The ride back from Delta passes in silence.
Hailey stares out the tinted window, watching the convoy of cars escorting us back here, but doesn’t utter a single word.
She still doesn’t speak to me when we enter Dante’s guest house. It’s bigger than my loft, with a huge open plan living space downstairs and a master bedroom complete with en suite and walk-in wardrobe upstairs. I’d hoped she’d have stopped fuming by now, but she’s still going strong as she kicks her heels aside, stomping across the kitchen to open the fridge.
I set the alarm and close the blinds, jutting my chin at the men stationed outside. Koby, Broadway, and Ryder have gone to the main house with our hosts for a few drinks.
Hailey pulls out a bottle of water and leans against the cabinets, scanning the modern space. She’s purposefully avoiding my gaze, a stormy cloud hanging over her head. I’m tired of this. Mainly because I can’t fuck her to douse the fire burning her from the inside out.
Enough is enough.
I cross the room, grip her waist and haul her onto the island, my fists landing on both sides of her hips.
“Go on,” I encourage. “Give it to me. What did Pam say that pissed you off this much?”
She pinches her lips, catching herself before rolling her eyes. I can tell she wants to, though—she wants to punish me with a raging cock.
As if I haven’t spent most of the past two hours willing my boner away every time I glance at Hailey’s annoyed face. Her piss-poor attitude is as much of a turn-on as the eye-rolls.
“That you fucked half the girls at the table,” she spits out. “And that none of them could hold your interest no matter what they did, so there’s no chance I will.”
“And what did you tell her?”
She shrugs, feigning nonchalance, but her chin tips up an inch, telling me she’s proud of herself. “That she tries too hard.”
“That’s my girl.” I smile, moving my hands onto her hips. She swats them away, still not appeased. “Hailey, you had my attention when you looked up at that window after stepping out of your dad’s car at Lakeside. I was there, watching you. I haven’t stopped since. You don’t have to do anything to hold my interest. You’re fucking fascinating even when you sleep.”
“Even if that’s true, I just met four ofyour sex dolls.”
“Ex sex dolls.”
“It doesn’t matter.” She pushes me away, vaulting down from the island.
“I can’t change my past, Hailey.”
“I know!”
“Then why are you so mad?”
She spins on the sole of her bare foot, jabbing a finger at me. “Turn it around. Would you be pleased if you were cornered by four men I’d slept with?”
She’s slept with no one but me andit’s a goddamn godsend because imagining anyone touching her the way I do, seeing her come, hearing her moans stirs fucking hell in my brain. I wouldn’t put it past me to track down the motherfuckers and break their necks.
“I’d be pissed off, but I’d take it out on them, not you.I wouldn’t make you feel like shit for having a life before you stumbled into mine,” I grit out, losing my patience. “What did you expect? That I’ve never had sex? It’s called a past for a reason. I’m with you now. I can’t change who I was and I sure as fuck won’t apologize.”
“I know you have a past! But that doesn’t give you the right to rub it in my face!” She storms away, climbing the staircase to the mezzanine.
“I didn’t mean to. I didn’t fucking think,” I say, watching her hips sway with every step. “Hailey—”
“Don’t,” she snaps. “Just… ugh!” She enters the bedroom, her footsteps echoing one way, then back again as she leans over the railing, throwing me a pillow. “You’re sleeping on the couch.”
I laugh.
Not because it’s funny. It’s not, although given I was taking the couch anyway, it is a bit amusing. It’s also fucking infuriating but I laugh because I love how domesticated this feels. Like a husband and wife.
Too bad she can’t read my mind the way I do hers, and takes it the wrong way, her cheeks growing red as she disappears back into the bedroom.
I don’t know if it’s good or bad that she still doesn’t trust me. I’d fucking lose it if I could feel her skin against mine right now. She’d writhe beneath me, coming so many times she’d lose count. I’d work the anger out of her one bone-melting orgasm at a time.
Sex douses the inferno of a fight like ice-cold water.
My imagination runs on autopilot. I imagine gripping her by the waist and tossing her onto the bed. I’d hook my thumbs over the elastic of her panties—beige today—and inch them tantalizingly down her legs before latching onto her pussy. Fuck… I can almost taste the sweetness of her wet clit.
I’d drive her as crazy as she drives me and only when she begged for release would I let her come. Once, twice, and again, and again.
I snap out of the daydream, snatching up the pillow to take the stairs two at a time, barging into the bedroom five seconds later. Hailey sits on the bed, arms crossed over her chest.
“I’m sorry I put you through that,” I say, crouching before her, both hands firmly on her soft, warm knees. “It was my mistake. I promise it won’t happen again.”
She gives me nothing. Not so much as a scowl. It’s like talking to a brick wall. I’m overcome with love for this girl. Why the fuck can’t she see that she’s my focus point? That I don’t want anything or anyone more than I want and need her?
She turns her head the other way, giving me the silent treatment.
I’m done.
I grip her chin, forcing her eyes onto me. Her lips part in silent alarm, but a hint of lust glints in her blues, so I don’t disengage.
“Listen to me and listen good because we won’t ever talk about the life I led before you. Nothing before you matters so we’re putting this to rest. Regardless of what Pam said, you should be the most confident woman at that table. Yeah, I fucked her, I fucked all of them, but that doesn’t mean shit. They were just fleeting moments, blips on the radar. They were in my bed, not my life, Hailey. You’re part of my life, fuck, you are my life. You’re mine whether you trust me or not. You’re mine and I’m never letting you go. Is that clear?”
She swallows hard, eyes wide as she gives me a small nod.
“Good girl.” I pinch her chin, pulling her in for a kiss. Just a peck. Hard and intense, enough to hopefully get my point across. “I love you.”
She stops breathing, blinking twice as the fight hisses out of her and I realize I’ve never said it out loud. The tattoo on my chest was a manifestation of my love, but those three words never left my lips.
And she deserves to hear them every single day.
“I love you more than you could ever imagine.” I nudge her nose with mine, lowering my voice to a whisper. “You’re my entire fucking world.”
She’s stunned beyond belief, staring at me as if I grew a second head, and God… I hope I struck a chord. I hope once I leave she’ll spend the night thinking about what could be.
I grab the pillow I brought up, shoving it under my arm, and rise to my feet. “Goodnight, pretty girl.”
