He wrapped his hand around her hair, about to separate it into three separate sections, but she turned her head. He dropped his hands back down to his sides, the strange tightness in his chest dissipating a little.
He’d had a moment of temporary insanity. Sadie was good at doing that to him.
“What are you going to do about Alison?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she said, chewing her lip. “What can I do? I can buy pie from her. Hope she feels proud of her accomplishment. Hope she wants something different for herself, but really, there is nothing else I can do.”
He moved his hand over her breast, down over her stomach, his conscience tugging at him. “I told Connor,” he said.
“About Alison?” she asked, frowning.
“About you and me.”
She sat up, blinking. “Why?”
A damn good question. A weird impulse, as weird as the one he’d just had to braid her hair.
“I just... He sort of asked. Well, he tried guessing. He guessed I slept with you once, and I...corrected him. I’m not a very good liar.”
She leaned forward, covering her mouth, a giggle trapped behind it. “Oh, my gosh. No, I bet you aren’t.” She looked down at him, her hair sliding over her shoulders, over her breasts, covering pale pink nipples. She was such a tempting picture. Naughtier because she was smiling, because she was covered. He wanted her again. So soon. And it didn’t even shock him anymore. “You’re way too straitlaced.”
“I’m straitlaced?” he asked.
“Yeah, you kind of are.”
He pushed her onto her back and she shrieked, then he kissed her neck, feeling her pulse quicken beneath his lips. “How many straitlaced men do you know who can make you come so hard?”
He never talked to his lovers like this. Ever. Hell, he never really talked in bed at all. But she brought it out in him. He didn’t worry. He didn’t overthink. He told her what he wanted. And she loved it. And that did things to him. Things he hadn’t known he wanted to have done to him.
In truth, he’d never been this consumed by sex. Because his mind was always somewhere else. Because taking care of things was still in the forefront, but here, there wasn’t room for anyone but her and him.
“None. But then, I think this might be colored by the fact that I haven’t exactly tested the sexual prowess of every straitlaced man I’ve known.”
“Fair point.”
“I like that you don’t lie,” she said, her blue eyes on his. “I like that when I look at you, I feel like I really see you. Not just the man you want the world to see.”
That made him feel a little guilty. Since, in so many ways, he felt like he did just put on a good front. The man who seemed unruffled on the surface, hiding the festering pool of worry beneath. The gut-churning terror all the responsibility he took on built in him.
“Sadie...”
“No. If you’re going to tell me you have secrets, just don’t. Because I want to think I know. What’s the harm in thinking that for now? It’s not like this is forever.”
“No,” he said. “It’s not.”
For some reason, her words and the agreement made his chest feel like it was full of lead.
“So let’s have the fantasy. You be the straitlaced badass who rocks my world. I’ll be comfortable here with you, trusting you. All well-adjusted and stuff.” She smiled and kissed his chin, wrapped her legs around his calves.
“Are you saying you aren’t well-adjusted?”
“Shh. In the fantasy, I am.”
“Are you drunk?”
“A little,” she said. “You won’t share the wine with me so it’s not my fault I have to drink more than normal.”
“Connor won’t tell anyone,” he said. He was sure of that. Because the information Connor had given in exchange was too precious. Connor wouldn’t want anyone to know how bad he was hurting. How hopeless he felt.
Eli didn’t even really want to know, but he did. And now he had to try to fix it. Make it right.
He could never escape that feeling.
He pushed it aside, though, because Sadie was beneath him, and devoting everything to that sensation was, right now, more important.
“It’s for the best. We don’t need everyone all up in our business. And besides, Lydia is a good ally. She keeps the Chamber of Commerce on my side. And I have a feeling she might cut me if she knew I was sleeping with you.”
“Really?”
“She’s very smiley. I find that concerning.”
“Maybe she’s friendly.”
“Maybe,” Sadie said. “You are just something else.”
“Am I?”
“How have you seen so much of the crap you have, and still... How are you so good, Eli Garrett?”
