Page 50 of Love You Like This

“Bullshit. I was sleeping.”

“You practically begged me.” I can’t help but push her buttons. “Who am I to deny your wishes?”

I reach down and adjust my half hard cock.

“Don’t touch your dick while we’re in bed together.” She grabs her pillow and hits me with it.

“Pillow fights aren’t going to make him settle down, Freckles.” Blood surges from my barely functioning brain straight down.

Her eyes dip down to where the duvet pools around my thighs. My boxers do nothing to hide my growing erection. Her cheeks and neck turn that pretty shade of pink when I throb under her attention.

She growls and jumps out of the bed. “You’re the fucking worst, you know that? Where’s my phone? I’m going to call an uber.”

I toss the covers off my legs. “Don’t do that. I’ll take you home.” I stand and stretch, not covering the sight of me in all my glory at all. If she wants to fight, she can deal with seeing what I hope she still thinks about like I do.

“I’ve heard that before.” She walks out into the living room. “Fucking damn it,” she yells in the other room.

I bend down and grab my sweats and hoodie to pull on. She’s riffling through her purse at the island when I come out of the bedroom, her dress dangling from my hand. A lesser man would hesitate to approach her when she looks up at me, sending spears of fury in my direction like angry ginger valkyrie. My lips twitch in a grin at the thought.

“What the fuck are you smiling about, you asshole?”

“Nothing.” I hold my hands up in surrender.

She growls again, shoving everything back into her bag. “My phone died. Take me home.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I toss the dress at her, honestly a little scared to approach her like this.

“Oh, fuck off. Don’t call me that.”

“Okay, sweetheart.”

“Xander,” she snaps.

I can’t hold back the laugh that bubbles up in me. She’s so damn adorable when she’s mad. This doesn’t help her calm down. In fact, when she turns back to me, her eyes are wet.

My laughter stops immediately. I love getting a reaction from her but not this type of reaction.

“Sorry.” I approach her slowly with my arms extended. Kind of like you would a feral cat.

She presses her palms to her eyes in an effort to push all the feelings deep inside of her. That won’t do. I don’t want her repressing whatever she’s feeling. That’s how she’s been able to treat me with indifference and apathy for so long. I won’t survive that again.

I wrap my hands gently around her wrists and pull her hands from her eyes. “Really, I am sorry. I’m sure it was jarring to wake up in a strange place.”

Her eyes look up at me with such naked vulnerability, it takes my breath away. I don’t release her, needing to keep whatever connection I can between us. My thumbs sweep up and down the back of her hands. Her breathing slows as we stand there looking into each other’s eyes.

“I probably could have woken you up in a nicer way,” she mutters.

I barely resist the urge to say I don’t care how she wakes me up if it means she’s spent the night beside me. I deserve some sort of award for my self-control in this moment. Because if I thought she was ready to give me another chance, I’d have her against the wall in a plundering kiss right now. I’d drag her back into my room and show her all the ways I could worship her until she realizes that there’s no one better for us than each other.

Instead, I lighten the mood and drop her hands. “I’ll probably have bruises. You’re stronger than you look.” I walk over to the coffee table and grab the keys from where I left them last night. “Let’s get you home.”

Twenty

JADE

Fifteen years ago

“Ready for some bigger waves?” Xander asks as he pulls up his wetsuit.