He confessed that he had never laid in a woman’s bed after sex or she had never laid in his. He had never stayed to cuddle or talk. Which I could have guessed before he confessed it.

He didn’t have to say he liked it, I just knew that he did.

It wasn’t anything new for me, though. Of course, I’m an actual human, and Aleck’s just learning how to be one. But it felt big somehow. Huge even. A step he had never taken with anyone else and he was taking it with me. And I can’t deny that it felt different for me, too, because it was with him.

I don’t know what that means exactly. And I don’t know what I want it to mean, but it felt good. It felt warm and natural. I wanted more of it, but sleep stole me away from him.

And when I woke up a few hours later, he wasn’t there.

Baby steps, I guess.

Or no steps at all. Because this thing with Aleck isn’t going anywhere, and I think we both know that. Whether he was ready to break his no repeats rule for me or not, we’re still parting ways in less than a week. Maybe that’s why we had so much sex; to get it all out of our systems before we go back to our lives at home.

When Aleck came back to the suite after his morning run I was at the kitchen island eating a bowl of cereal. We exchanged idle chit-chat for all of four minutes before he kissed my temple, then moved on to his shower.

It wasn’t awkward, it just wasn’t anything. It was like we were roommates or good friends. From the outside, someone observing us would never guess that the night before we had sex five and a half times in less than four hours, then spent the rest of the night talking while gently touching and caressing each other’s body parts like the world could disappear and we’d be happy to be left alone with each other.

Not that I expected anything from Aleck, but he said after he entered me, I’d be his. He said he was claiming me, and I know how ridiculous it is that I’m even thinking this, but where’s the follow-through?

I guess I kind of thought today would be different. I guess I kind of thought I’d get the Aleck I fell asleep to last night.

A knock on the suite door snaps my attention from my Kindle at the same time Aleck exits the hallway wearing only dark denim jeans that hang off his hips enough to showcase his perfect V and that thin tuft of dark hair just below his navel.

My core aches at the memory of me running my tongue through that happy trail all the way to the tip of his dick while I sat on his face. I thought Aleck was handsome in his suits, but he’s dripping-with-sex hot in only jeans. Jeans I didn’t think he possessed.