When they reached the laundry, room her already overworked heart practically jumped out of her chest when he turned and closed the door behind him. “Does this thing lock?”
Feeling her face flush, she shook her head. “It doesn’t,” she said, her lady parts already alive. “But I just checked on Clair and she’s sound asleep. I can tell she’s gonna be out until morning.”
She opened the door to the dry cleaning machine just as his hands came around from behind and over her breasts as he squeezed gently. He groaned softly against her neck as he kissed it, still squeezing breasts she was surprised fit in his hands. But then everything about the man was much bigger in person than she’d imagined.
The moment she was done with the towel she turned around to face him. The way he lifted her and carried her over to the laundry room’s sorting and folding table was like he’d already had it planned. Like he’d staked out her mother’s ridiculously huge laundry room the moment he entered for the best place to do whatever it was he had in mind.
Addison didn’t think her heart could beat any wilder until he sat her at the edge of the table and spread her legs so he could stand between them. “We need to talk,” he said, surprising her. “I know it’s soon, but I’m only in town for another day, and I’ll be working most of it.”
“I’ll be at your game tomorrow,” she said this time, surprising herself.
Before tonight, she had absolutely no intention of making tomorrow’s game. Today’s appearance had been out of sheer necessity. She’d done it for Clair’s sake. Clair had looked forward to today all week, and while her parents never minded looking after her at the games, pawning Clair and her little friend on them today seemed a bit much. But tomorrow like Friday would’ve been just Clair and her parents again. Addison had already given them a reason why she couldn’t make it. Tonight changed everything. Nothing would keep her away from tomorrow’s game now.
“Good,” he said, pecking her softly. “But I wanted to talk to you about something. I know you said you want to wait to say anything about us to your dad and Clair.”
“Yeah,” she said, reaching out for his hand. “There’s more I want to explain.”
“You already have, sweetheart, and I get it.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I really want to explain this to you.”
AJ nodded, the genuine tenderness in his eyes nearly melting her. It was clear he meant it when he said he got it and that was just another reason why she’d given into her body tonight and gone there with him. His candor was one of the things about him she already knew was going to have her falling hard. It was a part of him that was as endearing as it was nerve-wracking. As with everything else when it came to AJ, his emotions were blunt and in your face. Good or bad. He couldn’t hold anything back if he tried. Addison had never known someone for such a short time that she could feel she could trust completely, even around Clair, and that was huge.
As soon as she’d let things happen between them, she was ready to do so again, but he was right. They should talk. It was important that he understand exactly why she wanted—needed—to hold off on telling her parents and Clair about this. And she wanted to make sure she got one thing absolutely clear.
“For all the intellect I was supposedly born with, I’ve made some pretty stupid mistakes in my life. Clair has been the silver lining of one of the biggest I ever made. She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. She’s who’s given me strength at some of the lowest moments of my life, and I’ll stop at nothing to protect her.”
“And no one would ever blame you,” he said, his eyes as serious as her words.
Addison smiled back, wondering if it were possible to fall in love with someone this fast. “I trust you, AJ. I really do,” she said, squeezing his hand. “I know I haven’t known you long, and this might sound like BS to you, but what happened tonight would not have happened so soon if I didn’t. I haven’t taken a risk like this in years. But trusting my instincts that you are a man of your word and deciding to take the risk is something I can only do with my own heart. It’s not fair to Clair to risk her little heart this soon. If, for whatever reason, things don’t work out”—she slowed but shook her head when she saw the distaste that remark gave him as it had earlier—“or if it turns out I made a mistake opening up my heart to you so soon, that’s on me. No one else has to be affected by this. My dad adores you”—she smirked—“in a manly way, of course.”
That softened the distasteful expression. “I adore him in a manly way too.”
“Seriously,” she said, smiling even bigger because everything out of his mouth now warmed her insides. “He really has the utmost respect for you, and I wouldn’t want to ruin his perception of you or your relationship with him.”
“I get it,” he said, pecking her sweetly. “I also get that your instinct to protect Clair and my relationship with your father is the only reason why your expectations of what this could become aren’t more optimistic. At least, I’d like to think that’s why, because, personally, I think we’re gonna make a pretty good team: you, Clair, and I.” Addison grinned, feeling delighted that he’d be thinking this way already until his next question. “Tell me about her dad.” That wiped the grin right off her face.
“There’s not much to tell,” she said, glancing away for a moment but then brought her eyes back to his. “He was a mistake I made when I was too young to know better. He said all the things a girl wants to hear until he found out I was pregnant. He was young and scared and insisted I terminate the pregnancy. The relationship I thought had been really beautiful up until then got nasty real fast, until I finally told him I was having my baby and he didn’t have to be a part of our lives.” She stopped and shrugged, reflecting for a moment how young and very naïve she’d been. “It was never my intention to trap him or anything. I just knew abortion wasn’t an option for me. But I can admit now that a part of my young broken heart thought maybe once the baby was born he’d come around. He never did.”
She raised a brow when she realized she’d said enough. AJ had the power to make her feel so safe and free to say anything to him. This was not something she’d ever shared with anyone, not even her parents, who she’d always been so close to. She certainly wouldn’t be sharing more of it with AJ. She’d told him everything he needed to know. It was all anyone needed to know about the chapter in her life she’d forever closed.
“Hard to believe someone could be so coldhearted.” AJ’s expression had already gone hard, but it went even harder now. “Especially since it sounds like it wasn’t just a physical thing you two had. You called the relationship beautiful. He must’ve had feelings for you that I doubt he was able to just shut off so easily. He never tried to contact you again?”
“He did,” she said cautiously. “But it was years later only to toy with my heart. He said that he missed me and thought of me often but still wasn’t ready for a family or to meet her. I know now he was just trying to stay in my good graces because, soon afterward, he contacted me to tell me he was getting married and he appreciated me not pursuing him with my kid.”
That sparked something in AJ’s eyes, the same familiar spark she’d seen many times in videos and stills of him on the web. That notorious spark had been caught in action shots just before he unleashed the rage. But he didn’t say anything, and Addison could almost feel him hold back from commenting, so she continued.
“Basically, it was his way of asking me to keep it that way. Apparently, he was never going to tell anyone about his love child. I vowed he’d never get the honor of meeting Clair. His having any part in creating her was a total fluke as far as I’m concerned. He doesn’t deserve any credit, and I’ll never give him an ounce. I won’t even utter his name ever again unless she asks me to. For now, it’s like he doesn’t exist. He turned out to be completely different from the person I first met. So I treat it as if I’d had an unknown donor.”