“It doesn’t matter,” she said in a quiet voice, and tried to pull her hands away from mine.

“It does matter,” I said softly, holding on to her tight. “JT’s my partner…my friend. Yeah, he’s been a prick in the past, and maybe still will be in the future, but last night…he was trying hard for you.”

“He was trying hard for you,” she bit out.

“For both of us,” I counter, and reach a hand up to her cheek. “He likes seeing me happy. He wanted last night to be fun for both of us. Hell, I think he’s even taking a page from my book and maybe thinking of settling down. He and Amelia seemed pretty taken with each other last night.”

Sela snorted, brought a hand to her mouth, and covered it so I wouldn’t see the smirk on her lips. But I saw it in her eyes. “Last night was an act. He suckered you.”

“That’s a little harsh,” I reprimanded her. “Where’s the benefit of the doubt?”

“It got erased in the limo ride over,” she snarled at me.

“Why? What happened?” My chest got tight and anger surged within me. It made it clear that while I thought JT did an admirable job last night, just those simple words from Sela had me thinking the worst about him again. Clearly, I didn’t have the whole “benefit of the doubt” thing down to a science.

Sela leaned in toward me and said, “Nothing other than he was unbelievably rude to me and Amelia on the way to the restaurant. Made sure to point out all the ways I don’t measure up for you.”

“What did he say?” I asked, my voice forged with steel.

“Just pointed out all of Amelia’s good breeding and pedigrees and told her I was a Sugar Baby,” she spat out.

I smiled at her and tried for my most soothing voice. “Baby…he knew you started out as a Sugar Baby. I’m sure he was just trying to make conversation—”

Sela screeched at me and launched up from her chair. “Don’t you dare fucking defend him. You weren’t there…you don’t know.”

Her face was red and her eyes moist with frustration. I reached out to her but she spun away, ran down the hall to our bedroom. I followed her in there, finding her shoving her feet into her tennis shoes before grabbing a sweatshirt from the closet.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to the library to study on campus,” she gritted out, brushing back past me. I followed her back into the kitchen where she shoved her laptop in her backpack and slung it over her shoulder.

“Sela, just stop for a minute,” I said softly.

“I can’t talk to you about this right now,” she huffed, and barreled past me toward the door. I thought about grabbing her arm, making her stay, but anger started to flush through me over this bratty behavior. Clearly something must have happened to piss her off even more with JT, but she wasn’t seeing reason.

And frankly, I didn’t think forcing her to converse at this point would do any good in her current state of mind.

“I’ll be gone all day,” she muttered as she jerked the door open.

“Fine,” I snapped back her. “Maybe you’ll be in a more sane mood when you get back.”

It was a shitty thing to say, and yet it felt good at the same time. Her bizarre behavior had left me reeling and I wasn’t thinking clearly either.

She turned that beautiful face my way, looking at me over her shoulder. Her face was filled with anger and disappointment. She looked at me only a moment before she walked out and slammed the door behind her.

I spent the morning watching TV. I checked my watch about a thousand times. I made a sandwich for lunch and watched two football games. I made another sandwich for dinner, and still Sela hadn’t returned.

I then decided to get some work done and locked myself away in my office. It was almost eight o’clock when I heard the condo door open and close.

Heard her tennis shoes squeaking on the floor as she walked down the hallway to our bedroom.

I considered following her, testing the waters to see where her head was at. But I didn’t. I worked another two hours, and when I finally decided to go to bed, I found her sleeping on her side of the mattress, breathing deeply. I got undressed, brushed my teeth, and slid in to bed, wanting to pull her into my arms. I debated about it, wondering if it would wake her up. I even considered putting my hand between her legs and forcing her to give me something.

Instead, I just turned over on my side and watched my bedside clock tick away the time. It was well after midnight before I finally fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning with my alarm buzzing at 6:30 a.m., I found Sela’s body wrapped around me. We both lay in the center of the bed, somehow coming together in our sleep. I held her for a bit, relishing this warm woman who was quickly becoming my entire world, and wondering what I could do to fix things between us.

Apparently it didn’t take much, because Sela stirred in my arms and burrowed her face into my neck.

“I’m sorry about yesterday,” she said, her voice husky with sleep.

“Shh,” I said in response, really not needing the apology. I just wanted things to be okay. I just wanted us talking again, and this was a damn good start.

Sela then surprised me by dropping her hand to my stomach, pushing downward until she found my soft cock. The minute her fingers grasped it, it started thickening and I arched my hips.

In the gloomy dawn hours, Sela straddled my hips, guided me inside her, and rode me to perfect completion. She was silent as she did so, her hands on my chest and her gaze solemn as she bounced up and down on my dick. The only way I knew it felt good to her was just moments before I came, her nails scored my chest and her head tipped back as she groaned out an unbelievably hard orgasm that left her shaking, and her pussy clamped down hard on me. I followed her immediately, punching my hips up and pulling her down for a long kiss.

I thought things might be okay. I got out of bed and showered. Her eyes followed me around the room as I got dressed, her cheeks flushed pink from that amazing fucking we just did and appreciation of my body. I loved her eyes on me so much.

Yeah…I thought it would be fine. Except when I went to kiss her goodbye, I asked her if she was interested in decorating the condo tonight when I got home. I thought that might get a renewed smile out of her. She merely shrugged her shoulders and said, “Maybe. Let’s see how I feel.”