Free Somebody's Ex by Jasmine Haynes Page A

out
like he had last night.
    He took four beats longer than
necessary to answer. “Let her in. I don’t mind if she sleeps on the bed. As
long as she doesn’t start sniffing places she shouldn’t.”
    Randi padded naked through the
house, let Royal in, checked her paws for dirt, then allowed her to run ahead.
Hurtling onto the bed, the dog shoved her nose in David’s face, then settled at
the bottom. Randi climbed in, scooting to David’s side until she could feel
him. Putting an arm around her waist, he tugged her close, right up to his
chest, her body flush against his.
    She couldn’t stand it, she just
couldn’t. “Are you going to spend the night?” It was debilitating to ask, but
worse to wake in the night as he dressed in the dark and scurried out the door
like a thief or a rat.
    He was silent for so long, she
thought he’d fallen asleep. Except that his breathing lacked the soft rhythm.
    “Yeah,” he whispered. “I’m spending
the night.”
    She didn’t ask for a single other
thing from him. The night was enough.
     
    * * * * *
     
    David had woken with the sure knowledge
that two nights with Randi had given him more intensity than the entire three
years with his first sweetheart, Betsy. More than the two and a half years with
Eileen.
    The realization was enough to make
him want to jump from the bed, grab his clothes, and run like hell. Her butt
nestled against his cock, the sweet scent of her hair, and her soft skin kept
him right where he was until her alarm went off.
    Royal didn’t even twitch at the
sound.
    He’d wanted to make love to Randi
one more time before he left for work, but hell, the dog was on the bed! Even
if she hadn’t cracked an eyelid.
    Maybe he’d have Randi in the
shower.
    She pressed the snooze alarm and
rolled back into him. Then her body stiffened against his.
    “This feels too good. I have to get
up.” And she did, just like that, buck naked and practically running out of the
room. The bathroom door closed, then water clanged through the pipes as she
started the shower.
    “Did I say something wrong?”
    Royal raised her head, looked at
him, then settled again.
    Funny thing, Randi was right. It
felt too good. He could see spending a lot more mornings waking up with her in
his arms after a night buried deeply inside her.
    And that just wouldn’t work.
Relationships muddled a man’s thinking. He had his own shit to get together
before he even attempted using the word relationship again.
    When Randi left the bathroom, her
face freshly scrubbed, wet hair pulled back in a ponytail, and a short, blue
robe tied tightly at the waist, a different man stood in her living room.
    But David had no intention of
leaving this morning without saying good-bye. He owed her more respect than
that.
    “I have to change clothes so I’ll
shower at my place.”
    “Yeah, sure. That makes sense.”
    She deserved more than a peck on
the cheek, too. He leaned down to kiss her lips. He didn’t say thanks for last
night because it seemed trite. “See ya.”
    A decent good-bye, noncommittal. As
he started his truck, he remembered that he’d invited her to do laundry at his
house tonight.
    He wasn’t sure she’d show up. While
that shouldn’t have mattered because they weren’t having a relationship and
he’d already told her he didn’t want one, he knew he’d miss her if she skipped
his place to go to the laundromat.
    Shit.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Double shit. Randi hadn’t called
his cell though David had given her the number. He didn’t know if she was
coming tonight.
    He’d been thinking about her all
day.
    “I’m talking to you. Where’s your
head, David?”
    In his pants. In Randi’s pants. It
wasn’t prudent to tell his father that. Luckily, they’d finished the cutting
over an hour ago, and all they had left was clearing the scrap and heading to
the dumps. Jace had some wedding crap to attend to with Taylor, and Mitch lit
out half an hour ago, too.
    “Sorry, Dad, what was