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I smiled coyly. “Just the kid’s day, not yours?”
He stepped inside and wrapped an arm around my waist, dragging me close to brush his lips with mine. “You made my day a few times before the sun rose.”
The way he looked at my lips when he spoke gave me butterflies.
“I think we made each other’s day.”
Inside my apartment, Donovan set the box down on the kitchen counter. “What time did you finally wake up, sleepyhead?”
“Oh my God. Not until eleven thirty.”
“Is that from the Ambien on your nightstand? I didn’t see you take one.”
I blinked a few times. Holy shit. I hadn’t taken a sleeping pill last night. That was the first time I’d fallen asleep in almost six years without some sort of chemical assistance. “I…I didn’t take one.”
Donovan grinned. “Does that mean my dick is better than drugs?”
He was of course being cheeky, but he didn’t understand how significant not taking anything was for me.
“I haven’t slept a single night without a pill in nearly six years, Donovan.”
His smile fell away. “Really?”
I nodded.
“Never even after…” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, it might be the Neanderthal in me but I can’t finish that sentence. Just the thought of you with another man…”
“No, never. Not once. I keep a bottle in my bag and a bottle at my bedside. A few years back, I was really into running. I did a half marathon and then went to an after party. I was exhausted when I got home and thought it might be the night I could do it. But it’s not a physical thing; it’s mental. No matter how tired my body is, my brain won’t turn off.”
“I guess we found the tipping point for flipping that switch. It might be hard to keep up with what we did last night, but I’m game to try. I’ll happily replace your pills.”
“That’s very noble of you, but I don’t think it was the exertion as much as something else.”
Donovan’s brows drew together. “What, then?”
“I felt safe.”
I watched as he swallowed what I’d said. I felt safe. Something so simple, yet it meant everything to me.
Donovan closed the gap between us and brushed a lock of hair behind my ear. “I want to give you the world, but you just gave it to me by saying that, Red.”
CHAPTER 30
* * *
Donovan
“When do you find out if you make partner at your firm?” Autumn slipped off her shoes and lifted her folded legs up on the seat. “It should be soon, right?”
I looked over my shoulder before changing lanes. “The Tuesday after Labor Day, so a little more than a week.”
We were on our way up to Connecticut for the weekend for her father’s wedding.
“Do you think you’ll get it?”
“Your buddy Dickson has been pretty friendly lately. The client he schlubbed off on me to take to dinner was really happy with the advice I gave him. He even referred a friend of his, which Dickson gave me a half pat on the back for. Although the guy is a dirtbag, and I’m not looking forward to working with him.”
“Not to be a jerk, but aren’t all your clients dirtbags? I mean, they come to see you because they got caught doing something underhanded and illegal.”
She had a point. But I didn’t think they all were. I shrugged. “Some really aren’t bad people. They just get lost along the way in their climb to the top. Believe it or not, a lot of times these people don’t even see what they’re doing as wrong at the time they’re doing it. I had a new client charged with insider trading last week. He’s a trader and found out some non-public information about a company a friend works for. The company was on the verge of getting a new drug approved by the FDA that would make their stock go nuts. His wife told her sister, and her sister mentioned it to her new boyfriend who hedged and bought a shit ton of stock. He made a fortune, but also caught the attention of the regulators who traced it back to my client. Guy shouldn’t have told his wife, but he did. Doesn’t necessarily make him a bad person.”
“Yeah, definitely not in that case. But it’s got to be hard to represent some of them.”
“It’s not always easy. But some people can learn from lessons, especially hard ones. I try to think about it that way. Look at me—I did some pretty dumb shit and was on a path to a bad place. I’d been arrested three times before I was sixteen—mostly minor stuff, but that’s how most people in prison started, too. If someone wouldn’t have helped me out, I have no doubt that I’d be where a few of my friends are today: serving time.”
