Page 66 of The Ex Next Door
Amy swallowed hard. Maybe this is where he would tell her that after tonight he realized he was in over his head. Maybe he was going to give it another try with Samantha. He would try to bow out gracefully, since they would still have to live next door to each other and had started a friendship again.
“Oh. Really?”
“Yeah.” He set his empty water bottle down. “This was supposed to go differently.”
“H-how was it supposed to go?”
He took a step toward her and then another until he was close enough to tug on a lock of her hair.
“It was going to be a romantic evening—”
“And it was!”
“Yes, but we should have wound up here right after all that romance and instead we took a little detour. I lost your attention.”
“You didn’t.” She sighed. “Maybe you did for a few minutes, but you got it back.”
“Did I?”
“Declan, you’ve always had my attention. I hope I didn’t ruin your plans tonight.”
He took her hand and brought it up to his lips to kiss it. “First, it wasn’t you, and nothing was ruined. A little boy needed his mother. That’s all.”
“Listen. Romance with me is going to mean a lot of this. Interruptions. Sneaking around so we can be alone. Late nights, waiting until the kids are asleep. And veryearlymornings if morning sex is even a possibility.”
He quirked a brow. “Wow. You went there.”
“Where did I go?”
“Sex, Amy. You brought up sex. Not just sex, butmorningsex.”
“Was I not supposed to?”
The smile stayed in his eyes, but his lips didn’t even quirk. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”
“But Iwantto have sex!”
Oh my, she might have blurted that out rather loudly.
“I heard you.” This time, Declan’s whole face smiled, his eyes crinkling.
She face-palmed. “I’m no good at this.”
“Hey,” he said, coming closer and taking each of her hands in his. “It’s me. No need to be nervous.”
“You remember me differently. I’m not a size six. I don’t have the body of a teenager anymore.”
“Neither do I.”
“No, yours is even better.” She laughed.
He pulled her close, so they were hip to hip.
“Do you think that’s what I care about? I care about you, not your body. But, as a matter of fact, I like the way you look. You still have the world’s best butt. It’s perfectly shaped. Like a heart.”
As if to emphasize his point, his wandering hands slid down her back to her behind and he was hard against her. He trailed kisses down the column of her neck to her shoulder, and gently lowered the straps of her dress. Her body buzzed and trembled under his touch. She stopped her attempts to pull off his shirt and helped him remove her dress, unzipping and lowering it past her hips until it pooled on the floor. The moment of truth. The jagged scar on her belly was not the ugliest she’d ever seen but it certainly wasn’t a thing of beauty. Without realizing it, she self-consciously touched it, then lowered her hand, letting him see it, too. He needed to see all of her, and everything he’d missed. All the landmarks.
She stood, nearly naked, vulnerable and unguarded, but still somehow safe.
