Page 69 of His Surrender

“I know we aren’t together… like, romantically…” Jesus, I sounded like an idiot. “And that’s fine. I just… I guess I wanted to know… are we exclusive at least?” My face burned with embarrassment. The question had eaten at me for a while, and I couldn’t hold it at bay any longer.

“Are you asking if I’ve fucked anyone else recently?”

“Yeah.” I couldn’t even look at him. Because what if he said that he had? As foolish at it was, I’d probably get upset and have to leave the room.

Jay grabbed my chin and made me look at him. The center of his forehead wrinkled as he frowned. “I told you I didn’t want anyone but you, and I meant it. I haven’t fucked another guy since January. And believe me, darlin’, I used to fuck fifteen to twenty people a month.”

“Are you serious?” He was an even bigger playboy than I’d thought.

“Yes. But that’s not who I am right now,” he said, his tone softer. His firm grip on my face lightened before his thumb circled my lips. “Ty tak mnoga znachish dlya menya.”

Russian was certainly underrated in terms of sexiness. Everyone always swooned over French or Italian… but none of those people had ever heard Jay speak Russian to them. He could’ve been insulting me, and my stomach would still do flips.

“What does that mean?”

Jay kissed the tip of my nose and rested his head on the pillow, saying nothing.

“Ah, come on.” I moved aside his bangs and let my hand linger on his temple. “You can’t do that to me.”

“Look it up,” he said.

“I can’t remember it, and I damn sure couldn’t spell it if I did.”

“Not my problem.” Jay shrugged and closed his eyes. “Good night, Remi.”

“Who said you could sleep over?”

His lips twitched with a smile.

“What about Sput?”

“I dropped him off at Ivan’s before coming to the bar,” Jay responded, opening his eyes. “I figured I’d be too busy to go home.”

“That was mighty presumptuous of you to assume you’d be staying with me.”

“With you?” Jay scrunched his face up, still managing to look drop-dead gorgeous while doing it. “No. You see, I had my eyes on someone else. Things didn’t pan out with them, so I went with plan B.”

“Bastard.” I shoved his chest, and he laughed. God, I loved the sound. “I have another question.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Nothing bad.” I rested my head on his shoulder, tracing his collarbone with the tip of my finger. “I’m curious why you chose Blond Bastard as your username on that hookup app.”

“Emery’s son, Ryan, calls me that. I thought it was funny.”

“Did you know I have you in my phone as Beautiful Bastard?”

“I didn’t.” Jay’s chest rumbled with another laugh. “You’re in mine as Piano Man.”

“Really?”

“No. But that’s your name right here.” He drew anxover his heart.

I laughed and let my eyes fall shut. Jay’s arm was around me, and he pressed his face into my hair. I had never felt safer than I did right then.

I woke the next morning to the smell of coffee brewing and bacon sizzling. I glanced at the clock, seeing it was eight o’clock. There was a slight chill in the air, so I wrapped the sheet around my shoulders and padded down the hall to the kitchen where Jay stood in front of the stove cooking in a cast-iron skillet.

“Good morning,” he said.