When he finally breaks the kiss, we’re both breathless. “You don’t know how many times this week I had to make myself keep driving when I was passing here or your work. I wanted to stop the car, come in, and do that.” He leans his forehead against mine and grins. “I want you so much.”
“You do?” I ask. I can’t keep the insecurities from my voice. “Even though I have . . . baggage?”
“More than ever,” he says, and his voice is heavy with meaning.
My heart swells. Maybe it wasn’t fair to think he’d push me away once he found out about the videos. Maybe I didn’t give him enough credit. “I want you too.”
He groans and grips my hips. “When can I finally have you alone again?”
I eye the boxes stacked all around us. “Not until we get this move done.”
Straightening, he smacks my ass, leaving a pleasant sting behind. “Then get moving, woman.”* * *Between Kace’s truck and Dean’s, my car, and the girls’ vehicles, we managed to move my embarrassingly few possessions in one trip and less than four hours. By the time lunch rolled around, Dean was already back at Mom’s, tearing up carpet and nagging Kace to help. Kace joined him—probably because the girls were here anyway, helping themselves to his pool, and he couldn’t get me naked until they left. Once they were out the door, I barely got to say a word before Kace was on me, hand up my shirt, mouth on mine, fierce and possessive. Hungry. I lost my shirt and bra before we made it to the bathroom, and he didn’t even finish undressing before he pulled me under the hot spray and kneeled before me, his hands on my hips and his mouth everywhere.
“I was beginning to think I was never going to get you back in this bed again,” Kace says Saturday evening. We’re in his bed, completely naked and satisfied after the most glorious shower in the history of mankind. He swallows, scanning my face again. He can’t seem to stop looking at me, and I love that. “Listen, I know you don’t want to hear about the other woman I’m talking to.” I stiffen, and he chuckles softly. “Okay, that just proves my point. But I think we need to make something clear before this goes any further.”
My heart stumbles into a whole different kind of racing than it was doing just a minute ago, and I sit up in bed. I’m naked and too vulnerable to have this conversation while he’s holding me. “Okay.”
“You’re the only one I’m in a sexual relationship with, and that’ll be true until this ends.”
The cocktail of relief and disappointment has me feeling a little unsteady. I don’t want him seeing anyone else while we’re together. But knowing he still considers this temporary cuts a little too deep.
He takes a breath. “I’m not someone who can sleep with two people at the same time.”
“Me neither,” I admit.
His brows shoot up, as if this surprises him, and I try not to take offense. “You’re not seeing anyone else?”
A lot of women have multiple partners at once, and as long as everyone’s safe, there’s nothing wrong with that. But why does he assume I would? I shake my head. “Only you, Kace.”
“Thank God.” He sighs and drags a hand over his face. “I can’t share you, Stella. Even if this is a fling.” He shakes his head. “For as long as this lasts, I need it to be just us. Are you okay with that?”
It’s such an absurd question. I’d laugh if it didn’t also prove he still doesn’t quite understand me. Despite everything. “Believe it or not, I’m a fan of monogamy.”
He grabs me around the waist and pulls me back down onto the bed with him before lowering his mouth to mine and kissing me hard. “Call me old-fashioned, but you’ve made my fucking week.”
I laugh, though my emotions are too heavy and tangled for the sound to be light. “So you and this other girl . . .”
“We met on Random, and she’s fun. I like talking to her, and I think she’s been good for me, but . . .” He frowns as if he can’t figure out how to say what he’s thinking.
“But what?”
“I guess it’s just I know enough about her now that I’m sure we’ll never be more than friends.” He shrugs. “Some things are just deal breakers.”
And somehow my baggage isn’t? “So it’s just you and me?”
He nuzzles my neck, scratching me with his beard. “At least until your brother finds out and castrates me.”
Meaning I’m still your dirty secret. But I don’t say it. This is so much more than I ever could’ve imagined, and I need to take what he’s giving me with both hands and make the most of it.