“I wish I was the kind of woman who could say to hell with everything else and spend the day in bed with you.”
She rose from the bench and he wrapped his arms around her, his body responding instantly when she leaned into him. Her fabric covered assets causing his erection to return. “I wish you were, too.”
They stood for several moments, enjoying the feel of each other.
“I’ll go fix breakfast.” If she didn’t have a presentation to her boss today, she would say to hell with work and push Quinn back onto the bed.
“Thanks, sweetheart. I like my eggs sunny-side up, just like these.” He squeezed her breasts and thumbed the already hardening nipples until they were stiff, painful buds poking against the fabric of her bra. He smacked her on the butt as he gently pushed her away. “Go.”
Paige ogled Quinn’s gorgeous butt as he made his way to the bathroom, his tight ass clenching as he walked. He was so natural and unselfconscious about his nudity, Paige gave herself permission to stare. Now there was a sight she could get used to seeing every morning. The man was beautiful. Much more beautiful than she was. What did a man, one who looked so fit and healthy, want with a woman like her? She forced herself to relax. This—whatever this was—was merely the result of a blind date. Granted, one that had lasted now for a week and a half. She didn’t need to wonder what he’d seen in her. It didn’t matter, their time together would soon be over.
Her hand rubbed across the placed he’d bitten her last night. And where he’d bitten her again sometime early this morning. It was completely healed but throbbed. She still marveled at the feeling it had evoked. The feel of his teeth sinking into her flesh…who would have thought? She barely remembered his remarks about mating after he’d taken her from behind. Had he been warning her? It really didn’t matter. She knew the boundaries.
She knew she couldn’t afford to fall in love with a man like Quinn Blackwood. First, he was handsome as sin, meaning even if they did get together, at some point in the future his attention would start roaming and she’d be left out in the cold. It had happened with the last two jerks she’d dated. She was chunky and curvy. The type of woman a man settled for once he’d tried to catch all the other fish in the pond. Better than nothing.
It had taken her years to even get up the nerve to date, much less have sex for the first time. Before Deb had suggested her brother as a potential date, Paige had even considered a dating service. At least then, the man would know up front what they were getting.
Going to the kitchen, uncertainty still followed her like a cloud. The first thing she did was put on a pot of coffee. She didn’t particularly like coffee in the morning, but she knew most men did. She drank it when she needed to be on top of her game, the caffeine bolting her awake fast. She needed that now. Opening the fridge, she got the carton of milk and rummaged through her cabinets for the packets of sugar she knew she’d bought last month.
Sitting the items on the small island that acted as a breakfast counter, she waited for the coffee to finish. Okay, Paige Matthews grow a set and deal with the situation. So far, her decision to go with the flow had worked out well considering she’d had the most mind-blowing sex of her entire life. Even if he didn’t want to have some type of temporary arrangement, she’d say goodbye with a smile on her face.
A great big, thank-you-mister-bear-shifter, smile. She grabbed two mugs from the cabinet and poured a half cup for herself. She’d wait to pour one for him in case he wanted to hurry away. She hoped not. She’d enjoyed her time with him. At the restaurant, they’d talked and danced and she knew from their conversation they had a lot in common, enjoying many of the same things. And the sex. Well, what could she say about the sex? She’d done things with him she’d never done with anyone else. Wanted things with him she’d never wanted with anyone else.
Fate had not been kind to her so far in life. It had given her a less than a desirable body by most men’s standards and had short-changed her in the family department. Her parents hadn’t expressed emotion very well. The aunt who had raised her had done her best, but showing love and affection to a preteen had not been easy for the older woman. Instilling self-confidence in a chubby girl had been almost impossible.
She ignored the tingling of the mark on her neck. She knew shifters were sometimes rough in their possession and biting was not unheard of according to some of the sites on the internet and gossip she’d heard over the years. For one brief wild moment she thought, could he have been marking her? She didn’t exactly know how mating took place. She was pretty sure though, it involved more than a love bite on the neck during sex. No, her impossible daydream would not come true. Quinn was a bear shifter and he needed to mate with a bear shifter. Jealousy at some unknown woman rose inside her.