Waking up with Kylie in my arms shot a thrill through my veins I couldn't explain. And watching her wake up and look at me with that sleepy smile of hers sent my heart fluttering in my chest. She was beautiful, a vision draped in nothing but a sheet. I pulled her close to me and she giggled, climbing onto my body as I settled my back onto her bed.

“Let’s go get some breakfast,” she said. “I didn’t eat a lot of dinner last night.”

“I did,” I said with a wink. “But I did work up an appetite before I fell asleep.”

She giggled and slid off me before her body came into view. Her mangled hair got thrown up into a bun before she stretched her arms to the sky. I watched every part of her body elongate as she stood on her tiptoes. I took in the slope of her back and the thickness of her ass, the beauty of her legs and the length of her neck. Kylie was breathtaking, and I wanted to reach for her and pull her back into bed.

But she made her way over to her closet and started riffling through her clothes.

I got up and put on my suit. Then the two of us headed out. Neither of us had taken the time to clean up, which made it seem a little more domestic. I ushered her into my car and took her across town to one of my favorite places. It had everything anyone could ever want to have for breakfast, and when we sat down, I promptly ordered us some juice and coffee.

One question, however, kept rolling around in my mind. I couldn't contain it any longer.

“What does this mean for us?” I asked.

Our drinks touched down in front of us as Kylie stared at me. The voice of the waitress shocked her from her trance, and then the two of us ordered. For her, the french toast with bacon and a fruit salad. For myself, three scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage, along with a fruit salad and fresh vegetables to pour over my eggs.

“What do you mean ‘for us’?” Kylie asked.

She poured creamer into her coffee before stirring it around, and I saw that my question had set her on edge.

“I know where I stand with all this,” I said. “I made it very clear. I want to be around you. I want to be with you, Kylie. And I want to know if you want to be with me. Because if you do, then that’s fantastic. You’ll never want for anything ever again. But if you don’t, I need to know. I do deserve that.”

“I thought you said you were going to give me time to sift through all this.”

“I have. I’ve given you almost a week. But I can’t keep working beside you and gravitating toward you without knowing where we stand. Do you want to be with me?”

“It isn’t that simple, Ryan.”

“It is. I know you’re hurting, and I know a part of you still loves Adam, but can you put your feelings aside for him and look toward a future with me? Or is that not possible?”

“A future?” she asked. “You want me to make that decision now? I need time to think about this, Ryan. We’re talking about four years of history gone in the blink of an eye.”

“I can give you another week,” I said. “But after that, I need an answer.”

“And you think an ultimatum is going to fix this?”

“I’m not like the guys you know, Kylie. That’s why you gravitate to me. You know I can provide for you what they can’t, and you enjoy that. There’s nothing wrong with that either, because I want to give it to you. I want to give you all the things they never could. I want them as well. I want a wife. I want a house. I want a family and holidays and big Saturday dinners.”

“What?” she asked breathlessly.

“But I’m older. I’m more mature. And I don’t play these games. I know what I want, and I go after it with my entire heart.”

“I’m not playing a game with you, Ryan. This isn’t a game to me.”

“I feel like I’m in a game, and I don’t like that.”

“Well, I don’t like being fed ultimatums by my ex-boyfriend’s father who I happen to be screwing around with,” she said.

My back stiffened and I drew in a deep breath. This was not how I had seen this conversation going.

“I’m sorry. I just… Ryan, I get where you’re coming from, but ultimatums aren’t going to work just like Adam’s wishy-washy nature didn’t work. I work on deadlines, but not ultimatums.”

“Then you have one week to turn in your answer to me,” I said.

She shook her head before she got up from her chair.

“Kylie, if you would let me in and talk to me—”

“I let you in last night,” she said flatly. “I asked you to stay with me, to be with me. And this is what it got me.”

She picked up her juice and chugged it down before she set the glass down a little too hard.

“Enjoy your breakfast.”

I watched her walk away as she left the restaurant. I closed my eyes and leaned back in my chair as the waitress set our food on the table. I gazed out the window, watching from my perch as Kylie dumped herself out onto the curb. She crossed her arms over her chest before hailing a cab, and before she got in, she wiped her face off onto her shirt.

She was crying.

I’d taken the woman I cared for and made her cry.

I bit down on my lower lip and shook my head. Fuck. I was no better than Adam at that moment. I hadn’t meant to sound cruel or demanding, but I also wasn’t a child. I wasn't Adam. She didn’t have to treat me with kid gloves. If she didn’t want me, all she had to do was say so. If she didn’t want to be with me, it was no skin off my back.

Well, it was, but I wouldn't show her that.

She also couldn't close me out. If we were going to make this work, then she had to let me in—even when it wasn’t convenient for her. She had to clue me in and talk to me about how she was feeling, even if it didn’t paint us in the best light. Maybe that was her fear. Maybe she felt if she told me how she was feeling in the moment, it would cause me to back away. And maybe my son operated like that. Maybe she’d had to play that game with Adam. But she didn’t have to play it with me.

I liked to know what was going on when it was going on, especially it if involved me.

I sat there and ate my breakfast in silence. Then I told them to box up Kylie’s and get me an extra juice and coffee. I paid the bill and tipped the waitress. Then I made my way to my car. There was no excuse for her not eating, so I headed back to her apartment and hung the bag of food on her door. I set the two drinks on the floor and knocked on her door, then made my way back to the elevator.

I got in just as her door opened, and the doors slid closed before she saw me.

I didn’t want to upset her any more, but I also didn’t want her neglecting herself simply because I’d made her upset. If she needed space, that was fine. But I couldn't hang on to her tether any longer. I’d done that with a woman for many, many years. Tried to make things work with her when I never should’ve forced them in the first place. I wasn’t making that mistake again. I wasn’t putting myself through that, and I wasn’t putting Kylie through that. If she wanted to be with me, she would know. She was a headstrong woman who had a goal in mind for her life. I had let her know her goals lined up with mine, so she had all the information at her disposal to make her decision.

I went home and attempted to distract myself, but I couldn't. I stripped myself of my clothes and tossed them to the side, relegating myself to a trip to the dry cleaners. But the second I stepped into the bathroom to get myself a shower, I looked at myself in the mirror.

And the evidence of Kylie’s exploration was all over my skin.

Nail marks down my back and hickeys on my neck. Her small teeth marks in my left shoulder and her crescent nails that had bruised my chest. I ran my hand over every inch of them, recalling our night of passion. How I couldn't think about anything else but her. How I blacked out after getting off work and didn’t come to until I was staring down into her eyes. I’d never been this affected by a girl, this intoxicated by a woman before. Not even Adam’s mother had captivated me the way Kylie did.

I should have been gentler with her at breakfast.

I was zero for two in the “waking up together” department. She wanted the romance of a peaceful sunrise, and my life kept throwing wrenches into the plan. I should’ve stayed in bed with her. I should’ve gone with my gut and pulled her back into bed before calling up any restaurant in the city and paying them enough to deliver. I shook my head and ran myself a shower, then stepped into the warm stream. The waterfall poured over my head and I reached for the misters, filling the glass cavern with a steam that blanketed my body from the rest of the world.

But the only thing I could think about was how much I wanted Kylie there with me, against my body while the mist covered us from the world.

Damn it.

She had penetrated every part of me, and I knew no part of my life would be sacred once again until I had her answer.

It was going to be a long week.