Empire rachel van dyken

She jerked away from me landing beside me on the bed, her face guilty. “No. I read romance. Huge difference.”

“Oh yeah?” My eyes searched both nightstands until I located a book. I grabbed the first one I saw and opened. “He sucked a nipple until she screamed out with pleasure, his arousal pressed against her inner thigh as he moved to the next and—” “I swear.” Val held up her hands. “I had no idea!” She snatched the book out of my hands and read through, her frown growing more and more intense as she read.

“Problem?”

“It doesn’t say that!”

“It doesn’t?” I grinned. “Sorry, must have been living out my own fantasies there for a moment.”

She gasped.

I took advantage of her outrage and captured another kiss.

With a sigh, she pulled back. “Am I allowed to kiss you, too? You know… first? I just I need ground rules if we’re going to do this.”

“Ground rules,” I repeated, my good mood slowly waning.

“Yeah.”

“All right.” I moved to the edge of the bed and threw my feet over, they came into contact with her white fuzzy rug. “No falling in love.” I stood.

“No problem,” she said quickly moving to her feet.

Too quickly.

But I didn’t have a leg to stand on, so I continued. “We can kiss each other, that’s fine.”

“All right.”

“And, don’t pry.”

“But—” “Wife, not therapist. Just, don’t pry, don’t poke around where you aren’t wanted.”

Her face fell. Shit. I reached for her hand, but she jerked away.

“Two steps forward ten steps back?”

“I didn’t mean that how it came out.”

“Yeah, you did.” She nodded, another step backward. Damn it. “All right, so tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow.” I forced a smile and reached for her, she stepped out of the way.

“I should…” She yawned. “Sleep.”

“It’s five.”

“Nap,” she corrected quickly. “Thanks, Sergio. For… the talk.”

“No thank you for the kiss?” I asked in a teasing tone.

Her smile was weak. “And that too.”

I walked out of the room feeling more lost than I did when I’d charged into it yelling. At least when we