It was fast, it was hard and it was rough.

I wrapped my legs around his hips, my arms under his pits, hands holding onto his shoulders. I just managed to whisper the word “harder” into his ear before it overwhelmed me and I came.

Not quiet, not delicate, but a ful -on, neck arching, limbs tensing, “ohmigod-ohmigod” moaning orgasm.

* * * * *

“Now you can tel me what you have to say,” Eddie said. It was well after, heart rates and breathing had slowed and we were front-to-front. Eddie had hooked my knee around his hip and tucked my face in his throat.

Normal y, I would have been in a freak out both at being na**d next to a na**d Eddie after just ha**ng s*x and him cal ing me on my earlier lie. But I’d come too hard, his solid body felt too good, he smel ed great and I was just too tired of worrying about it al .

“I forget,” I lied.

He was stroking a hand along my spine and he stopped, lifted his head and, in my ear, he whispered, “Mi pequeña mentirosa.”

My head came up and nearly hit his. I pul ed out The Glare, which was getting a lot of use that day, and snapped,

“I’m not a liar.”

He grinned at me, eyes warm and satisfied and looking at them made my bel y feel funnier than ever, but in a good way.

“Yes you are,” he said, cupping the back of my head and pressing it into his throat again. “You have no idea what you pressing it into his throat again. “You have no idea what you want to say.”

“Do too,” I grumbled against his throat.

“Then say it.”

Damn.

Damn, damn, damn.

“Wel …” I drew the word out long until I felt his body shake and I had the feeling he was laughing.

My head came back up.

“Are you laughing?”

He wasn’t only laughing, he was smiling, white teeth, dark skin, dimple and al .

“Chiquita, you’re adorable.”

“I’m not adorable,” I snapped.

He shook his head and rol ed over, taking me with him so I was on top. I pul ed up with my forearms on either side of him.

“You are,” he said when I was looking down on him.

“You’re the only woman I know who can come that hard and start arguing five minutes later.”

“I didn’t come ‘that hard’,” I lied.

His face changed, the satisfaction deepened and I held my breath.

“You did. I watched.”

Wonderful.

“Okay. You want to know what I have to say?” I asked, deciding I’d much rather be on this subject than on the subject of how hard I cl**axed.

His brows went up, “You remember?”

My eyes narrowed, “Don’t be a jerk.”

He rol ed again, this time, me on my back, Eddie up on his forearm, half his body on mine.

“Okay, Chiquita, I’m listening.”

And he was.

Shit and damn.

I looked at the ceiling.

“Fine, then. You and me. We’re not going to work.” He didn’t say anything so I looked at him.

He was watching me, his eyes hard to read. I just stared at him.

Then he spoke.

“That’s it?”

I nodded.

“That’s it.”

“Let me get this straight.” He didn’t move, just watched me, “You’re lyin’ naked in my bed and you’re breaking up with me?”

I didn’t know there was something to break but I nodded anyway.

“Why?”

I was afraid he’d ask that. Mainly because I didn’t have an answer, at least not one that I’d share with him or even one I ful y understood myself anymore.

In the end, I did the only thing I could think to do, I grasped at straws.

“I know you have a thing for Indy.”

Um….

Uh-oh.

I should have left it where it was.

His face wasn’t hard to read anymore, at al . His eyes were glittery and his jaw was clenched. He said some stuff in Spanish then reverted to English.

“You’re a piece of work. You’l say anything to protect yourself even when you don’t know what you’re protectin’

yourself from.”

“So, you’re saying you don’t have a thing for Indy?” There was another jaw clench but he spoke through it and through his teeth too.

“No, I’m not sayin’ that. What I’m sayin’ is, what I felt for Indy disappeared the minute you dropped those f**kin’

cups.”

My mouth fel open and I stared.

“It was obvious to everyone who watched our idiot dance. The only one it wasn’t obvious to was you.” I didn’t have anything to say to that because he was right, it wasn’t obvious to me. In fact, it was news to me, news I didn’t know how to cope with.

“Christ!” He tore his hand through his hair and then fel to his back. “I even know you’re worth it and I’m wondering if you’re worth it,” he muttered and it was his turn to address the ceiling.

I lay there a moment and then, mindlessly, I got up and grabbed the t-shirt I slept in. I didn’t know where to go from there. I pul ed it over my head and just got my arms through when I was tagged around the waist and pul ed back into bed.

“What are you doin’?” he asked, again looming over me with me on my back.

“Getting up.”

“Why?”

I blinked. “You’re angry at me. I thought I’d go.” His eyes narrowed.

“Is this your new tactic, piss me off and I’l let you go?” It wasn’t, but it was a good tactic. I wished I’d thought of it. It was kind of the essence of the Bitch Strategy, but that was more to make him think I wasn’t worth the effort. Now that he thought he knew I was and he knew I couldn’t hold onto the Bitch Strategy for more than an hour and a half, I was looking for new ways to go.

He watched my face move with my thoughts and then he rol ed over me. His hands went in the shirt and swept it off faster than it took me to put it on. He arched up and tossed it, far, far away from the bed. Definitely not in arms reach.

Then he came back to me, opened my legs and pul ed them around his back.

Dear Lord.

“Eddie,” I said.

“I thought I wanted to hear what you had to say, but I prefer you bein’ secretive. Your friends and family wil tel me al I need to know and it’l be the truth.”