I sat at my desk for another half hour, feeling frustrated and angry with myself. Not to mention, Drew was the type of man who said exactly what was on his mind, so why wasn’t he telling me how he felt about my having dinner with Baldwin? And why was I so hung up on what Drew thought if we were just fucking?
The longer I sat at my desk, the longer I stewed. I needed some clarification on what was happening between us. If I didn’t get it before he left this afternoon, it was going to fester. So I decided to take the advice I was constantly dishing out. And it was better to get it over with while I was annoyed.
Standing, I took a deep breath and marched into Drew’s office. He was on the phone when I walked in.
Taking one look at my face, he said, “Let me think about it. I’ll give you a call back next week, okay, Frank?”
When he hung up the phone, he leaned back in his chair the same way he had this morning and nodded. “Emerie.”
“Drew.”
We stared at each other.
When he said nothing, I rolled my eyes. “What are we doing?”
“Right now? You’re standing in my office looking a little pissed off.”
I squinted. “You know what I mean.”
“Not sure that I do.”
“Are we…” I waved my hand back and forth between us. “…just sleeping together?”
“We spend most days together, share almost all of our meals together, and when it comes to sleeping—we don’t get much of that when we’re in bed together.”
Drew looked amused. I wasn’t.
“Are we…doing those things together exclusively?”
He stood and came around his desk. The playfulness was suddenly gone from his tone. “Are you asking me if it’s okay for you to fuck someone else?”
“No!” Yes? No? Maybe? There wasn’t anyone else I wanted to be with. Oddly, the thought of sleeping with Baldwin wasn’t even appealing any longer. But I wanted to know if it would be weird if I spent time with another man.
“So what are you asking me?”
“I…I don’t know.”
Silence fell between us. I could see the wheels turning behind his eyes as he stared at me, his thumb rubbing at his bottom lip. After a minute, he pushed off his desk, and that thumb found its way to my chin and lifted.
He spoke into my eyes. “I’m not planning on sleeping with anyone else. And I expect you won’t either. I thought we settled that in the bathtub yesterday.”
My voice came out faint. “Okay.”
“I take it this is about the message I gave you earlier?”
I nodded.
“You want to know what I think about you spending the night alone in your apartment having dinner and watching a movie with the putz?”
I nodded again.
“Alright.” He looked away, seeming to contemplate his answer for a moment, and then said, “I like you. I like the way you listen to people’s bullshit problems all day but still believe there’s a reason to work through things. I like that you’re up for anything—that you like staying in and watching old movies, or going out to a pool hall. I like the way your eyes light up when you talk about your parents. I really like the way it feels when I’m inside of you and the way you moan my name when you’re about to come. I like that you made me coffee before you left this morning, and I even like that you’re concerned what I’ll think about you having dinner with Professor Pansyass.”
He paused. “I think all that should tell you that for me, there’s more here than just fucking. That being said, I’ll tell you straight out that I hate the thought of you snuggling up on the couch to watch a movie with some dickhead you’ve been in love with for three years. But I’m not going to ask you not to spend time with him. That’s a decision you need to make on your own, and I’ll deal with whatever you choose because I realize my trust issues come from a place that has nothing to do with you.”
I swallowed. That was a lot to take in at once. And it was way more than I’d expected him to commit to. “Okay.”
“We good? Because I have four hours to do eight hours worth of work before I hop on a plane so my lazy-as-shit ex-wife can complain about the traffic getting my son to the airport while I fly nine hundred miles to pick him up and then turn right back around and fly another nine hundred miles back home. And I need at least a half hour of those four hours freed up so I can fuck you bent over your desk. Because you might have made me coffee this morning, but you didn’t stay long enough for me to come inside of you, and I plan to remedy that before I head to the airport.”
My head might have been spinning, but I knew one thing for sure. There was nothing I wanted more than for Drew to get his work done and make good on his plans.
I pushed up on my tippy toes and kissed his lips. “Go. What are you standing here for? You have work to get done.”
Drew
“Look how long her legs are.”
Screw biology; this boy was definitely my son. Beck was staring at a flight attendant with the longest stems I’d ever seen. She reached up to tuck some luggage in the overhead compartment above the seat in front of us and caught Beckett leaning into the aisle and staring.
“What’s your name?” She smiled down at him.