Page 93 of Well Aware

She also wasn’t quiet.

Luckily, Iris was a good sleeper and didn’t come to investigate the odd sounds.

When she was a panting, repleted mess in the middle of the mattress, I tucked myself against her side and threw one thigh over her to keep her pinned to the bed.

Then I went to sleep with the smell of her inflating my lungs.

When I woke, it was to find a four-year-old’s face nearly on top of my own.

“Are you awake?” she asked only millimeters from my face.

I grinned.

Then remembered that I was fucking naked.

Shit.

“Yeah,” I grumbled. “Go get the lights turned on in the kitchen. I’ll be out in just a second.”

She nodded, as if that was a really important job, then scurried away.

Throughout the entire conversation, Magnolia didn’t stir.

I disentangled myself from her body and stood, stretching my arms up high over my head.

My spine, ankles, and knees popped and crackled as I shuffled to my underwear in the top dresser drawer and slipped a pair on.

Next came the sweats, which was all the time I was allowed before Iris appeared in the doorway looking expectant.

My lips quirked and I headed out into the hall with her, forgetting my shirt.

“You’re really hairy,” she mused as we walked.

“Men are hairy,” I explained. “Women are hairy, too, if they don’t shave.”

“Mama’s not hairy on her chest,” she pointed out.

“No.” I chuckled. “She’s not. Men get hair on their face and chest. Women don’t.”

“And your underarms.” She stopped in the middle of the kitchen. “What’s for breakfast?”

I looked at the girl. “Do you feel adventurous?”

“No,” she immediately replied.

A knock sounded on my door before I could reply, and I walked to it, checking the peephole before I disarmed the alarm and opened it wide. “Hey, kid.”

Lysander’s son waved and moved past me.

I watched as Lysander came up the length of the walk. “Your walk needs shoveled.”

“I just woke up,” I said. “What’s going on?”

He pointed at his son. “He asked to come over here to meet your new daughter.”

I grinned. “Not quite daughter yet, but close. How was work?”

“Bad,” he growled. “Tourist thought he could drive through the pass in his fancy car and found out the hard way that he couldn’t.”