“What?” Exhaustion sharpens my tone. “My name isn’t an answer. This is just sex to you, right?”

He holds my gaze. I watch regret pass across the eyes that say more than his words, like a cloud covering the sun.

“Right,” he finally confirms.

I nod; I expected that answer. I haven’t let myself hope for more. He’s leaving tomorrow. I just needed a reminder.

I grind against him. Arousal overwhelms annoyance as we both respond to the delicious friction. He slips inside of me, and I start to sink down.

After a few inches, Gray stills. “Condom.”

Rather than move away, I hold his gaze. “I’m on birth control. Do you need a condom?”

Gray exhales a sound somewhere between a laugh and a scoff. “I don’t know whether to be flattered or offended that you think I have the time or energy to be hooking up with other people.” He doesn’t appear flattered or offended though. He seems mad.

“Is that a no?”

He sighs. “It doesn’t matter, Evie.”

“It matters to me.” I sink down another inch. My body wants to take him.

He hisses as his features tighten. Not with annoyance this time, but with pleasure. “I’ve never…”

“Does it feel good?” I barely recognize my own voice. This isn’t just torture for him.

Gray groans, which is better than a yes. “I’m clean. I had a physical last week.”

I don’t move.

“Didn’t that answer your question?” Challenge flits in his gaze.

He didn’t answer what I was really asking, and we both know it. It almost seems like he wants me to push. To admit that him being with someone else would bother me. But other desires are overriding my curiosity. And what does it really matter anyway? Either it will fuel the false hope I’ve been desperately trying to extinguish or it will break my heart.

I drop my hips, so he’s fully seated in me. We both groan. He’s chanting my name as I rise and fall and press against him. Gray seems to get sick of the slow pace. He flips me so that I’m under him and slides back inside with a swift invasion I don’t see coming. I cry out, and he kisses me, smothering the sound.

“Emmett’s home.”

“Warn me next time, then.”

Gray smirks. Sex seems to have restored his good mood. “Nah.”

He starts moving. I hook my ankles behind his back, opening up and allowing him deeper. He sets a brutal pace, pounding into me over and over again. I come quickly, and he follows, spilling a foreign warmth inside me. As soon as he pulls away, I feel the liquid start to slide down my thigh. I lean over to grab tissues from the bedside table and wipe it away. Gray watches me, something unreadable in his gaze.