Free Up All Night by Faye Avalon

didn’t. “Ethan’s staying over. He’ll lock up.”
    “Has he done that before?”
    He noticed the question in her eyes
and knew it wasn’t academic interest that prompted her enquiry. “A few times.”
    “So you could stay over at a woman’s
house?”
    Shit. Was this the sort of
conversation they should be having when he had his fingers inside her? “Not
always.”
    “And you thought you’d stay over
with me?”
    “Yeah. That’s what I thought. It’s
what I want.”
    He watched her eyes narrow slightly
and that sexy pout intensified, but then she smiled. “Good. That’s what I want,
too.”
    He held her gaze as he drove deep
inside her. Relief mingled with desire. For a second there he’d thought he’d
ruined it. The look in her eyes had been filled with distrust—her ex’s doing,
he imagined—and in that moment he knew he never wanted to lie to her. He wanted
no secrets between them.
    But later, as he lay beside a
sleeping Beth, he wondered if it could be that simple. Life was rarely that
easy and he’d seen his older siblings wear themselves out trying to salvage the
remains of their marriages long after the rot had set in. Sometimes it was
easier to simply go with the flow, take your pleasures when they fell in your
lap, and never get close enough for a woman to be able to tie you in knots.
Never let down your defences, so that before you knew it you were sucked into a
relationship. Then not long after that there’d be talk of moving in together,
getting engaged, and—heaven forbid—marriage. It worked for some people. His
parents. His grandparents. Maybe even Ethan and Amber. But it was too much of a
fucking risk. If he needed proof that long term commitment didn’t work, he need
look no further than his siblings’ track record. The current generation Zutini
didn’t make it long term.
    Which was the reason he’d set a
limit on his love life. One calendar month and he walked. Until that time he
enjoyed his women, made sure they had a good time, that their needs were met,
but he never led them to believe he was a forever after sort of deal.
    But as he looked down at Beth’s
pretty face with her ripe mouth, peachy complexion, and lush dark lashes, he
knew that ending things with her would be hard. Already she held him
spellbound. He wanted to know more about her, wanted her naked body next to him
every chance he got.
    Which was okay, seeing as their
month had barely started. He just had to keep the end goal in mind and know
that in little over three weeks, he’d be moving on.
    Shit. Now he really did sound like
that hard-nosed fucking machine who didn’t care about the women underneath him.
A man who, using Beth’s terminology, could be fucking a sack of potatoes.
    But he wasn’t that man, damn it. He
cared about his women. He always had. At least for the short time the affairs
lasted.
    He cared about Beth. He would until
the time came to end it with her. Except that niggling little voice wouldn’t
let him off the hook, the one that told him this time it wouldn’t be so
straightforward. That saying goodbye to Beth would be the hardest break-up of
all.
     
     

 
    Chapter Seven
     
    Beth clipped the mastiff’s lead, and
together she and Roscoe trotted out for their afternoon walk. The day was brisk
but the sun had made an appearance and as they walked down the lane away from
the Center, she glanced down at the dog. “Good day, huh?”
    Both Roscoe’s tail and his ears
pricked up as he looked adoringly up at Beth.
    “Yeah. You think it’s a good day,
too, don’t you beautiful boy?”
    The dog did what Beth had come to
call his happy dance, his back paws doing a little hop as his rear end
shimmied. It made her smile as it always did. Everything about the animal
warmed her, and he’d captured a special place in her heart.
    He wasn’t the only one, Beth mused,
as a certain chocolate-eyed hunk of manhood had also taken up space there. She hadn’t
thought it was possible to let