Page 45 of Gin and Bear It

“Fantasy and sci-fi, mostly. But I used to just buy a stack of books at secondhand stores or yard sales when we were on the road to go through.”

“Cool.”

Part of my crush on him back in high school was the allure of the bad boy reading a book and writing poetry. It still gives me a little tingle, to be honest. My bookshelves in the living room are stuffed, as are the ones around the TV. But he probably wouldn’t like historical romance, or all the other genres of romance I have in there.

The game picks up enough to where I can play without being self-conscious. Even as he asks questions now and then, it starts to feel more comfortable than I expected.

I keep playing until I feel my eyelids get heavy. He doesn’t say anything when I shut it down.

“Um, good night,” I say, turning off the lamp.

“Night.”

The only sound in the room is Pip’s heavy purring. Usually he settles down to sleep, then wanders around the apartment later to have a two a.m. meltdown for no reason. I stare at the ceiling, my eyes adjusting to the dark. I don’t feel Ash’s body heat—or imagine that I’m feeling it—but every time he shifts, I feel it.

He sighs, Pip squeaks, and I huff. Eventually I pop in an ear bud and put on soothing music just to fall asleep.

Pip’s late-night antics wake me briefly, but besides that, I make it through the night without much disturbance. In fact, I sleep pretty damn well.

My alarm goes off at six thirty and I sigh into my pillow. The bed is too comfortable, the weight of the blankets sinking me deeper into the mattress.

But it’s not the weight of the blankets. It’s the weight of Ash pressed against my back, his arm around me. And his hard cock right on my ass.

I startle fully awake and Pip’s face is inches from mine. My panic triggers his and he goes flying off the bed, making both of us yelp. Ash wakes up, too, with a grunt, rolling onto his back.

“The fuck is happening?” he asks, his voice raspy.

“You were…we were…Pip got scared and…” I rub my eyes. We’re smack in the middle of the bed, so it’s not like either of us wandered over too far. “Your…um…”

I gesture wildly at his lower half. My brain forgets the word for penis in that moment, but my ass remembers every inch of length pressed against my cheeks.

“It’s morning,” he says, sliding his legs off the side of the bed. “It’s nothing. And sorry, I didn’t mean to cuddle you.”

“We just ended up like that.” I pat the bed so Pip will come back. He tentatively pads over, like I’m going to startle again. “It’s nothing. Now we know so we can put a barrier there or something.”

He runs his hands down his face, which does nice things to the muscles of his back.

“Right. A barrier. That’ll help,” he says.

Is he being sarcastic? You know what, I’m not even going to go there. I fling myself out of bed and walk past him to the bathroom, ignoring whatever situation he has going on.

One night down, however many nights until the ceiling is fixed to go.

FOURTEEN

ASH

After our first night sleeping together, we fall into a rhythm—we start the night off on opposite sides of the bed, with Pip taking up the middle. Everything is fine and even fun while I watch her play her video games. Like we’re actually friends and not fake spouses.

Then at some point, she actually goes to sleep and migrates toward me. Something about her warmth helps me slide into a very light, restless sleep, and I wake up with my hard dick against her ass.

We leap apart, I apologize, and we pretend nothing happened.

Then I use the memory of her soft ass against me as fuel for my fantasies in the shower.

Rinse and repeat.

It’s been easy to avoid each other aside from our nights together because she wakes up early to go workout or to do some work on the computer before leaving for the hotel. I’ve been puttering around, reading the employee handbook and information on the company, as JD requested. Plus, Wes sent me some specifics about the bar to go over. I got the first payment for starting my job at the company, so Dylan and I were able to send in the funds to start our case against Caro and Gordon.