Having sex with him?
I’d lived my entire life laser-focused on becoming a cop. It was all I’d ever wanted, and I worked each day to be the best at it. To push myself. To be tougher, faster, smarter, and kinder than I was the day before. To ignore everything—hopes and secret desires included—that didn’t further that one goal.
I didn’t cheat. I didn’t steal. I wasn’t a dirty cop. I didn’t even accept free coffees.
So for once.
For just one single time.
I deserved to do something selfish. Something good. Something happy. Something where no one got hurt.
Except maybe me since he’d ruined me for all other sex, but whatever. That was a crash-out I would cross when I got there.
What I lacked in mental freak-out, I made up for in full bladder since I’d instantly fallen asleep when we were done. I tried to dislodge myself, but Rhys’s hold tightened like a vise. I was finally able to wiggle free and rush to the bathroom. Once I was finished, I went back across the hall, but not into the bedroom with Rhys.
I was tempted to go in, though. To climb into the comfy bed, situate myself back in his arms, and pretend I’d never gotten up. What I didn’t want, however, was to make things tense.
Or worse, for him to think he had to spell it all out for me. I’d cut off his words earlier because I hadn’t wanted to hear the reiteration that he preferred to keep things casual. I certainly didn’t want—or need—to hear them the morning after.
I continued the theme of the night by going to sleep in theotherbed that wasn’t my own.
I wasn’t surehow much time had passed, but it couldn’t have been more than ten minutes before the mattress dipped behind me.
For the briefest second, I was annoyed at the disruption when I’d just dozed off.
Why make me switch rooms in the middle of the night?
But that wasn’t why Rhys was there. His firm body wrapped around me, and his voice was a groggy whisper. “Don’t pull this shit again.”
“What shit?”
“Leaving my bed.”
I didn’t know what was happening. I also didn’t particularly care.
Mostly because I fell asleep, warm and cozy in his tight hold.
I’m oversleeping.
My internal clock was fine-tuned. I didn’t even need an alarm most days—unless it was after a long night, and I didn’t want to risk sleeping away a day off. But when my lids shot open at the sleepy thought, I knew it was late in the morning.
Or early in the afternoon.
I rubbed my bleary eyes and stood.
And instantly remembered I was naked. I scanned around for a shirt or something, but there was nothing.
Looks like the blanket is coming with me.
Wrapping it around me like a dress, I opened the door with the intention of quickly darting into the other room. My daring escape was cut off by a throat clearing. I took a few backward steps to peek into the living room.
Rhys sat at the far end of the couch with a mug in his hand and a laptop open in front of him. His mouth curved into a smirk. “Nice dress, princess.”
I did a little spin and curtsy. “I couldn’t pull off the regency heist, but I saw this lying around.”
He crooked two fingers at me. “Come here.”
Oh no.
