“Uh … um, yeah. You know,” she said, stumbling on her words. “It was already so hot yesterday, I just couldn’t sleep, so I took them off.”
Penn’s light brow pinched as if considering Lina’s words, but then she nodded. “That makes sense.” And that was all there was to it before she switched gears. “I’m hungry. Can I have pancakes?”
“It may have to be a cereal morning. I have to get to work,” I told her.
Penn’s bottom lip protruded. “Please, Daddy.”
“I can make pancakes,” Lina offered. “Do you have blueberries?”
“Really?” Penn lit up. “Daddy, do we have blueberries?”
“Yes, we have blueberries.”
“Yes!” She pumped her little fist in victory.
Lina laughed that husky laugh of hers, and I couldn’t help the twitch of my dick. I adjusted myself beneath the covers. “Princess, why don’t you pull out the blueberries from the fridge? Lina will be right there.”
“Okay!” Penn flew off the bed, skipping across the floor and out the door.
“That girl doesn’t go anywhere slowly.”
Lina ran a hand down her face. “I don’t have any clothes, just my jacket and panties, and I have no idea where those ended up. I seem to have a habit of losing those around you.”
“Don’t worry, I know where they are,” I told her.
“You do?”
“Uh-huh. And I don’t mind you walking around in just that jacket.”
She slapped my chest with a scoff. “I’m not going out there to make your daughter breakfast naked.”
“If it wasn’t for Penn, I wouldn’t mind …”
“Asshole,” she said with a smile in her voice.
I scooted off the bed, then went to the dresser to remove one of my T-shirts, a pair of drawstring sweatpants, and a lace pair of underwear I had buried beneath everything. I set them beside her on the bed before pulling on my own underwear and sweats.
“I’m not wearing some chick’s lingerie,” she said, crossing her arms over her breasts. She looked so indignant, her brow furrowing. It was so fucking cute.
“It’s not some chick’s lingerie, sweetheart.”
“Then whose is it?”
I gave her a pointed look. “You said so yourself. You seem to make a habit of losing them around me.”
“What?” I watched it slowly dawn on her. “You mean …” She picked up the panties from the bed, holding them up. “Fucking shit. Are these the panties I lost that first night? You’ve had them this whole time?”
I nodded. “I kept them this whole time.”
“Why?” she asked, shaking her head in disbelief.
I shrugged. “Because they were yours. And because I knew I’d see you again.”
“Reed.” There she went again, saying my name the way she did. Making my heartbeat trip up and my dick throb.
“I washed them, so they’re clean,” I told her, gesturing for her to put them on.
She laughed. “So you aren’t some perv who kept them just so you could sniff them?” she teased.
