Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
ROME
I can’t believe he’s not engaged. I can’t believe all this time, I was hating myself over something that wasn’t true.
Halfway through building the second box, I stop him, waving my hand in his direction and getting his attention. When he looks my way, I ask, ‘You single?’
His lips twitch into a smirk, and he nods. ‘You?’
I huff and get back to work without answering. He fucking knows I am, considering how upset I was over the thought that he was sleeping with me while being engaged to someone else.
Asshole.
I can feel his eyes on me, moving from the project in front of him to me and then back again. It’s making everything in my body hypersensitive. But I’m not going to jump on him just because I was wrong. I’m going to think this through.
Logically, because even though that’s not always my strong suit, I need to work this out because being with him still isn’t that simple.
He’s not engaged, not seeing anyone else, but he’s still hearing.
He signs so fucking well, and he understands me just fine, even when my hands are slashing through the air in anger, but that doesn’t change things. He’s nothing like my ex, but I’m still not sure I’m brave enough to let my guard down.
Fucking him was one thing. But now that there’s the possibility for more…?
I peek over at him, and he catches me looking and fucking winks at me. I nearly strip a screw with the screwdriver when I twist it too hard. God, I need to get my head on straight.
‘Good work,’ he tells me when we finish, and I glower at him, trying not to lean over and lick the sweat from his skin. It almost—almost—feels like he’s telling me good boy.
My entire body shudders at the thought.
I say nothing. I can’t deal with this right now. I step outside instead and get Leaf’s attention with a loud whoop. ‘You ready for the boxes?’ I ask, my signs big so he can read them from far away.
He throws me a thumb’s up, and I move back into the barn where Dex is waiting. Watching me. A hungry look in his eye. He wipes sweat from his brow with the bottom of his t-shirt, looking like sex personified, and my dick twitches.
I take a deep breath to calm myself. This is not the time nor the place. ‘They’re ready for the planters.’ By some miracle, my hands don’t shake.
Dex nods and flexes his biceps, making my pants even tighter. ‘Great. Let’s go.’
With a grunt and a heave, we lift the first one and walk it out, my eyes trying to focus on anything but his bulging muscles. It’s almost impossible not to be affected by them. By him. He looks so fucking good all jacked and sweaty.
And that stubble on his cheeks is doing things to my insides.
I want to feel it rubbing against my skin as he eats my ass.
He’s not cheating, so the possibilities are endless.
No. Nope. Logical and rational, I remind myself. It’s going to be my new life motto, damn it. No more spur-of-the-moment sex scenes with Sex.
I mean, Dex.
Fucking hell.
We move three more planters, helping Leaf and Thorn put them into the ground, and then I need a break. Not because I’m tired, but because I need some space from Dex’s muscles and his glistening skin.
I grab a water bottle and head toward the bare orchards before anyone can ask where I’m going.
There are huge piles of chopped apple tree wood and a ton of new saplings filling the empty rows.
Taking a swig of the water, I stare out at the rows of dead trees in the distance when I feel someone move up next to me.
I know it’s him. I can fucking feel him like a second heartbeat. I know the vibration of his steps now and how his body changes the air around me. His arm brushes mine, and I bite down on my bottom lip to keep the moan inside.
‘They’re going to burn all those,’ he tells me, when I peer over at him. He has a clear plastic cup in his hand, and as he sips on it, I can smell the alcohol on his lips.
I ground myself further to keep from learning over and licking the taste right out of his mouth. You will resist. There’s no reason to, but you will.
I will not turn into a slobbering, horny mess every time this man stands next to me.
‘I know,’ I finally say. It’s probably a little too late, because Dex’s lips twitch slightly at my delayed response.
I shove at him with my arm—knowing full well I shouldn’t—and he shoves me right back.
The contact is almost too much, and of course, he doesn’t let up.
He crowds me back against the trunk of a willow tree, and as I take a step to the side, my foot catches in a hole Michael must have left behind.
I suck in a breath as I lose my balance, but Dex’s strong arms catch me.
His fingers dig into my skin as he pulls me upright, and my chest lands against his.
His hands move from my arms to my hair, tugging just hard enough to make me gasp. I find myself short on air, and the feeling gets worse when his eyes meet mine and then slide down to my lips. I wait for something.
Anything.
A kiss. His teeth in the tendon of my neck. His hard cock rubbed against the cut of my hip.
But he doesn’t make a move. He just holds on to me, and the sensation under my skin slowly crackles like a live wire beneath his touch.
Wanting him this much is getting dangerous.
His breath hits my lips as his head tips down, and I momentarily wonder what happened to his drink before I realize that I don’t care. I just need a taste of him. Just for a second.
Just to take the edge off.
Touching him is so addicting. It’s a harsh reminder that I haven’t had anything like this in so long. I’ve been so fucking closed off from any kind of affection, and Dex seems to give it to me whether I ask for it or not.
I don’t know how much more I can take without breaking.
My lips touch his, a whisper of a kiss against his mouth, and then the moment explodes.
Hands grip clothes, pulling each other as close as we can, our tongues tangling, our bodies grinding, seeking any kind of friction. We’re an unlit match threatening to turn into a flame that will burn us both to the ground.
His leg moves between my thighs, and he rubs at my aching cock, making my throat emit sounds I’m sure I’d be embarrassed to ever hear.
He bites down on my lower lip, and my eyes roll into the back of my head. I want to get off on him. I want to push him to the dirt, pull my pants open, and jack off across his face.
But before I can, I feel something move against my ankle.
It’s cold and wet, and I let out a gasp, peeling my mouth from Dex’s and staring down. A zucchini is brushing against my skin, and the culprit holding it is none other than Michael. He waggles the green veggie a little, takes a large chomp from it, and then scurries back into his hole.
I stare at it long and hard before meeting Dex’s gaze.
‘He was watching us,’ Dex says. ‘I think he liked what he saw.’
I find my own lips twitching, that horny, desperate feeling dissipating slightly. ‘He tried to stop us.’
‘He wanted to spank you with his zucchini,’ Dex adds, and I let out a horrified laugh.
Dex looks pleased with my little outburst and kisses me once more, fanning that dimmed flame again, but before I can have my way with him, Leaf appears, staring at us with narrowed eyes.
‘Do-do?’ he asks, and Dex responds before I can.
‘Michael found us. He assaulted Rome. We got distracted.’
Leaf’s eyes move straight to the hole I nearly fell into, and he sighs. ‘Right, well. No more distractions. Let’s finish this up, and then I’ll make you lunch.’
Dex gives him a salute, and Leaf stalks off. He watches him go for a moment before turning to look at me.
‘Better go help him,’ he says, and then his lips turn up at the corners in a sensual smirk. ‘And you may want to put that away.’
He glances down at the boner in my shorts, and I place my hands over it, wanting relief but knowing full well it won’t happen here with a nosy Michael, and Leaf and Thorne riding our asses to get shit done.
My dick will have to wait.
It takes most of the afternoon to get the planters in the ground, and then another hour for all of us with shovels to get the dirt put in, but by the time it’s done, it looks amazing.
I haven’t done this kind of work in…hell, I don’t even remember how long. During all of it, I even forget how much I want Dex and how if it wasn’t for that fucking groundhog, I might have been able to finish the work with my balls empty.
Eventually, Leaf waves us all into the house and points to the dining room table.
It’s different from the one he had before—nice and round, in an open space which connects with the kitchen.
The entire place is bright and modern, though Thorne kept the rustic cabin design for parts of it, which I can appreciate.
It’s very much like both of them merged into one. I love that for the two of them, even if my envy is eating me alive.
Leaf proudly sets a charcuterie board on the table full of meats, cheese, crusty baguettes, and some sketchy-looking jams I’m a little afraid he’s made himself.
He’s been experimenting with hobbies since giving up interpreting, and according to some of the gossip I’d gotten while I was away, he hasn’t been successful at all of them.
But the food looks good, and I don’t realize how hungry I am until I sit down and take a huge wedge of Camembert and baguette on my plate.
Beside me, Dex smirks before adding a couple of green olives next to it. I’m not an olive person, but he will not make me flinch. I pop one in my mouth and determinedly do not grimace as I chew.
Dex rolls his eyes and happily eats three of them in a row.
If we were together—if we were an actual couple who cared about each other instead of two almost strangers who hate fuck in the gym bathroom—we would make up two perfect halves of a whole.
I’d eat his tomatoes, he’d eat my olives.
We’d share onions, then smelly kisses at the end of every meal.