Mine to Take (Southern Weddings #5)

I turn away from him, sliding out of bed. “I’ll go make you coffee.” He gets out of bed and my mouth waters. Matthew two years ago was in top shape and perfect. He had the perfect abs, the perfect ass, and let’s not even discuss the way his package was everything a woman could dream of. But now, his shoulders are a bit bigger, his abs are more defined, his legs thick, and his cock looks even better than he did before. “You keep looking at me like that.” He walks to me, my core getting wet. “We won’t leave this room.”

“I’m just…” I blink to make myself stop drooling over him. “I was just…” I turn and walk to the bathroom, hoping he isn’t going to follow me, but I can see him in the mirror as I walk over to the shower, opening the glass door, and turning the black knobs. “We shouldn’t have done that.” I fold my arms over my chest and I really wish we were dressed and not doing this naked. “We did not just do this.”

“But we did,” he reminds me, smirking at me. “We even did it in this room.”

“We can’t do this anymore.” I swallow the lump in my throat.

“Why not?” he asks, and I throw my hands up in the air.

“I’m dating someone,” I lie to him. I mean, technically, Charles and I are kind of dating. Even though I told him I wasn’t ready to date anyone now.

“Yeah, you are,” he proclaims. “Me.” He points at himself, and I roll my eyes.

“Not just you,” I tell him, hoping he gets pissed enough that he will storm out but instead he laughs even louder.

“No, you aren’t.” He shakes his head, not one ounce of jealousy in his words, which annoys me.

“How do you know?” I ask, cocking my hip to the side. I look at myself in the mirror and see he gave me a hickey right next to my hip bone, and another one right on top of my pelvis.

“Because if you were.” He comes over to me and I want to take a step back, but my body is a hussy and instead I put my shoulder back, putting my tits out there more for him. He puts his hands on my hips. “You wouldn’t have kissed me, let alone slept with me.” He bends and takes one of the nipples into his mouth.

“You were literally engaged two weeks ago,” I remind him, looking at him and all he does is shrug, like it wasn’t a big deal.

“But I’m not now,” he confirms, kissing my collarbone.

“But…” I push him away from me because if he’s touching me, everything in my head goes blurry. “But—”

He walks back to me, grabbing my face in his hands. “Sofia,” he says my name, “when it comes to me and you.” His thumbs rub my cheeks. “There is nothing that can compare to it.” I look into his eyes. “What I had with Helena was nothing, and I say this with the most respect that I can, it was nothing like what we had. What we have, it’s something I can’t even explain.” I start to say something but he kisses my lips to stop me. “Stop fighting this, Sofia, and listen to my words. What I gave to you, I never gave to anyone else. I thought I loved her, thought it was it, but I was wrong and that is on me. Whatever the reason, I was meant to always be with you. You were always mine.” He kisses me softly. “Now, do you want me to make you breakfast?”

“No,” I snap out.

“Okay, good,” he says softly, “I’ll go get something started.” He turns to walk out of the bathroom. “Do you want me to bring the food to your bed?”

“No,” I reply, avoiding even looking at him as I get in the shower. Putting my head back, I let the warm water wash over me. “You done fucked up,” I mumble to myself as I wash away the smell of sex off me. “You just had to jump his bones.”

I rinse off, getting out of the shower, and grabbing a robe. Instead of going downstairs like I want to, I stay in the bathroom, putting on my makeup and doing my hair.

“You’re avoiding me.” I hear Matthew from the door of the bathroom. I look over and see that he’s dressed in the outfit he wore last night. He holds a mug of coffee in one hand. “Figured that I would bring you your coffee instead of letting it get cold.” He hands me the coffee.

“Thank you,” I tell him softly, grabbing the cup. He holds the cup with me.

“I’m going to go,” he says, and my stomach sinks, not wanting him to go but knowing that it’s for the best. He leans in, and I let him kiss me, the kiss lingering. “I’ll call you later.”

“Okay,” I reply softly, my lips still tingling from his kiss.

“You going to answer my call?” he asks with a smirk.

“No.” I chuckle and he bends to give me one more kiss before he leaves.

“Later, Sofia!” he yells right before he walks out of the house, closing the door behind him. I avoid looking at myself in the mirror, instead going into the closet and grabbing a pair of navy pants. Sliding them over my hips and tying them before I walk over to pick a sheer white shirt with a champagne silk camisole under it, two long sashes at the collar tie in a loose knot. I slip into nude shoes before walking out of the house and driving to work.

I jog up the front steps of the office, pulling open the door before putting my sunglasses on the top of my head. “Morning,” I call from the front door. Clarabella and Presley walk out of the kitchen with coffees in their hands. “Hey,” I say to them as I start to walk down to my office, passing Shelby’s office. She looks up as I smile and wave, seeing Clarabella and Presley behind me.

I walk into my office, tossing my bag on the chair. “You got laid.” I look over my shoulder to see Clarabella looking at me with a twinkle in her eyes.

“What?” I choke, shocked, my heart speeding up as I try to play dumb. “No.” I avoid looking at her as I walk behind my desk. “How can you tell?”

“You literally came in here skipping,” Presley notes, rolling her lips and bringing her cup to her mouth.

I gasp out in shock. “No, I wasn’t!” I shake my head at the same time.

“Was it the guy from the app?” Shelby pushes into my office and I just look at them, not saying a word.

“Oh my God, who was it?” Presley asks.

“You might as well just tell us who it was so we can get on with this day,” Shelby states. “Once this one gets a sniff at something, she doesn’t let up.” She motions with her head toward Clarabella.

I sit down in the chair behind my desk, putting my hand on top of it and folding my hands together. “Fine,” I come clean, “Matthew.”

His name is not even fully out of my mouth before the questions start coming in rapid fire.

“Shut your mouth,” Presley blurts, her mouth open.

“You did not,” Shelby says, her eyes looking at me like they will come out of her sockets.

“How good was it?” Clarabella asks as she pulls the chair from in front of my desk to the side, sitting.

“It was fine,” I downplay it, not wanting to do this but knowing I’ve let the cat out of the bag.

“It was fine?” Clarabella says, shocked. “Then you aren’t doing it right. Jesus, I remember the second time I hooked up with Luke, it was even better than the first, and that was explosive.”

“Ugh,” I say, throwing up my hands. “Fine, it was amazing. It was so much better than it was the last time. I don’t know what it was, but it was like I was looking for him since leaving him.” I look at them. “Does that even make sense?”

“You had sex with people after him?” Presley asks, and I scoff.

“Well, obviously, I had to get him out of my system.” My legs start to go up and down. “But I think it was after the second guy that I was like, maybe I need to connect with someone before banging them.”

“How did that work out for you?” Presley asks, and I glare at her.

“I just banged a guy who I said I would never talk to again, and I think I saw fireworks.” I lean back in the chair. “It was a fifteen out of ten.”

“So now what?” Shelby asks the same question I was asking myself the whole time since I woke up.

“Now, nothing. Now, hopefully, this is out of our system and we move on,” I declare and the three of them laugh.

“I’m putting down bets that he shows up again,” Clarabella announces, getting up, “and the sex is even better than it was last night and this morning.”

“How did you know they had sex this morning?” Presley asks as she gets up.

“Who doesn’t get up and have morning sex?” Clarabella scoffs at them, and now it’s my turn to roll my lips when they just avoid looking at her.

“You girls need to take care of your men more.” She shakes her head. “My man skips to work every single day.”

“Every day?” Shelby says, folding her arms over her chest.