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“No, I wouldn’t mind,” I told her honestly. “I was serious. My sleeping is vastly diminished. I’m lucky for those two to three hours.”
She seemed to withdraw into herself as she stiffened her spine. “You’ll sleep in my bedroom? I have a king-sized bed.”
“Umm,” I said. “Sure.”
She grinned. “But you have to use the cuffs. What if you’re actually sleeping for those two hours and I try to get up?”
Dammit, she was right.
I was going to suggest she just sleep without them, but what if I didn’t hear her get up?
The two hours that I did sleep, I slept hard. It was like my body was pounding out every second that it could get, and nothing—and by nothing, I mean train horns, airplanes, people knocking on my door—nothing would wake me up.
“I have to make a trip back to my place to get the cuffs,” I admitted. “I’ll take the dogs out one more time.”
Katy smiled. “I need to take a quick shower. I’ll be about fifteen minutes…do you want to take a shower tonight?”
I thought about that for a second and realized that I did feel rather dirty.
Usually I took my showers in the morning after my runs, but there were times after a shift where I had to take one to rinse off the grime of the day.
And lately, that was happening more and more since I was riding a motorcycle the majority of a shift. Road grime and being out in the open air made me sweat. And it was only March. Give it a few more weeks and I’d be taking one every single shift thanks to Texas weather.
“Okay, make it thirty minutes. I need to take a shower, too,” I said. “I’ll be back here in a little bit. I’ll keep the dogs at my place and bring them back when I’m done. Sound okay?”
She got up from the chair and walked to her kitchen drawer, pulling it open and scrambling around in it for a few seconds before coming out with a key.
It was a pink key with white flowers, and the keychain had a black Darth Vader skull hanging from it.
Total contradictions…yet I found myself really liking the difference.
“That’s cute,” I chuckled. “Perfect pair.”
She shrugged. “I like all things girly and geeky. What can I say?”
“Not a thing,” I teased, reaching for the key with my hurt hand, and rethinking it mid-air. Switching hands, I gingerly took the key from her outstretched hand and said, “Will he be okay off the leash?”
I knew that Sister would, but I didn’t want to chance it with her dog. I’d feel terrible if he ran away from me.
“Yes,” she assured me. “He’s the perfect gentleman…as long as I’m not the one handing out the orders.”
I snorted and forced myself to walk away from her.
Every step felt like a lead weight was holding them down.
“I’ll be back!” I called out.
“Okay,” she said to my back. “If I’m still in the shower, just let yourself in and make yourself comfortable. I’ll take my clothes in there with me.”
I felt my belly clench at her being all wet and hot in the shower. Fuuuuck.
“Will do, darlin’,” I called out. “Lock this up after me, yeah?”
She followed behind. “I hate these locks, by the way. My dad has one where you can input a code and it unlocks for you.”
“I’ll mention that to my brother,” I teased. “I’m sure he can make that happen.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Whatever,” she said as I closed the door behind me.
My laughter followed me and the dogs down the path to the stairs, then up the stairs.
It wasn’t until I was in my own apartment with Lou, who sniffed around all my stuff with curiosity, that I realized that there was definitely something there when it came to Katy and me.
And I was generally excited by the notion.
What I was not excited about was seeing all the missed calls on my phone from Tasia as I glanced at it as I was walking by.
Curling up my nose in disgust of that can of worms I’d inadvertently opened, I headed to the shower and turned it on as high as the water heater would allow, then stripped out of my clothes and tossed them into the corner.
I had an ever-growing pile of uniforms there that I would need to take to the dry cleaners tomorrow if I wanted to wear a clean uniform to work the rest of the week.
I also at some point needed to go to the grocery store.
And the bank.
Followed by my lawyer’s office to prepare him for whatever bullshit Tasia was about to throw at me.
Needless to say, I’d managed to work myself into a pissed off mood all over again by the time I was finished with my shower and getting dressed in the clothes that I’d taken off before my shower.
