She growled and shoved his shoulder. “I should have known you were doing it on purpose.” When she was irritated, her eyes sparkled, her skin glowed, and she pursed her lips. God, how he wanted her.
“Can we talk now?”
“Can it wait until I’ve had a shower and a cup of coffee?”
He nodded. He pressed a quick kiss to her lips because he couldn’t resist. He rolled to the floor while she was still too stunned to retaliate. “I’ll go brush my teeth and make that coffee.” His toiletries were in the guest bathroom. He’d used her soap for his shower. Fortunately, she used an unscented bar.
The coffee was made and he was pulling coffee cups from the cupboard when she entered the kitchen like a recalcitrant child. She wore a snug baby pink t-shirt that hugged her full breasts and loose fitting white pants. Her feet were bare. She’d brushed her long hair and put it up in a bun.
He couldn’t help but grin at her reluctance. Handing her an empty mug, he said, “So we should start with what you want. I already know what I want.”
She took a deep breath and hell if he could stop his gaze from dropping to her breasts. “And what is that, Ash?”
He gripped the carafe and filled both their cups to give his hands something to do other than grab her. She was far too tempting. “We both agreed that there would be no outside relationships. We’re going to be together for two years or more. I don’t see why we can’t also have a mutually satisfying personal agreement to meet each other’s sexual needs.”#p#分页标题#e#
Her brows rose. “You said it had been a while for you. How long had it been? How long is ‘a while’ for Asher Hollister?”
He laughed and was satisfied to see her shift and cross her arms over her chest. “Well, normally I’d say a couple of months. But before you, it was before Christmas.” Before he’d seen her at Ted and Erika’s Christmas party with Daniel on her arm looking so cozy. The bottom had fallen out of his world at the thought of losing her forever. He hadn’t been able to make himself bed another woman since then. He just couldn’t go through the pretense anymore.
“Oh.” She gave him a strange look.
“What does that look mean?”
She shrugged. “Um, it’s just…that’s how long it’s been for me as well.”
He frowned. “Weren’t you with Daniel then?” It had eaten him up to think of her with another man. Seeing her with Daniel again on New Year’s Eve had driven crazy. He’d been so preoccupied with thoughts of Ariadne that his date for the evening had been pissed with him. She’d abandoned him at the party before midnight. When the ball dropped at midnight, he’d been sipping champagne and glaring a hole in Daniel’s back as he kissed Ariadne.
“Yes and I know what you’re going to say. If he wasn’t sleeping with me, I should have known something was going on. At the time, I was busy grading papers, preparing averages for report cards, and shopping for Christmas. I didn’t make him a priority.”
Asher frowned. She sounded like she was taking responsibility for that slime’s infidelity. “That doesn’t mean he should have cheated. He has a damned mouth. If he felt neglected, he should have said so.”
“And you’ve never cheated on a woman?”
“No. If I’m unhappy, I walk. I don’t cheat.”
She opened the refrigerator and took out creamer. “And are these women prepared for you to walk?”
“If you’re asking me if I’ve ever broken a woman’s heart, then the answer is probably yes. I haven’t always been a good bet.”
She added creamer and sugar to her coffee and stirred. “Asher, did you really need to get married or was this all some attempt to get into my pants?”
“You know why I asked you to marry me,” he hedged. She was skittish and if he didn’t handle this correctly he’d find himself booted back into the guestroom for the remainder of their marriage. Then he’d be lucky if he ever saw her again.
Her eyes narrowed on him as though she suspected subterfuge. “I told Erika that you didn’t want me enough to lie, but considering what you’ve just told me, that you were hard up-”
“I never said I was hard up. I can get pussy anytime I want.” Her lips tightened. Asher put down his mug. “Shit. I asked you to marry me because my dad needed me to be stable. That’s true. Did I want to fuck you? Hell, yes.”
Ariadne’s mouth fell open. The doorbell rang and she looked away from him. With hands that noticeably trembled, she put her cup on the counter. “I should get that.”