"How so?" I asked.
He gave me that special smile, the one that melted my heart and turned my insides to jelly. "Because I've been keeping you all to myself."
I felt myself grow very still. Was he talking multiple partners? Filling his house with groupies and hangers-on? Passing me on to his brother? I wasn't sure what, exactly, he was talking about, but whatever it was, I didn't think I was interested.
I kept my tone studiously neutral. "What do you mean?"
He studied my face. "Well, obviously, not what you think."
I didn't answer.
"You were thinking," he continued, shifting his body closer to mine, "that I'd ever consider sharing you." I felt his hand on my thigh and his hip pressed against mine. He leaned close to whisper in my ear. "Let's get one thing straight. I'm never, ever sharing you."
I felt myself smile. "Oh yeah?"
"Oh yeah. You're all mine, and I intend to keep it that way."
The way he said it sent a bolt of heat straight into my core. I didn't want to share him either. I wanted things to stay exactly as they were.
I wanted to sleep in his arms and wake up sated. I wanted to hear him laugh and watch him sweat, both in the workout room and when we were naked, which was, to be honest, embarrassingly often. I wanted to watch bad movies and enjoy all those great make-out sessions in our own private world. I wanted a string of tomorrows just like today.
Maybe I was being foolish, but at heart, I wasn't a fool. Obviously, things couldn't stay exactly like this. Eventually, the real world would interfere, or as Lawton's dick of a brother had so nicely implied, Lawton would lose interest in whatever it was that we had.
If I were smart, I'd lose interest first. But somehow, I was never able to do it. Instead, the days had passed one after another with virtually no friction, well, unless you counted the physical kind, and that was definitely no drawback.
Soaking in the hot tub, his hand drifting up and down my thigh reminded me of how intoxicating his particular brand of friction could be.
"So what do you think?" he said.
"Hmmmm?"
He laughed. "Am I wrong to keep you all to myself?"
"Hey," I said, "I thought you didn't want to share."
"No sharing," he said, "but you know what I just realized?"
"What?"
"I've never even taken you out, like on a real date. Aren't you pissed? You should be."
I gave it some thought. He'd bought us dinner countless times from upscale places that I didn't even know delivered. He'd taken me to the movies right in his own house. He'd powered up his sound system and slow danced with me until I'd melted straight into him.
It was like Heaven on Earth, and we were the only two people in it. Well, us and Chucky. I was juggling a lot, it was true, between the waitressing, time with Lawton, and making sure to spend enough time at the Parkers' to fulfill my obligations.
I shook my head. "That other stuff isn't really important to me."
"But what about dinner, clubbing, all that, don't you want it?"
"Truthfully?" I said. "I've kind of liked things the way they are."
Aside from the luxury of having Lawton all to myself, hanging out at his house was beyond amazing. He had a long list of luxuries, and a regular cleaning service that kept us from doing hardly any housework at all. His brother was blissfully absent, and I saw no sign of Brittney, Amber, or any of the other hangers-on that I'd been expecting to see any minute.
He leaned his head close to mine, and I felt his lips brush against my damp hair. "Yeah," he said. "I've liked it this way too. But I don't feel like I'm being fair to you."
"Why not?" I asked.
"Because you deserve all that. To go places, to be seen, all that stuff. I've carted around other girls –" He shrugged. "It's just that you deserve all that and more."
