing kid. You’ve done a beautiful job with him.”

“That’s the best compliment anyone could ever give me, but he’s made it easy by being such a sweetheart.”

“Back to how I feel around you… You make me a little crazy, like I’ll go mad if I can’t hold you and kiss you and have hot sex with you again as soon as possible.”

She laughed. “That can be arranged.”

“The thing is, though… It’s never been like that for me before. I mean… I never object to sex, but it’s not like this desperate craving that comes over me with you.”

“‘Desperate craving’ sounds serious.”

“It’s quite uncomfortable.”

Cresley loved how he made her laugh even when he didn’t intend to. “I’d say I was sorry to hear that, but I’m not.”

“It’s like you’ve turned my whole life upside down, and now I’m trying to figure out the rules in the upside-down world.”

Cresley smiled. “How’s that going?”

“There’s a lot of confusion, disbelief and desire. So much of that last one.”

Could he be any more adorable as he tried to make sense of what was going on? “You said you didn’t want it, and I need to respect that.”

“I appreciate that, but I think I might’ve been full of shit back then.”

“Back then as in, like, three days ago?”

“Is that all it was?”