Page 66 of The Kissing Part
He lifts his head and smiles. “I’ll tell the DC people Nathan will do it, but it has to be a two-week-later start date.”
I beam. “I’m so happy.”
He rolls off me, lying on his back. “I just want you to be safe.”
I prop up on an elbow to look at him. “That’s the only reason?”
“And because it could be a good new market for us.”
“What about us?”
He shifts to kiss me. “We’ll have nights to ourselves, I hope.”
I roll out of bed.
“Hey, where’re you going?” he asks.
“I’m going to get ready for bed.”
“You already did that.”
“Well, I’m going to do other private things,” I say, escaping to the bathroom.
I close the bathroom door and lean against it, scrunching my eyes shut tight, willing the tears away. Obviously Owen isn’t in the same place as me. In fact, this trip sounds like a job for him. He wants to be my guard and keep me safe. Oh, and hook up every night. That’s what I am to him. A good time.
I dash at a tear. Shit. I went about this all wrong. What I really wanted was for him to be with me no matter what. Now he’s going to Vancouver for work, and that’s all it is to him. My throat tightens. I got what I wanted but not what I needed. I let out a shaky breath. It’s my own fault for not telling him just how much I love him. How much I want him in my life. I was afraid it would scare him off. It probably would have.
I just wanted things to be different than last time. I didn’t want to be the one leaving for a job without him. I bend over, resting my hands on my knees, tempted to sink to the floor. I don’t know how to fix this.
He knocks on the door.
I move away from it. “Come in.”
He opens it. “Can we get back to the kissing part now?” It’s an apology of sorts with that charming smile.
I lift my chin. “You can’t go to Vancouver just for sex.”
“It’s work and sex.”
At my dark look, he picks me up and throws me over his shoulder. “Owen!”
“Someone needs more good loving to get that grumpy look off their face,” he says, slipping his hand between my legs.
I moan softly.
He lowers me to the bed and smiles down at me. “Now that’s more like it.”
“Am I really just a job and sex for you?”
“How can you even ask me that with our history?”
My lips part in surprise. Just as I realize he’s neatly evaded the question, he spreads my thighs and lowers his head, and all thoughts fly from my mind.
15
Owen
“We didn’t get the DC project,” Mackenzie tells me first thing in our Monday afternoon meeting. It’s just the two of us. Nathan’s out on a job.
