Page 20 of Mr. McHunky

“That’s why we’re naked. Best way to restore regular body temperature is skin to skin.”

“So we didn’t?” I shake my head unable to ask the questions.

He leans towards me putting his forehead to mine. “I would never. Not without your permission and enthusiastic participation.” He lays back down but never breaks eye contact. “Has someone ever, I mean… did that happen to you?”

His question comes out in broken chunks as if he’s struggling with the words.

“No. Nothing like that,” I say.

Relief visibly washes over him, and he hugs me closer.

“Thank you for saving me last night. And Rosie.”

“My pleasure, Peaches. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

I squirm in his arms to get more comfortable and again, I feel the hard press of his dick against me. My core dampens and my nipples harden against his chest.

“Um, can I ask another question?”

“Like I told you last night. You can ask me absolutely anything.”

“Why exactly are you hard right now? Is that a morning thing?”

He chuckles. “No, baby, that’s an Emory thing.”

“I’m not trying to be dumb, but what exactly does that mean?”

“It means that now that we’re not freezing our asses off, my cock is recognizing that we’re pressed up against the sexiest fucking woman we’ve ever seen.”

I wait a beat to see what the punchline is. Don’t get me wrong, I acknowledge that I’m beautiful. It’s taken me a long time, but I’ve grown to love my ample curves. I’m soft and womanly like those women in the old paintings that had fleshy thighs and bellies. But I have also lived in my skin long enough to know that men who look like Jude do not find me sexy.

“You’ve gone all quiet on me,” he says. “I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable.”

“I’m not uncomfortable. I guess I’m just thinking that you probably always say things like that. I mean not that you routinely rescue women from freezing in their vans and have to use your hot body to keep them warm.”

He playfully swats my bottom. “So you do admit you find me hot.”

I level him with a look. “Jude, don’t play stupid. You are objectively gorgeous and anyone would say the same. Except maybe your sisters. So my saying it should not be some great compliment. I’m sure you have women all over this town.”

“I don’t actually give a fuck what other people think.” His eyes bore into mine, searing into me his sincerity. “I just want to know what you think. And to be perfectly honest, I haven’t had a woman in a long damn time. I’ve practically been a single father for the last decade. And then there’s the garage that me and a couple of our cousins opened.”

“What exactly are you saying? You never brought a girlfriend home to your sisters?”

“Fuck no. I never brought a woman home. No girlfriends. No hookups. No one.”

“I’m sorry: are you saying that you’ve been celibate since you became the guardian of your sisters?”

He nods. “My priority has been them. Physical needs are empty without connection and I knew I couldn’t create anything like that with a woman while I was raising the girls. They needed me too much. Ear infections, braces, periods, and teacher conferences, there was something nearly every week. Not to mention that before the guardianship was completely legal, we had some social workers in and out of the house observing our interactions.”

Again, the depth of his commitment to his sisters astounds me. I’ve never known anyone like him. Ever. “That had to have been stressful,” I offer lamely.

“Very. And we were all grieving.”

“Right, your parents. I’m sorry you lost them.” I don’t remember anyone from my birth family. I went into the system when I was around three, I think, but I have no memories from before that.

“So to get back to my earlier statement, I want to make a few things crystal clear. I’m not attracted to you because we’re in bed, naked together. I’m not attracted to you because I have a misguided sense of myself and my ‘saving’ you last night. I’m not attracted to you because I haven’t been with a woman since I was twenty years old.”

I swallow thickly. This man is going to destroy me. He’s as beautiful on the inside as he is on the outside.