Page 26 of After Hours
Besides, she certainly didn’t have any extra money to be paying for doctors herself.
“What you and I are going to do,” he told her the second night, because that was how quickly his doctor got results—Romily thought said doctor might be a client of the gym, “is fuck only each other for a while. Unless you have some objection to that.”
They were sitting in a dive bar not far from the marina. And they’d walked there, even though it was dusk, because Zachary like to walk around the neighborhood. He wasn’t afraid of anything, as far as Romily could tell. He hardly seemed to notice the dangers that lurked in the shadows. But then again, the shadows were probably afraid of him.
It wasn’t that he was oblivious to the truths of their neighborhood or the potential for unfortunate situations. There was nothing reckless about him. Rather, he was confident that whatever arose, he could handle it.
If there was something sexier, Romily couldn’t really imagine it. His confidence madeherfeel confident. Like she was finally the version of herself she’d never really believed she could be. The version of herself she’d almost been able to glimpse in those long ago days in San Francisco, when she’d thought she had a bright and happy future ahead of her.
Instead she’d met Joseph.
But when she was with Zachary, Joseph was insignificant.
That was pretty damned sexy too.
They sat together on the banquette side of a small table in the dive bar, his thigh pressed to hers. Rock music played sullenly. The bartender looked surly and looked ready to vault over the bar at the slightest provocation. Not the sort of place Romily would frequent, but the whole world was different when she was with Zachary.
When she’d tried to order a side salad for her dinner, he’d given her that stern look and had told the waitress that Romily would have a burger with everything, the same as him.
What if I’m a vegetarian?she’d asked once the waitress had retreated—though not without eyeing Zachary’s impressive arms. Romily couldn’t blame her. They were literally perfect.
Are you?he’d asked.
I’m not. But I could be. You didn’t ask.
I think you’ll eat the burger,he’d replied. He’d leaned into her, that powerful body of his pressing against her side and reminding her of all the things they’d done the night before. In detail. Not that she imagined she would ever forget.If only because it will make me happy.
And he was right. She did.
“No,” she told him now, and found herself reaching for fries when she was normally never that hungry. “I have no objections.”
“My goals for this period of exclusivity are not only to teach you how to fuck me perfectly,” he told her with that same serious look on his face, as if he was discussing business, not sex. She didn’t understand how he could get to her the way he did. So easily. As if he’d been put on this earth to slip under her skin like this. If there was a way to stop the way the things he said made her wet and needy, she didn’t want to know it. “I’ve seen you these past six months. Afraid of your own shadow.”
“Not my own shadow, actually,” she replied.
He studied her for a moment, taking that in. Probably taking in more than she thought he was.Probably seeing everything there is to see,she thought.
But that just made her want to melt into him.
“I want you strong, Romily.” He said that as if that should have been obvious to her, but not in a way that embarrassed her. He didn’t say it as if she wasdumbfor not knowing where he was going with this. “I’m going to train you.”
“Like… in your gym?” She frowned. “Your scary gym?”
He laughed at that, actually throwing his head back, and it made something inside of her that she wouldn’t have said wasunsettled,exactly, seem to soothe itself. He could be stern, so very stern, but he wasn’t afraid to laugh. That mattered.
She knew how much that mattered.
“How is my gym scary?” He was still laughing, his face lit up still, and it made her heart skip a beat.
Romily focused on the conversation at hand, not her heart. “All the heaving around of heavy things and crashing them into the ground. Always that music that sounds like shouting and large things dying. All the big men. Grunting and shouting andsounding like they’re being attacked. Did you think all of that wasinviting?”
Zachary laughed again, even harder this time.
“That’s why it’s fun,” he told her. He watched her take another big bite of her burger. “You must have worked out before.”
“I always liked yoga,” she said. But she shook her head. “But I didn’t have time to do it much.”
The way he studied her face, she could have sworn that he could simply see inside her head and flip through her memories as he liked. She kind of hoped he could. So he could know without her having to tell him that Joseph had never actuallyforbiddenher from going to the various classes that she’d liked to drop in on. But as time went on, there’d been darker and ever more intense consequences when she came home.
