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But never once since I’d moved in with him had he brought anyone home or said anything about sleeping somewhere else.
It hadn’t occurred to me until now how strange that was. I frowned slightly, gazing at him through the dark, tracing the sliver of light across his face. He caught my gaze and his head slid back against the wall.
“Yes, cariad?” His voice was husky.
I shook my head.
He gazed at me from the corner of his eye for a long moment. Then his throat bobbed and he averted his gaze. Through the shadows, a glitter of sweat trickled lower until it disappeared. Beneath his clothes.
“Is anyone coming?” I whispered.
He shook his head. “Not yet.”
A smile ghosted over his face.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he said, shrugging. “I just didn’t expect to be still playing hide-and-seek at forty-five.”
“You’re never too old to have fun,” I said, stepping forward so I could see through the crack. The room outside was empty. I pulled back and glanced up at him. “Not that you’re old.”
He laughed softly. “I must seem so to you.”
I shook my head. “No…you seem like a regular age…I just feel very young sometimes.”
I hadn’t meant for that to come out and I mentally cringed. He turned, leaning against the wall.
“Why do you say that?”
I hated talking about myself unless it was superficial things like going out to the club or shopping with Candice. Sometimes I hated it so much I felt sick to my stomach.
I swallowed hard. This was Merrick and we were alone. If I couldn’t be vulnerable with Merrick, I couldn’t be with anyone.
“I just missed out on a lot growing up the way I did,” I said.
He was quiet for a moment, his jaw working.
“I’m sorry. I wish I could fix everything broken for you.”
My throat felt tight and oddly dry. I kept my eyes lowered and shoved down the emotion swelling in my chest.
“Thank you, Merrick,” I whispered. “The things you’ve done for me…they mean a lot.”
“It’s the bare minimum,” he said firmly.
The air between us felt strange and a bit too dense. For some reason it reminded me of the time I’d left a hard candy in his Audi and it melted and left a pool of cherry red on his dashboard.
Thick and sticky.
Sugary sweet, fused to the leather.
It dawned on me that I was uncomfortable being so close and it must have dawned on him too because he shifted back.
Politely, like he didn’t notice the hard candy dripping down the walls and pooling around our ankles. I looked at my bare feet, tickled by the mental image.
That would probably be the closest he ever got to sugar.
“You have a very active imagination over there,” he said.
