The warm flush on my cheeks intensified as sling-shot images flashed inside my head. Last night, I sucked dick and swallowed like a pro, so did Dash. It felt like something we’d be doing a lot. It wasn’t near as intrusive as I suspected when Dash’s finger played inside my ass.
“You’re back, just like he said you’d be,” Amelia said, smiling brightly, moving out of the way to let me by. “Hurry inside. You look cold.” She misinterpreted what was happening to me. I was hot. Steaming hot. “Dash said you like eggs and bacon—less carbs—but I made you my mother’s special recipe pancakes. It’s a good morning that you’re back.”
Stepping inside the house felt like the place I was meant to be. The feeling of belonging was so special I’d happily eat those pancakes. “My mom makes a mean pancake too. I love those things. Do I have time to put these in Dash’s room?”
“Absolutely, I’ll start them now.”
She went one way. I went the other. I was twelve hours into happiness. It felt damn good.
In the place between awake and asleep, something tickled my nose. I did my best to ignore it, telling my brain to shut it off. Exhaustion was a bitch that owned me right now. Of coursethe nuisance didn’t listen. The brush came again, this time across my cheek. I should turn. Whatever bothered me would be disrupted, but I couldn’t make myself move. Dash was cupped against my body, and I didn’t want to disturb him.
The way his heavy breaths came in slow, long intervals, I doubted he’d wake.
The flicker happened again. I opened my eyelids. The room was dark, cozy, and warm with the fans circulating the air. Realization dawned as I glanced down. Dash’s silky hair against my face was the culprit. That was an easy enough problem to fix if only I had a hand to use, but both my arms were wrapped securely around Dash, who clung to them tightly.
Since I’d rather cut my arms off than move from his hold, I had a problem. Only then did I register the strong urge to go to the bathroom. The stakes changed. I drew in a deep breath, and with as little disruption as possible, I untangled from Dash’s hold and scooted from the warm blankets. I instantly changed my mind about the warmth in the room. The chill went through me in an instant. The eerie sounds of wind blew like a blizzard outside. The protectively covered palm trees bent under the assault of the weather.
I moved a little faster as I went to the bathroom. If I let my thoughts go, I’d wake myself up, but that didn’t seem to matter to this head of mine. I silently shut the door behind me, keeping the light off to avoid waking Dash. Since I rarely cared about other people, it was a foreign thought to worry about his comfort.
Hell, I’d never slept in bed with another person, except for Dash years ago. I honestly believed I wouldn’t like to cuddle, let alone to be wrapped around someone to go to sleep. Apparently, a lot of new ideologies were headed for me.
My thoughts shifted. A wicked smile came to my face as I realized how livid my father would be with me. If he hadn’t died,I’d still be under his thumb. He controlled me like the bitch I became, or better yet, the one he’d created inside me. How my mom got tangled up with him in the first place was mind-blowing. Maybe he’d preyed on her like he had me.
I finished up in the bathroom and took careful steps back to bed. Dash wasn’t where I’d left him, dreaming of the world we’d now build. He was on his back, arm over his eyes. He’d turned back the blankets for my arrival.
Even though he hadn’t said I love you, and I had said it a few times now, he showed me with his actions, which was so much sweeter to experience. My random thoughts came together and calmed me as I watched him for my entire route to bed. I climbed in, dragging the covers with me as Dash rolled over to face me. He opened his tired eyes.
“I tried not to wake you,” I whispered.
“I don’t think you did. I think I sensed you were gone,” he explained. I nudged closer to his unbelievably warm and inviting body. He shifted his head, allowing room for me on the comfortable pillow we shared. “You’re cold. Why’re you so cold?”
“Why is it so cold in this room?” I countered. The question must have been difficult because his brow wrinkled. My feet mixed with his. The icicles woke him completely, and his eyelids popped open for him to stare at me.
“Why’re your feet so cold? Did you go outside?”
“Did you turn the heater down?” I asked.
“Oh yeah,” he said after a long yawn. “I wanted us together when we slept, and thought we’d get too hot. What time is it?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t look.” My palm slid over his hair, pushing the strands off his forehead. I liked them there, made him appear human, not the male model who walked off the pages of GQ magazine.
One of my arms pushed underneath the pillow, the other wrapped around him, drawing us closer together. “I was just thinkin’ about how I’ve never slept with anyone but you before.”
“Mmm,” Dash murmured and rolled me onto my back. He followed, resting his cheek into the crook of my neck, his body halfway covering mine.
“What else did you think about?” he asked, his fingertips trailing softly over my skin.
He knew me well. “I didn’t like my dad.”
“Me either. What else?” he asked. “Your voice relaxes me.”
“How much I love you,” I said, leaving the last part of my thought unsaid.
He turned his face to mine, his eyes back to being only slight slits. He grinned at me, his lips puckering. I obliged the kiss. “I love hearing it.”
“I think I would too,” I murmured. It took several seconds for Dash to understand before he lifted again to see me.
“I tell you that I love you. I try to show it to you all the time. Am I missing the mark?”
