Chapter 25 Most Complex Man
MOST COMPLEX MAN
“Why do you always seem so shocked when we do something like that?” Chance asked twenty minutes later.
They were dressed and in his living room.
“Do what?”
“Sex. I know you like it when I tell you what to do. You give it back just as much.”
He did it because he knew it’d bring out a side of her to even the score.
He never realized how competitive she was.
“It’s fun to give it back.”
“I know,” he said, nudging her arm. “But you didn’t tell me why you acted surprised in the moment.”
She was searching his face. Weighing her words.
If he had to lay money down, he’d bet she was vanilla in the bedroom with other men.
Or maybe that was what he wanted to think because he’d like to give her something she’d never had with anyone else before.
Something money couldn’t buy.
Was he thinking highly of himself? Yeah, he was.
“Sometimes it’s like you can read my mind. It’s a little unnerving.”
He laughed. “Not if we are both thinking the same thing. I believe we’ve got a strong physical connection to each other.”
“Only physical?” He paused a little longer than he should have. “You don’t have to answer that. It was wrong of me to even ask.”
“No,” he said. “It’s not. You’re here when it’s been years since another woman was. Was it because of what I said earlier? Sure. But I don’t always like anyone else in my space. I’m simple and sometimes women don’t care for that.”
He was tired of being judged but wouldn’t change who he was because some chick he was screwing wanted him to have prettier plates or matching silverware.
He had what were the important things in life. At least in his mind.
“I can see your point. Simple can come across as uncomplicated, but you’re the most complex man I know.”
“Hardly that,” he said. “I was thinking the same about you.”
She leaned into the corner of the couch, her feet tucked under her. “I’m not going to deny that. But the funny thing is, when I’m with you, I can be me. I thought it years ago and still do. It’s a nice freeing feeling.”
His leg stretched out, his sock-covered foot popped at her leg. “It is a nice feeling.”
He thought she accepted him for who he was. Not that he’d treat her differently, but she never reacted like others did.
“Are we getting all gushy inside together?”
“Don’t be a brat,” he said.
“It’s better than a princess.” He could tell he had hit a nerve saying it now with the slight tightening of her lips.
“Do you remember what you said to me after I called you a princess the first time?”
“I do. Do you?” Her lips weren’t as tight, but her head was cocked.
“You told me I could be your head warrior.” He’d never forget the insult he’d felt when he’d thought she was different from others. But he brushed it off because she’d never said another thing like that again.
Not a king. Not her equal. But someone who worked for her.
“You’re frowning. Why?” she asked.
“Because that is how I think of us. The one who calls the shots, and the one who is paid to follow those orders.”
She reached over and pinched his toe. “Stop! You’re going to put me in a bad mood. Do you know why I called you a warrior?”
“Why?” he asked, leaning back to act as if he wasn’t all that interested. “Enlighten me.”
“Because kings are old and boring. People are only attracted to kings because of their titles. But the warrior? All the women want the warrior. The strong one that will protect you. That will step up and take no shit. The one that normally stands up to the king because the king knows he needs the warrior and has to watch himself.”
He was pretty sure his mouth opened. “Get out.” Guess he was wrong all along.
“Nope. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. You can believe what you want. But me, I want the warrior. I always have. I got the king and he was a dick.”
Now they were getting somewhere.
“Who?” Not that he was sure he wanted to know too much about her exes.
Her nose twitched some. “Do you really want to know about my past relationships?”
He shrugged. “If you want to share.”
“Are you going to?”
“I have little to share with you,” he said. “Or nothing you want to hear.”
“I want to hear more than you want to share. I think. Maybe not.”
“See,” he said, laughing. “Tell me about your dickhead king.”
“He wasn’t really a king, but he was a dickhead,” she said.
“Name?”
“Victor.”
“Sounds like a douche.”
“He ended up that way,” she said. “After the fact, my parents said they didn’t like him. Wish they had told me all of that before I spent almost two years with him.” Her foot came out, her toe rubbing on his leg. “They like you.”
He wouldn’t address the statement. “Victor?”
“Oh, Victor. He worked in finance.”
Figures. “So you had that in common.”
“No, he’s a financial planner. Or was. He’s junior VP now.
He got the title right before we split. Which was two years ago.
He said all the right things at the right times.
Dressed appropriately for every occasion, took me to nice romantic dinners, had flowers and chocolates for me without prompting. ”
“Sounds like a suck-up to me,” he said drily.
Nothing he’d even think of doing.
“He was. I didn’t see it. Because, you know, years before I had another serious relationship. Someone who worked for McCarthy’s. More hands on. Not my normal type, but he was hot.”
“Seriously, you’re going to say that to me?” First that the other ex wasn’t her type when neither was he. And then the hot statement.
She laughed. “Come on. Why lie? That was Jack and he was an asshole. He was using me to move up some, running his mouth about things he shouldn’t have.
Personal things. My father fired his butt right away.
It was a hard situation for a while going to work because people were keeping their distance from me. ”
“Which had to be more painful.”
“See, you get that.”
“Back to Victor, Mr. Perfect.”
She burst out in a fit of giggles. “Oh, not perfect. I noticed things were off when he’d never initiate sex.”
“Never?”
“Rarely,” she said. “In the beginning he did, but then slowly it turned into me having to do everything.”
“No sex drive?”
“He had one. He had a fetish that came out. In front of everyone, he was cool, cocky, confident, and as you said, a suck-up. Behind closed doors he wanted me to be domineering.”
“You do a good job of telling me what to do,” he said, closing one eye at her.
Not that he wanted to think of her doing that with some other dude. Someone who fit more into her social circle.
“Very funny. But that is authenticity. True feelings you bring out of me. Victor wanted to be bound. He wanted leather masks. He wanted to call me Mommy.”
“You’re joking.”
“The appalled look on your face is how I felt. He started slowly. I was like, okay, he just likes a woman to take charge. I can do this. But then it progressed. The Mommy comment flipped a switch.”
“From hot to repulsed?”
She pointed at him. “That’s it exactly. I threw my hands up and said, mood over. The joke went too far.”
“But he wasn’t joking?”
“No. He tried to say he was, but I knew the truth. There was no turning back. I knew he’d get back to where he was and push it further in the future.
I found all sorts of dominatrix material in his phone history once.
He asked me to look up a restaurant while he was driving and my phone was in my purse in the backseat. ”
“And you saw what he really wanted?”
“Yep. That was shortly after the whole Mommy thing. I broke things off with him a week later when he was pushing for us to move in together.”
“I’m guessing he didn’t take it too well?”
“Oh no. The side of him outside the bedroom everyone saw witnessed his nonstop calls, texts, begging and pleading with me to give him another chance. Jayce came to town and he and Gabe took care of it last year.”
“Last year?” he asked. “You said it was two years since you’d had sex.”
“He wasn’t stopping. It was annoying. Not threatening, just annoying. When he showed up at my condo twice, I’d had enough. Once Gabe found out, I knew it’d end.”
“With Gabe’s help.”
“So there you go. What we’ve got, I like. But if you pull out any kind of leather and ask me to put it on or you’ll wear it, think twice. I’ve got a trigger there now.”
“Never going to happen,” he said. “How would you feel about some silk ties though?”
She moved over and climbed onto his lap. “You mean like tying my hands over my head type thing?”
The way her eyes lit up had his dick twitching in his jeans.
“I can see your answer. I’ll store that away for another day.”
“Do I get to do it to you too?”
“The thing about me, Jocelyn. I’m all about equal bedroom activities.” It was the one place where money didn’t matter in his eyes. “We are in it together and we make sure the other walks away with pleasure and their needs met. How that happens is between us and is agreed upon. Deal?”
“You've got yourself a deal,” she said, smacking her lips to his.