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Not the longest, he noted after glancing at the digital bedside clock and noting it was only six o’clock in the morning. Which meant he’d only slept for about four hours. But they had been restful hours. Probably because he’d held Persy for most of them, nestled against the side on which his arm wasn’t broken.
He meant it when he said their lovemaking last night had been perfect. He’d never experienced anything like it. He knew that was because it had truly been lovemaking.
He carefully extracted himself to climb out of bed and press the button to vibrate on his cell phone, instead of the annoying buzz, before checking the caller ID.
Mike Somers.
Casper’s stomach turned. Something bad had to have happened for Mike to be calling him this early in the morning. The fact that Mike allowed the call to continue indicated as much.
Casper’s expression softened as he glanced at the still-sleeping woman in his bed. Persy’s hair was spread across the pillow neighboring his own in a glorious golden-red cloud. Her beautiful face was more relaxed than he’d ever seen it, making her appear younger than her twenty-four years. The skin of her bare shoulders, visible above the duvet, showed a slight redness from the friction of the scruff on his chin.
Desire once again pulsed through his body when he thought of the passion the two of them had shared during the night. An intense and unique pleasure Casper knew he had never felt before and instinctively knew he would only ever feel with the gloriously beautiful woman in front of him.
He’d hated seeing Persy cry before they went to bed. Knew her well enough to know that she didn’t like showing weakness of any kind. Not that Casper thought of tears as a weakness. He’d cried a time or two himself in the past. But he knew Persy well enough to know she would hate having shown him or anyone else any sign of vulnerability.
Casper still wanted to know what he’d said to trigger that reaction.
But right now, he needed to take Mike’s call.
He grabbed his black robe from the back of the bathroom door before going through to his sitting room and closing the bedroom door softly behind him. “Yes?” he finally answered after awkwardly pulling on the robe one-handed, the cell phone necessarily pressed between his shoulder and ear while he did so.
“Who was the lucky woman or man?” Mike grumbled his impatience at Casper’s delayed response.
“Mind your own fucking business,” he snapped.
“Ah. The fact you’re being so defensive tells me you spent the night with the same beautiful Miss Persephone Jones I met yesterday.”
“It would be more accurate to say Persephone spent the night with me,” he bit out.
“Apartment or estate?”
Casper scowled his displeasure with Mike’s persistence. “Estate.”
“It’s serious, then,” Mike acknowledged sagely.
“Enough that I’ll let you know when I need you to be best man at our wedding.”
“Wow, it is serious,” his friend appreciated.
“As serious as it gets. But I doubt talking about my love life is the reason for you calling me at the arsecrack of dawn,” he dismissed briskly.
“No.” Casper could hear the reluctance in his friend’s voice. “I came into the garage early today to work on the paintwork of a car that came into the workshop yesterday afternoon, and…”
Casper was sure that Mike kept talking but he was no longer listening, his attention caught and now centered solely on the woman standing in the bedroom doorway watching him.
Persy’s only clothing was one of his formal white shirts, her bare legs long and golden beneath it.
Her go bag with her own clothes in it was in the bedroom adjoining this suite, but Persy didn’t know that. Not yet, at least. He knew she was going to be annoyed once she knew he’d…not lied to her, exactly, just not been completely open with the truth.
Which was the reason he was in no hurry to tell her that this morning either, when she looked sexy as hell in the mid-thigh-length garment, her red-gold hair tousled about her shoulders.
“Casper, are you listening to me?” Mike prompted sharply. “Damn it, she woke up, didn’t she,” he said knowingly.
“Mike, can I call you back later—”
“No, you can’t!” His friend stopped him from ending the call. “Someone broke into the garage last night.”
He tensed. “And?” he pressed, sure there was more to that statement.
