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"From this moment forward, I don't want to even think about the past. All that matters is us, our present and our future together."
"I agree."
Part of me still can't accept that she understands my rules and agrees to abide by them. If one day she grows tired of my limitations and leaves me… I won't think about that today. Or tomorrow. Or next month. I will relish having her with me for as long as I can.
"Are you hungry yet?" I ask. "Or should we delay dinner and shag instead?"
Her sexy smile melts my heart. "Sex first. And get the shiatsu massager."
"Anything for you, love."
For the next hour, I use that massager, as well as my mouth and hands, to drive Cat to multiple orgasms. Then she uses the device on me, but I can't resist flipping her over so I can shag her the right way—with my cock buried inside her.
After our exercise routine, we make dinner together.
Yes, I'm calling sex an exercise routine. It was very athletic, after all.
In the morning, we go to Cat's flat to retrieve her belongings. Then I take her to lunch at a nice restaurant. She plans to give up her flat so another student can have it since she doesn't need her own place anymore. We're living together. We are a couple. I expect to experience a twinge of panic whenever I think about what I've done, but I feel only good things.
Cat and I develop a routine of going to the grocery store on Saturday mornings and then having lunch at our favorite café. On this day, having just left the restaurant, we stroll down the sidewalk hand in hand, in no hurry to reach our car. Well, technically it's my car since my name is on the registration. But I've come to think of it as ours. Catriona had hired a car when she first moved to Ballesteros, and though she'd intended to buy one eventually, she never got round to it.
She stops me half a block from where we parked our car. "I need to use the restroom. In that shop behind us."
"You don't need my permission."
"Would you rather I ran off without explaining?"
"I see your point." Kissing her cheek, I release her hand. "Go on. I'll wait here."
The woman I adore hurries into the shop, and I shove my hands in my trouser pockets while I wait for her to return.
"I don't believe it," a feminine voice declares from behind me. "It's actually you."
That voice…I recognize it. Turning toward the woman, I can't help grimacing. If fate exists, it clearly despises me. Because the woman I shagged the night before I met Cat, the "I love your dick" idiot, is standing there grinning at me.
She sashays closer and speaks in a sultrier tone. "Imagine my luck bumping into you again. I'm staying in the big hotel near the freeway on-ramp."
Am I meant to give a toss where she's staying? I never knew her name and never wanted to see her again. Cat will come out of the shop at any moment, which means I need to shake this woman off quickly. "Sorry, I think you have me confused with someone else."
She wags a finger at me. "No, no, baby. I could never forget that face and those lips."
"Please bugger off," I say as if the woman means nothing to me, which is true. "I have no desire to speak to you and certainly no inclination to go anywhere with you."
The bloody woman pouts, though it's sheer artifice. "Come on, baby. We had so much fun together."
"I enjoyed the orgasms, not you." Yes, I feel like a wanker for saying that, though it wouldn't have bothered me before I met Cat. I have no choice right now. The tart won't leave unless I berate her. Then again, she might like that. "I said go away, darling. You can bat your eyelashes for the next hour, but it won't make me want you."
The bloody woman huffs and throws her hands up. "Fine. It's your loss."
At last, she ambles off down the sidewalk.
I rub my eyes with the heels of my hands and exhale a long sigh.
"Alex, who was that?"
When I remove my hands from my face, I can do nothing except stare at Cat. She's just walked out of the shop and seems rightfully baffled. I consider lying to her, but I don't want to do that. Instead, I approach her and clasp her hands. "That was a woman I shagged the night before I met you. It was just sex, and I spent only a couple of hours with her. It meant nothing."
"I understand. You have a past, and I can handle it." Her lips curl into a sweet little smile that dimples her cheeks. "Even if a horde of your former bedmates swarm me, I'll be fine."
"Why? I can't imagine any other woman would accept the way I used to be."
"I do, Alex. Because I'm in love with you."
She must expect me to tell her the same thing, but I can't do it. In my entire life, I have never spoken those three words to anyone. She said she's in love with me, not "I love you," but it feels the same to me. Am I in love with her? Just considering what the answer might be makes me itchy from head to toe.
Maybe she accepts me as-is for now, but sooner or later she will want more from me. And that will be the day I lose her.
