My gaze rakes over her again, noticing the little bumps of her nipples that let me know she’s not wearing a bra. I wonder if she’s wearing panties, and the thought that nothing is separating her naked body from me but my shirt has my cock instantly hardening.
I turn from her to try to hide my growing arousal. Fuck me. I can’t be getting impossibly hard every time she walks into the room if she’s going to stay with me.
But fuck…I can’t help it. Her fucking existence is enough to torture my dick.
“I’ll go get you some clothes today,” I tell her before I motion for her to have a seat. “I didn’t know what you liked, so I made a little bit of everything.” The table is covered with bacon, eggs, toast, and pancakes.
She looks down at everything and smiles, her cheeks dimpling. I can’t help but wonder if she has dimples in other places.
“This all looks amazing,” she says, “but you didn’t have to go to all this trouble for me.”
“I gotta eat anyway,” I point out. I sit a cup of coffee in front of her and watch as she adds cream and sugar to it.
I drink mine black and try not to stare at her as she forks a bite of pancakes, her lips sliding off the fork as she places the bite in her mouth, closing her eyes and moaning. Jesus, she even looks sexual when she eats. Everything about her screams sex.
A bit of syrup glistens from the corner of her mouth. I want to lick it off as I taste her, but instead I just reach my hand up and brush it away with the pad of my thumb.
Her breath hitches when I touch her. The skin of her cheek is velvety soft. “You’ve got some syrup…” I explain, my voice gruff.
“Oh,” her voice is breathy when she speaks, “thanks.”
I contemplate leaning in to kiss her. I don’t think she’d push me away if I did right now, but it’s probably too soon after what she just went through, so I pull back instead and spear a spoonful of my eggs, shoveling them into my mouth.
After I swallow, I take a swig of my coffee before telling her, “I’ll stop by the store after work and pick you up some things. You can just hang out here today until I get you some clothes.”
Her face colors. “You really don’t have to do that. You’ve already done so much.”
My lips tip up, “As much as I don’t mind you wearing nothing but my shirt all the time, I think you’ll need more substantial clothing if you ever want to go out again.”
She blushes, and it’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen. My little rabbit.
She sits up straighter in her chair as she says, “I’ll pay you back every cent once I get a job.”
“Okay,” I say simply, sensing that she needs this to feel like she’s maintaining her dignity, although I couldn’t care less if she ever pays me back.
She nods as if it’s all settled and relaxes again, and I can’t help but respect her sense of pride. It’s the same type of pride I have, intent on working for myself and not depending on anyone else, though I wouldn’t mind her depending on me for everything.
“Did you mean it?” she suddenly asks.
My brows furrow. “Mean what?”
She fidgets in her chair, looking like a timid little schoolgirl as she tucks her hair behind her ear. “Were you serious when you offered me a room here?”
“Of course I was, sweetheart,” the endearment just slips out, and I don’t regret it. It feels natural to call her that because that’s what she is. She’s a total sweetheart, my sweetheart, whether she knows it or not. “As long as you want to.”
She smiles up at me shyly again as she says, “Thank you, really. I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t run into you. And I’ll pay you back everything. I swear.”
“It’s nothing,” I assure her, although it’s everything. She’s everything.
* * *
Hadley
I insist on doing the dishes when Damon stands and begins loading them into the sink.
“No, really. It’s the least I can do,” I tell him. I want to feel useful. I need to feel useful.
His gray eyes appraise me, and then he nods. It’s like he sees deep inside me and knows. He knows I need to express my gratitude in some way, and he lets me.