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I brought my fingers up to her hair instead of voicing my inner feelings—no way I’d scare her away right now with my impulsive thoughts—and started to sift my fingers through it.
She leaned her head back and made a content noise in the back of her throat, making my heart full to bursting.
“You can legally change it,” I pointed out.
To mine…
She shrugged. “I always felt like, if I did that, my family would hate me.”
Her family could go pound sand if they hated her for something like that.
“Then they’re not your family, Hades,” I said gently. “If they loved you, they’d want whatever would make you the happiest. And if that was getting rid of that motherfucker’s last name, then so be it.”
She sighed. “I wish everything in life was as easy as you made it out to be.”
I tugged a lock of her hair, causing her to wince.
“Ow,” she said as she pulled back and glared her sleepy little eyes at me.
“Oops,” I lied.
She dug her knuckles into my rib, and I pulled away from her laughing.
She went to the pizza I’d nuked for her and took a quick bite, groaning under her breath at the taste.
If I ate like her, I’d weigh five hundred pounds by next Saturday.
“Why are you up so late?” she asked. “You’re not usually up when I get up.”
I shrugged, not wanting to taint the mood with any more thoughts on her father. Or, more accurately, her lack of one.
“I’m thinking about strategies for where I’m going to start when it comes to your sister’s stalker,” I lied. “You said that your friend, Folsom, had tried?”
She was already nodding, looking cutely frustrated.
“I did,” she confirmed. “He is very, very careful to stay away from all cameras, and whomever he is has covered his tracks. Even when at first he dropped off his packages at the post office. Folsom has never been able to get a clear view of him, other than us realizing that it was a man due to the shape and build.”
I hummed in contemplation, enjoying watching the way she enjoyed her food. Even reheated pizza that wasn’t very good in the first place.
“We’ve gotten partial photos of him, all from behind. But that’s pretty much it,” she said. “Do you have a place to start?”
“Yes,” I paused. “Though I won’t rule out anything until my hunch can be confirmed.”
“And your hunch is Benji?” she asked for clarification.
I nodded. “First logical choice, to be honest. It doesn’t seem very likely that your sister would find two men that are obsessed with her like that.”
We talked for a few more minutes on why I thought it could be Benji, and then we headed to bed, my eyes drooping.
I’d never gotten much sleep before I’d met Hades.
Now, I felt like I got so much that I was on the verge of sick with it. I hadn’t realized that your joints could hurt so much after lying in bed for hours upon end. I also hadn’t realized that my employees called so much before six in the morning until lately, when I’d been returning those calls around nine.
After I’d spent some of the morning with Hades.
Whether or not we’d spent that morning doing anything recreational or just a straight sex fest was another story.
“I’m exhausted,” she grumbled. “I feel like we need a rest day.”
I laughed. “A vagina rest day? Or an altogether rest day where we don’t do anything but eat and watch television in bed?”
She shrugged. “Sex would be okay. Later. But I want to spend the day with you, doing nothing.”
I thought about obliging her. Truly I did.
But the thought of waiting one more day to solve her problem felt like sandpaper on an open wound.
I wanted her to have everything she wanted.
And though a rest day would be what she wanted, I knew she wanted this stalker found more.
I also felt like if I solved this mystery, then maybe we could focus on other things. Like our relationship…and fixing a few things that Hades saw as a problem—things I wouldn’t be voicing aloud seeing as she’d probably clam up and refuse to talk about it.
She had given me her journal to read, after all…
We both collapsed into bed, my arms automatically coming out to reach for her.
She snuggled in deep, then sighed. “I could really get used to this.”
My last thought before we both fell asleep was, ‘please do.’
CHAPTER 17
She’s a ten, but throws hands.
-Hannibal to Hancock
HADES
Hannibal leaned over me and pressed a kiss against my throat.
“I’m going to go,” he said quietly.
I blinked one eye open and saw that it wasn’t even light enough outside to warrant being up. “What are you doing? Come back to bed. It’s our rest day.”
He chuckled, getting off the bed and pulling the blanket up high over my body. “Sorry, but no can do. I have a stalker to find. Then we can have as many rest days as you desire.”
