Page 27 of Merry with a Brewmaster
“I’m just gonna go get cleaned up—head to bed and I’ll check on Haven,” I say, pointing my thumb over my shoulder.
He grimaces as he stands, a wet spot on the denim covering his cock—the magnificent one I rode to orgasm, but…
“It’s just been a while; don’t make it something it’s not. It would have happened with anyone. Today was stressful and we needed the release.”
“Totally,” I agree, both of us lying because there’s no way he would have that reaction with anyone else. He’s a thirty-five-year-old man who came in his pants just from me riding him.
“Vienna.”
“It’s been a long day. I just need to…” I look to the stairs again as he drags his palms over his face before dropping them, not meeting my gaze.
“I’ll check on Haven and we’ll, uh, see you in the morning.”
The dismissal hurts but we both need it, even if it feels like I’m wading through quicksand trying to get to my room. Wells, the single guy I met in Magnolia Point, was a guy I could mess around with, tease and flirt and fuck and then say goodbye to at the end of the weekend.
But Wells, the single dad who looks at me like I’m a piece of their world, who makes me feel like I belong, who came in his pants just from me grinding on him a couple of times—isn’t.
His life is complicated, and honestly, mine is too. I don’t have the time or energy to give him, or Haven, what they deserve.
So even though it hurt, I made the right choice tonight.
I just hope I feel the same way in the morning.
14
WELLS
Ibrace my hands on the counter and let my head drop, my chin almost touching my chest as I try to get myself under control. My jeans and boxers are soaked and I need to change, but I can’t make my feet move.
I fucked up.
Bad.
I shouldn’t have kissed her, but hell if I’d known she was going to act like that after. I grip the marble until my knuckles are white, the edge biting into my palm.
But it’s not enough.
I crossed a line because I needed the comfort of someone else after a day of guilt and stress of not being there for my child.
But I didn’t needsomeone; I neededher.God, I wanted to get lost in her so badly, and knowing how it felt to be inside her and not being able to have her was a special kind of torture.
Steeling myself for the inevitable, I stand and bite back a curse at the cold, sticky mess I’ll need to shower off before I have any chance of pulling myself out of this downward spiral.
Buzz. Buzz.
My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I have the sudden urge to launch it into the wall just to watch it shatter. That feeling only intensifies when I see who the text is from.
KIM: I can’t get Haven this weekend
A million responsesrun through my head, but I don’t have it in me to fight with her. Not tonight. Not when the woman who consumes all my waking hours and half my sleeping ones is regretting dry humping me on the couch.
Fuck.
WELLS: Okay
KIM: That’s it?
She wants to feel validated—shewants me to make it okay, but I’m done trying to gloss over the fact that she’s doing a shit job of being there for Haven and that doesn’t deserve a pass.
