Chapter 24
I shot a man with a paintball gun just to watch him dye ~ Text from Hailey to Suzie
Iwake up to the unfamiliar – yet extremely nice – feeling of someone’s arm wrapped around my middle while I’m snuggled up close to the body belonging to the arm. The naked body. The naked body which brought me more pleasure than I knew what to do with last night. The little voice inside my head, decision impaired as she is, urges me to roll over and get this party started.
My head – the calm, cool, collected part of me – is freaking out, wondering how I’m going to get myself out of this mess. I don’t let men I’m dating stay overnight. I also don’t have sex with men I’m dating without using a condom. I didn’t merely throw caution to the wind last night, I lit it on fire and sent it soaring into the sky.
First things first. Bodily urges need to be dealt with ASAP. I pry the arm from my stomach and slide out of the bed. I have one foot on the ground when a scratchy sexy voice asks, “Where are you sneaking off to?”
I jump and spin around at Aiden’s voice. “Bathroom.” He chuckles as I run to my attached bathroom to relieve myself.
I screech when I get a look at myself in the mirror. My mascara is smudged, my hair is sticking up in two-thousand different directions, and I have love bites all over my body. I look like a woman who spent the night getting pleasured from her fingers to her toes. True story. And it was awesome. But man, do I look like a mess now.
I’m trying to tame my hair when Aiden knocks and then strolls inside before I can reply.
“Hey! I could have been indecent.”
He snorts. “I heard the toilet flush and the faucet turn on.”
“Oh.” I deflate and return my attention to the mirror and the hair from hell. I watch in the mirror as he struts around. I may have slipped on panties and a tank top sometime in the early morning hours, but Aiden is still as naked as the day he was born. It’s glorious. His cock is hard and pointed straight at me. I lick my lips.
Aiden wags his finger at me. “As much as I’d like to spend the day in bed with you, I’m not letting you claim this relationship is only about sex.”
Hold up. “Relationship?” Are we in a relationship now? When did this happen? We’ve been on a few dates. Nothing more.
He stops walking to the toilet and starts prowling toward me. “Yeah, honey. Relationship. Or do you always let men bang you without a condom?”
I narrow my eyes at the word ‘bang’. “Do you have to be crude?”
He places his hands on the vanity on either side of me and crowds me. “You didn’t mind me saying naughty things to you while I was buried deep inside you last night.”
My cheeks set on fire. Why, yes, I did enjoy it. Very, very much. He smirks as he nips my ear before kissing the hot spot behind my ear and licking his way down my neck. I sigh and grab his hips to pull him close. He chuckles before taking a step back.
I pout. “What are you doing?”
“Are we in a relationship?” he asks.
I narrow my eyes. Does he want to have this conversation now? There are much, much better things we could be doing. “Are you using sex as a bartering tool?”
He shrugs.
I huff and cross my arms across my chest. “We’ve only been on two dates.”
He mimics my pose except his biceps pop and look entirely too lickable. “Three,” he corrects.
I roll my eyes. “Whatever. Still less than a handful.”
“Do I need to remind you of the dog tag I wore the entire time I was enlisted?”
I take the direct hit and launch one of my own. “But we hardly know each other.”
“Keep trying. We’ve known each other for more than a decade and a half.”
Now, I’m getting peeved. “You can’t seriously claim to have known me in high school.” I get all up in his face. “May I remind you of how you didn’t recognize me mere weeks ago?”
He growls. “We covered this. You are not going to bring ancient shit up every time we argue.”
“Babe.” I shake my head. “I don’t know what kind of women you’ve dated before, but this is what we do. We bring up old shit all the time.”