Page 45 of Stag

He dragged a hand over his face, his shoulders moving a little like he was laughing, was he laughing at me?

“Stag?”

“I’m horny, Jesus. I didn’t want to say it, but I don’t want you thinking you hurt me or something. Sure, it stung for a moment, but you were right there, and you were kissing me, and touching me, and fuck…” he drew the word out so it was more like ‘fuuuuuck’, almost too drawn out to recognise the word, but his expression was helping. He looked like he was about to lose it.

“Horny? For me?”

Another laugh, this one visible since his hands were covering him again.

“Yes, for you. Of course for you. Have you seen you?”

Had I seen me? Sure, I mean I hadn’t heard me in fucking years, but I knew what he was looking at. Nondescript dark hair, dragged back from my face with a clip at one side, dark green eyes, average lashes, paler skin than actually suited my hair colour, and basic lips. Just lips. What the hell was he seeing that I couldn’t?

“Wow, you don’t see it.”

He reached out to nudge my chin up, even though I was already looking at him.

“You’re fucking gorgeous. Sexy. Dangerously fucking hot. I’m around you, I’m hard. That’s a given. I’m trying not to be a dog, but you’re all I’ve been able to think about since that first night in the club, and… well, you touched my dick. Do the math. I’m like a fucking schoolboy right now.”

He was horny. He found me hot. How had we found each other? He was so sweet and sexy, and had a vulnerability about him that made me want to protect him just as much as he protected me.

“Show me,” I said finally, leaning against the opposite wall as his eyes widened at me, and he blinked slowly, sluggishly. He looked like he’d never been told to get his dick out before, but I guess he just didn’t expect it from me. Was I too pure to just ask for what I wanted? Hell no, and the sooner he realised it the sooner he could give me what I realised I needed. Closeness. Intimacy. Comfort.

“What?” He finally asked, his hands covering him again, while he continued to look exactly like I’d rocked his impression of me.

“I want to see, Stag. Show me how hard you are.”

He laughed, looking more desperate by the second, his hands going up to grab his hair.

“This… what the fuck… You want me to just whip it out like it’s completely normal to do that?”

I smiled, hoping it looked encouraging and not lascivious, because I was definitely feeling aroused too now. The idea of this man being so awkward about showing me the part of him that countless women would have seen, touched, had their worlds rocked by. Why not show me?

“Do you think I’m not good enough for you? Is that what it is?”

His jaw dropped and his hands fell to his sides, while my eyes dropped to look at the area he was no longer covering. His jeans definitely looked a little bulged out right now. He was hard, and I was attracted to him, attracted enough that I moved away from the wall, approaching him in a few quick paces, as my hands lowered to the button on his jeans.

His hands instantly landed on mine, and when I lifted my head, he was staring at me in wonder, or horror. Maybe just shock. He clearly hadn’t expected me to be forward.

“What are you doing?” He asked, his fingers tightening on mine as he spoke.

“You don’t want me to see?”

“No! I mean, I don’t… I don’t know. What the hell is even happening right now?”

I tugged my hands out of his grip and backed up a step.

“Apparently what’s happening is you’re showing me that I’m here as your guest, your ward, or fucking pet, but not as a potential lover. My ears might not work, but the rest of me is normal, like everyone else. If you decide that’s enough for you, you know where to find me.”

I turned and stepped into the room Henley had given me, slamming the door as hot tears filled my eyes. He’d rejected me. I’d put myself out there, and he’d stopped me. He didn’t want me, which meant that he was doing this for another reason. Was I just a charity case? Someone he’d been lumbered with, and didn’t know how to escape from? I climbed onto the bed and curled up into a ball, letting the tears fall, as the silence swallowed me up, and he didn’t follow me.

Chapter Eighteen

What the fuck just happened? Why the hell did she just take my shock as some kind of rejection? Was it? I didn’t think I was rejecting her, I was trying to figure out how she’d gone from being quiet and sad to trying to free my dick for her eyes. I idly grabbed my phone from my pocket as it rang, and lifted it to my ear without checking who it was. Probably Micro checking on us, or Henley making sure we hadn’t burned the place down yet, or found his secret sex den, which he just had to have. He was too fucking smooth not to.

“Yeah.”

“You moved,” an unwelcome voice pointed out, the brashness of his London accent making the hair on the back of my neck stand up.