Page 35 of Between Never and Forever

She nodded and bit her lip as she did. I carried her, legs wrapped around my hips, like she was my most fragile possession. I didn’t care about most things other than working and keeping my family proud. Most of my hopes for making the rest of the world a better place died when our town turned its back on me.

“How did we get here, Kee?” I murmured in her ear as her arms wrapped around me.

Tomorrow, I knew we’d be back to arguing, to the awkward conversations, to our separate lives, but tonight, we were connected.

“Well, we got like this because I didn’t tell you.”

“I didn’t ask, either. For some odd reason.” His tone was sarcastic. “I had the idea you’d done this before.”

“Ethan and I never slept together because he didn’t want that and neither did I. He’s been in love with someone for a very long time.”

“With the person he was with tonight.” It made sense. I turned the corner and passed the guest bedroom and the spare office space.

“Yes,” she said softly. “Seems a lot of people found the person they wanted to be with over the years.”

Her eyes searched mine, and I knew she had questions about Seanna and me. With the fact that I’d just stolen her virginity, I offered up the honest truth. “I don’t commit well to anyone. Seanna knows that. She’s fine with it. We’ve… I keep my relationships casual but she’s been casual for a while now.”

Her chocolate eyes searched mine without judgment but I saw confusion too. “How do you not get attached?”

Easy. Someone breaks your heart into such small pieces, you have no attachments left. When I didn’t answer her and kept walking, she changed the subject. “Enough rooms here?”

“It’s a penthouse suite. You’ll feel comfortable.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not staying with you, Dex.”

“Of course you are.” I got to the bedroom and shoved open the oak French doors to a room that was all warm tones. “Where else would my fiancée stay?”

“I was actually assigned a lease at an apartment your brother got me near the resort for—"

“My fiancée is going to stay at my place.” I held her ass to me and then turned to sit down on the bed.

“Wait.” She gripped my shoulders and her eyes were wide as she looked around the bedroom. She chewed her cheek before she pointed to the soft, tantric chair in the corner. It had curves and angles I knew how to enjoy. “Maybe we should just sit on that chair? It looks soft and…”

I shook my head. Jesus, she didn’t even know what it was. No way in hell was I having her on a tantric chair for her first time. I breathed out, trying not to imagine her bent over it. I stepped back toward the bed, my cock now throbbing with the feeling of her walls around me. “Trust me. The bed will be easier. I’m going to sit down, okay, Kee?”

She blinked a few times and took a deep breath before she nodded. “You’re very big, Dex. Go slow.”

“Baby, you’re stroking my already large ego with that comment.” I chuckled, but I felt her body start to tighten up. I’d wanted to torture Keelani with the idea of my fucking her being so good, she could never think of anything else; but instead, I feared how rough I handled her would be the way she would remember her virginity being taken. “Heartbreaker, you’re going to have to relax into me and trust me, okay?” She bit her lip, but her legs stayed firmly around me even as I scooted us backward to where she could have moved away. “Can you look at me?”

“I feel like right now isn’t the time for us to stare into each other’s eyes. Let’s just get this over with.”

“I’m not stealing your virginity orgetting it over with. Jesus, how am I even your first?”

“Did you honestly think it would be someone else?”

“Yes, Kee. When we walked away from each other, I wanted to walk away for good.”

ChapterFourteen

KEELANI

He would have dancedon my shattered heart if he could have. It was the difference in us when we broke up. I saw his hate, and he saw what I painted on my face as apathy. I still masked my pain and love for him very well.

And maybe these six months would help me overcome it. If he wasn’t going to fall in love all over again, I wouldn’t either. We’d learn from each other here. We’d grow. We’d move forward, and then we’d move on. Leaving the past behind once and for all was necessary to a person’s survival.

“Well, I guess you decided to walk straight into me instead. So, please, just fuck me, Dex.”

His jaw worked a few times before he ground out, “You’re on top of me. You’re doing this first. Nice and slow.”