Page 64 of Between Never and Forever

“Why are you asking?” I shivered at his words and the way the back of his other thumb brushed against my neck.

“Because I need your trust. They’ll give us hell at some point, but we’re safe here within the HEAT empire. You go out there, you’ve got to trust me.” He massaged up my thigh, working my body while he worked on his idea. “We’re in it together this time. I only want this if I’m getting you too. So, we’re doing things the way you want. I’m not playing house with anyone but the real Kee, the one I loved and hated. You get me?” He nipped at my ear and then his hand grazed my sex where he must have felt how soaked my panties were.

I gasped at the liquid fire that ignited in my blood at his touch, and then he pulled his hand away to pick up his phone. I didn’t even realize he was angling it in front of us as I stared at him. He snapped a photo quickly and then his arm fell away from me.

He turned the phone my way so I could see us together. My dark eyes were full of emotion, my cheeks warm with my natural blush, and I wasn’t sure if anyone else could see it, but the love in my eyes was still there. The trust in him. The want for him.

But I told myself it was all just lust. The man had recently taken my virginity.

“Why’d you take that?”

“Our announcement.” His response was easy and not at all affected as he typed for a few seconds before turning the phone toward me again. “PR will take care of it.”

“W-Wait,” I stuttered out, confused as to what this was.

He was already backing away, and he didn’t give me any other information. “Forget about the dinner proposal. I’m busy this week with meetings anyway, and you’ve got to rehearse. I’ll tell them to push out something soon. In the meantime, if you don’t come home for a meal, text me.”

“That’s… I don’t report or belong to you, Dex.”

“But you do. For now. Meals with me or texts to tell me why you aren’t home.”

“Why? Who cares where I am?” If he was going to make me do this, he was going to give me more than a command.

He rubbed his large hand over the scruff of his jaw. “I don’t need the temptation of checking up on you. I like you home for meals so I don’t think about where you are instead.”

I shook my head. “Dex, let’s be realistic. You aren’t home sometimes—”

“Do you wonder where I am?”

“That’s not the point.”

“It is. What are we going to do? Avoid this?”

“I’m trying to survive it,” I murmured. Of course he had nothing to say in response. So, I stabbed at the eggs and shoved a few pieces into my mouth in anger. “Are you going to inform me of your eating schedule too?”

“Penelope will communicate my schedule.”

“Your meal schedule?” I squeaked out. “Does she just follow you around like a puppy?”

He smirked at me knowingly. Damn, I needed to get the green-eyed little monster in check. “Want to follow me around too?”

I scoffed and went back to eating the eggs. “Do whatever you want, Dex. I’m not going to wait for you to eat when I’m hungry. I’ll be doing lunch at rehearsals and dinner here. Show up if you want. Or don’t. Whatever.”

“Are you always so grumpy in the morning? You didn’t used to be—”

“We didn’t wake up and live together in high school. We were kids.” Maybe we both needed a reminder of that, but his face hardened at my words.

Those green eyes of his weren’t vibrant anymore as he grabbed his laptop off the countertop and murmured, “See you tomorrow at breakfast then.”

It was his way of saying he wouldn’t be home for dinner, and my heart dropped at the words. Somehow, even if I was trying to be nonchalant with him, I couldn’t.

ChapterTwenty-Two

KEELANI

I went to rehearsals,trying to place my focus somewhere else.

Another week went by. No press release was dropped about us.