Stay

Holding my gaze, he brushes his lips against mine and whispers, “You’re so beautiful, Evie, I forget to function.”

I moan into his open mouth and pull him into me, my fingertips touching the uneven skin of the scar on his back. When I move them across it, he jumps off me.

“What’s wrong?” I pant, leveraging my upper body up on my elbows.

“It’s nothing.” He paces at the foot of the bed, rubbing his hands over his face. “Maybe we’re moving this along faster than I’m comfortable with.”

I’d never say I knew this man. I don’t. Not really. I know he’s lying, though. Perhaps there is honesty in his statement. Perhaps he’s right.

“Is it because of your scar?” I sit up. “It doesn’t bother me if you’re worried it does.”

He peers down at me.

“It bothers me.”

I crawl to the brass footboard and kneel, taking his hand in mine.

“Would you like to tell me how you got it?”

His face drops with—shame?

“No.”

Well, that’s that.

“I should leave,” I state, dropping his hand and gathering my nightgown from the floor. I clutch it to my naked torso, trying to hide my body and my humiliation. I haul ass for the stairs. My toes touch the first step when his work-worn hand clasps my shoulder. I stop mid-step and glimpse at it, saddened. It makes me feel safe, wanted, needed.

His silence weighs down on the air.

I’m thankful for my long, thick hair. I lose myself in it. I’d give anything to hide from this moment. His hand disappears under the mess of brown toppling down my back and breasts, pushing it off my neck and over my other shoulder.

A whimper seeps between my lips when his mouth closes over the curve of my neck.

“Stay with me tonight.” His warm breath tickles my skin.

“We already tried that.”

“No sex,” he whispers, his fingers running along my arms. “I enjoy when you sleep beside me.”

“Alright.”

He takes my hand and leads me back to his welcoming bed, the sheets crumpled and warm from our almost lovemaking. I start to put my nightgown back on, but he stops me.

“Let me feel your body against mine.”

I drop it on the floor, climbing in under the sheets he holds back for me. He covers us and draws me into him, his arms winding around me like morning glory.

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