I sighed. “I know we set down some basic rules last night, but I think there’s still a few things we need to discuss before this goes any further.”
“Okay.” Briar nodded, staring at her toes. “Do you want to go downstairs then?”
I was so damned tired all of a sudden. This was supposed to be an easy, friends with benefits kinda thing, and already it was all feeling so damn complicated. Maybe this was a mistake. “Honestly? Not really. I’m tired. I was horny, but now all I really want to do is go to sleep.”
“Right.” Briar shook her head and muttered something under her breath.
“What’s that supposed to mean? You should’ve known what?”
“Nothing. It’s fine. Let’s just go to bed and talk about this tomorrow.”
“This is already starting to feel more like a relationship and less like a hookup arrangement.”
“Are you serious right now?” Briar stared back at me wide-eyed like I was the one in the wrong. “All because I didn’t like the way you were slut shaming my reading choices? Would you have teased me about framing you for my disappearance if I was readingGone Girl? Or that I was joining the Illuminati if it were a Dan Brown book? Romance readers get shamed for wanting to read about successful, happy relationships, and I’m sick of it. How we got from leave-my-reading-preferences-alone to you not wanting to sleep with me anymore I really don’t understand.”
“You weren’t downstairs when I got home. You were locked up in your room—a place I don’t feel like I can go inside—and then when I make the mistake of teasing you about something, you jump all over me. Ariel used to do the exact same thing. She’d hole up in our bedroom—lock me out—for days at atime and pick fights constantly. I couldn’t breathe without her jumping down my throat most nights. I just…I…” I sighed and raked a hand through my hair. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was a trigger. And I’m sorry I took it out on you.”
Briar took a step toward me. Her hands gently touched the back of mine. “I’m sorry I jumped all over you about what I read. I got it a lot from my ex, and I really didn’t appreciate it. There’s a line when teasing gets taken too far, and Danny danced all over it. It’s a sensitive subject for me.”
“I get it.”
“And I’m sorry I reminded you of your ex. But I wasn’t playing games or anything. I really did just get lost in the story I was reading.”
I hitched my chin. “Maybe you could tell me about it sometime. And I truly mean that.”
“Okay.” Briar stepped up and twined her arms around me until one hand was buried in the back of my hair and the other gently caressed the back of my neck. “All forgiven?”
“Forgotten,” I murmured back as I lowered my head to hers and kissed her.
Briar wiggled enticingly against me as she kissed me back.
We kissed until I couldn’t remember what we were talking about. We kissed until I seriously considered taking her on the floor in the hallway. But I couldn’t. My bed was only ten feet away, after all.
I pulled away with a groan. “How about we take this into my bedroom?”
Briar’s eyes twinkled. “Well it is closer than mine.”
“And my bed is bigger.”
“Mmmm, and so fricking soft. It was so hard to leave you last night because of that alone.”
My lips cruised down her neck to that soft, velvety skin next to her collarbone. “It’s the same mattress as the one in your room.”
“Doesn’t feel like it.” Briar’s head fell back with a soft moan.
“Then let’s get to using it.” I walked backward toward my room, pulling Briar along with me.
“You don’t have to ask me twice.” Briar ducked out of my arms and raced into my room. She pulled off her tiny tank top and jumped onto my bed with a bounce that made her tits bounce too.
I closed the door behind me and locked it with a decisive twist.
Chapter Sixteen
Briar
The next week was kinda perfect. I played with Zoe in the morning, took her to see her daddy at lunch time, cooked dinner, and put her to bed. And then when King got home…
I sighed.