Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 83167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
“No.”
She didn’t utter a follow-up question.
But for some reason, his mouth moved.
“Conditioned myself to wake up before they happen.”
“Okay,” she said softly.
“I don’t go back to sleep ’cause…”
He didn’t finish.
She still said, “Yeah.”
She knew why.
If he went back to sleep, the nightmares would come.
She left it there.
Or she left that there.
“The other women—?”
It didn’t take her long to deduce that.
“Not big fans of the nightmares or me getting up at two or three in the morning.”
Her frame got tight.
“Lottie, it’s okay,” he assured her.
“It really isn’t,” she replied.
“It is because I’m not with them, I’m with you.”
He heard her head move on the sheet and he looked down at the shadow of her face in the dark.
“This is true. It’s still not okay. Didn’t they talk to you about it?”
“Yeah. The rigmarole. Find a way to sort it out. VA. Pills. Groups.”
“And?”
“The VA is a clusterfuck. Pills slow me up and I cannot be slow and do my job. And I got a group.”
The pitch of her voice was higher with her surprise when she asked, “You’re in a group?”
“It consists of Axl, Mag, Auggie and Boone. Sometimes, shit goes down with one of us, or one of us sees the other’s got somethin’ up, we hit someone’s crib, have a few beers, talk it out.”
“Axl, I know. Mag, Auggie and Boone?”
“More of Hawk’s men, my boys.”
“Oh.”
“Mag’s my roommate.”
More surprise. “You have a roommate?”
“Tammy took off, he was looking for a place. Moved in.”
“Right.”
“Good guy,” he muttered.
“I’d hope you wouldn’t move an asshole in with you.”
Mo grinned at her.
“What kind of name is ‘Mag?’” she asked.
“Short for Magnusson, his last name.”
“Is his first name Kourtney?”
He started laughing again, and through it, said, “No. It’s Daniel.”
“Speaking of Daniel. Boone, last or first?”
Mo kept laughing. “First. Last name Sadler. And before you ask, Auggie is Augustus Hero. And I’ll confirm, his last name is actually Hero. He gets the most shit. He says it’s Greek and since most women treat him like he’s a god, I don’t figure he’s lying. Axl is Axl Pantera.”
“I was pretty sure Axl was a god,” she told him. “So if Auggie is a god, then I can’t wait to meet him.”
“Axl’s a cat.”
“As in tom?”
“Exactly.”
That made Lottie laugh.
He pulled her closer so he could feel it better.
Lottie cuddled in and fell silent.
When she said no more for a while, he again urged, “Now go back to sleep.”
“What are you gonna do?”
“Hold you for a while. Then I might get up and hit the gym. But I’ll come back, probably before you get up again.”
“Okay.”
He waited for more, but that was all she said.
He felt her body relax and he knew when she fell asleep.
It was then he decided he’d make sure it was deep, less chance to disturb her when she woke up.
And anyway, he was getting off on being right there, with her, after fucking, chatting and laughing.
So he was good where he was.
* * * *
Mo woke again after a hand cracked his ass.
“Get up, sleepyhead. I’m making breakfast.”
He tracked Lottie with his eyes as she rounded the bed and stopped on the other side, staring down at him.
“You could be lazy, but Smithie’s given me the rest of the week off and you have to go back to work tomorrow so I have a weeks’ worth of getting to know my mound of hunkalicious boyfriend to cram into a day so there are things to do,” she declared. “Up and at ’em.”
He pushed up to an elbow and stared back at her.
“Stop looking hot and pounceable,” she ordered. “I’m hungry and you’re out of condoms. So we also have errands to run.”
After that, she shot him a smile and wandered out, wearing what she wore to bed the night before. A red satin nightie that barely covered her ass.
When he lost sight of her, he kept his gaze aimed where he’d last seen her, then he looked down at the empty expanse of bed beside him.
He’d fallen back to sleep.
Not only did it but did it and then didn’t have the dreams.
“Jesus,” he whispered.
How…?
He didn’t ask.
He didn’t care.
He kicked the covers off his legs and got out of bed.
* * * *
“Mo,” Lottie moaned, coming in his mouth.
Mo took it and then licked her clean.
When he could leave her as he wanted her, he ducked out from under her nightie and grabbed hold of her panties which were hooked on one ankle, most of the material lying on the kitchen floor.
He opened them, muttered, “Foot, baby,” and she moved to step in.
He guided the panties up her legs, coming off his knees as he did it, and pulled them over her ass, smoothing them around the waistband while he pressed a kiss to the side of her neck.
He then moved his hands to her waist, rubbing circles there over her nightie with his thumbs and looking in her hazy eyes.