I make my way over to our table and take a seat, shortly followed by Ledger juggling two plates of food and two glasses of orange juice. We eat in silence, pretty much devouring our breakfast. When we’ve both finished, I start to stand to take our plates to the sink, but Leger beats me to it. “Sit back down, love. I’ve got it.”
When he’s rinsed off our dishes, I notice him making another plate of food and shoot a look of absolute confusion his way. “For Allie,” he says, putting the dish in the microwave.
Ledger walks back to the table, but instead of sitting beside me like he was earlier, he takes the seat across from me.Okay,this is weird.He lays his arms out on the table with his hands in the air, an invitation for my own. One that I accept gladly. No matter how many times I touch this man, taste him, orhave him inside me,I still feel fireworks with the brush of a finger.
“Angel, I think we need to talk. We should’ve had this discussion last night, but, well, you know how that went,” he says, smirking at the reminder of the animalistic way we ended our night.
“Um, okay.” There is no way this is going to be a good conversation. I know I reacted like an immature, jealous brat for the second time since we’ve been together.
I’m waiting for him to tell me that our age difference is just never going to work out when he responds. “I know you have a hard time believing me when I tell you,and show you,just how much you mean to me, but at some point, I need you to understand. You do not and will noteverhave to doubt my complete and utter devotion to you. I need you to tell me what I can do going forward to avoid these feelings you’ve been having.”
Ledger squeezes my hands when I don’t answer. It’s not like I haven’t been trying to think of an answer. It’s just, there really isn’t one. “I don’t know.”
“Baby...”
“No! I really don’t know. You’ve been absolutely perfect. You’ve never once given me a reason to doubt you, and I know that. I guess I’m just terrified to lose you. I mean…you’ve been the best thing to happen to me in my entire life, and I’ve never had a reason to think I deserve someone like you.”
He pulls my hands toward him and gives them a kiss. “I’mthe one who doesn’t deserveyou.Not the other way around.It’s pretty evident that you didn’t receive the affection you needed growing up, which may have contributed to a lack of confidence in yourself. We briefly discussed it before, but would you be open to going to therapy? It’s worked wonders for my childhood trauma.”
Wow.Okay, so this wasn’t the talk I thought I was about to get.Of course he wasn’t going to break up with me. Why can’t I get it through my thick skull…
“Yeah, that would be great actually,” I say, fully smiling for the first time since we started this littletalkof ours. “You know what's funny? I’ve never felt this way before with anyone else. I definitely never got jealous of Dean.”
“Hmm, speaking of Dean, I understand your reasoning for dancing with him”—he narrows his eyes—“even though I would prefer you not to do that again. But is there a reason he showed up in your apartment in the middle of the night last night?”
Okay, that was completely out of left field.“Huh?”
“Dean.Inyour apartment. Around one in the morning. Why? How?”
“Ledger, I have no clue what you’re talking about. Dean was never in my apartment yesterday. Besides, you were here by then. Around one, we would’ve been…”
“Correct. Does he have a key?”
“Um, he used to…I guess I never got it back from him.”
“I’ll get someone to come out and change the locks. It doesn’t matter for you so much since you won’t be leaving our house again, but I don’t think Dean should have access to Allie’s residence,” he says, grunting in disapproval.
“Ledger, please tell me what you’re talking about. Explain it to me like I’m a toddler.”
A smirk forms on his face. “Oh, I woulddefinitely nottell a toddler this story. It’s simple enough. Last night, while I was fucking your brains out, I looked up, and Dean was standing in the hall. You had just come, so it’s no wonder you didn’t see him.”
He has to be joking. There’s no way Dean saw us.This is a joke. Ledger is about to start laughing and tell me he's just messing with me, getting back at me for that dance.
He doesn’t start laughing.
I’m shaking with fear when he finally breaks the silence. “What’s wrong, baby?”
I rip my hands from his grip and shoot up out of my chair, sending it crashing to the floor. “You’re lying.”
Ledger remains seated as I begin to pace back and forth. “Sloane, what’s going on? What’s wrong?
“What’s wrong? You just told me that my ex walked in on us having sex, and you have the audacity to ask me what’s wrong?”
Ledger slowly stands up and walks over to where I’ve paused my pacing. “I didn’t realize you would be so upset with someone watching. You seemed to enjoy it in the club. I’m sorry, I really didn’t think you would mind. I truly had you pegged as an exhibitionist.”
I bring my hand to my head, massaging my temples. “It’s not justsomeonewatching. It’sDean.”
“And what about that asshole seeing just how much you belong to me is so upsetting to you?” he asks calmly, but Ican tell by the way his breathing has picked up that he’s barely keeping his composure.
