His chuckle set my nerves on fire, making the little hairs at the nape of my neck stand on end. “My sweet, innocent, Mina,” he cooed softly as he ran his nose up from my shoulder to nudge the underside of my chin. Then he slid further back until his lips were even with my ear. “I’m frustrated because you’re near and I can see and smell you, which leads to wanting you so badly that I can’t stand it. I’m not in the shape I need to be in to do anything about that though. So, when I say I’m frustrated, it’s not because I don’t want you in my space, quite the opposite. I want you all up in my space, Mina. So much, that we become a part of one another.”

“Oh.” The word came out as a surprised puff of air.

“Yeah, oh!” He chuckled again. “I want all of your Ohs. I want you whispering them to me, screaming them, clawing those fingernails of yours down my back as you cry out with another, far more passionate, ‘Oh’.”

“If you don’t go for a walk with Wes, I’m going to,” I warned him. Laughter behind us was the only warning I got that Wes must have entered the apartment.

“I take it you finally told her why you need a little space?”

“Are you seriously telling me that the two of you have been talking about this little problem with one another, but this is the first time you mentioned it to me?”

“My problem is far from little, Mina,” he countered making all of us laugh.

“Okay, fine. Get out. Maybe when you get back, I’ll show you that you’ve been suffering for absolutely no reason. There are things I can do to you that won’t require any movement on your part, and you have been missing out only because you were too stubborn to speak up.” I stood from the couch and made it three steps before he caught my hand.

“I don’t need to go for a walk anymore,” he told me. “Get out,” he called back over his shoulder.

“Oh no! You have to go on your walk now. Look,” I pointed down to his feet. “You tied your own shoes and everything.” Wes laughed, so did I, but Tucker pouted.

“Come on, studly. If you make it a mile on the treadmill, maybe Mina will reward you when you get back.”

Considering Tucker had been so generous as to get me off while we had been doing the dating and getting to know one another thing before his attack, I still had yet to return the favor or you know, consummate out marriage. It was my turn to take the lead and get things done, and it made me so freaking nervous.

That was why I went through all the clothes I had in the apartment looking for something sexy to entice him with. Unfortunately, I’d never had the need to pick up lingerie to impress a man before. “Damn it!”