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My mouth went dry and my heart began to bang against my ribs like a xylophone. He let out another deep, gravelly sound in his sleep as his arm clenched around me and his grip on my breast tightened.
I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from whimpering out loud. The man was dead asleep, yet what he was doing to me—unconscious or not—was better than the few pathetic attempts at foreplay Darrin had bothered with. I wasn’t sure I’d ever been so wet.
Squeezing my eyes closed, I worked to calm my breathing, trying to wind down from the high Gage was unknowingly causing. It wasn’t working; in fact, when I felt his nose slide along the crook of my neck, I couldn’t help myself.
Curling my lips between my teeth, I arched my back just a bit, pressing my ass backward into that steel pole in Gage’s pants. He groaned again, and I couldn’t help but do a little wiggle against him.
God, what would it feel like to have all that hot, hard length inside me?
I wondered if I’d be able to take all of it. Butdamn, I wanted to try.
I wasn’t sure if I was testing the waters or just torturing myself, but I did it again, pressing even harder against his erection.
Instead of the groan I’d been receiving, I got a hard grunt. I felt it the moment awareness washed over him, when sleep faded away and he shot awake. His entire body locked tight. His hand on my breast clenched, his fingers pressing so hard I knew they’d leave marks—and why the hell did the thought of him marking me turn me on so freaking much?
The breaths that had been dusting along the back of my neck and creating goosebumps only moments ago stalled completely.Damn it. He’d woken up to me grinding against his dick.
The only thing I could think to do was fake sleep. I regulated my breathing and slammed my eyes closed. It was a struggle, but I managed to keep my body loose as I felt him move behind me.
The room was dark and my eyes were shut, so I couldn’t see a thing, but I’d never been more aware of another person in my life. His arm stayed fully around me, his grip on my breast not moving, but I knew he’d lifted up on his elbow in order to look down at me.
I did my best to keep a serene expression on my face as I felt his eyes burning a hole in the side of my face. It took everything I had not to gasp when he let go of my boob and used that hand to trail a feather light touch across the rise of my cheekbone and the curve of my jaw, like he was trying to memorize the planes of my face. I felt his breath across the delicate column of my neck. A moment later he ran the tip of his nose along the cord at the side of my throat before pressing a kiss against my pulse.
My heart squeezed and my belly did somersaults at the tender, affectionate action. I felt the well of tears behind my eyelids as he tucked himself against my back once more. He looped his arm around my waist again, but his hand remained on my stomach this time as he let out a sigh that sounded almost content and drifted back off to sleep.
In that short span of time, I’d felt more cherished, more adored than I ever had. Darrin had never made me feel like that in the entire span of our relationship.
The problem was, none of it was real.
* * *
Gage shifted behind me,coming awake in the early morning hours. I blinked, my lids like sandpaper against my dry eyes. After Gage’s kiss on my neck in the dead of night, I would have spent the entire night tossing and turning had it not been for him holding on to me all night long. I hadn’t been able to get back to sleep, and it was the big behemoth’s fault.
He let out a groan as he stretched his legs and rolled onto his back with an obnoxiously loud yawn.
“Morning, baby,” he greeted in a sleep-rasped voice that would have set my blood on fire if my brain hadn’t been in an exhausted fog. “Damn, I slept like a fucking rock. How about you?”
I wanted to snap at him for keeping me up all hours of the night, to tell him to shut the hell up and stop being such a freaking morning person. But if I did any of those things, I’d give myself away. He’d know I was faking being asleep when he’d given me that private, intimate kiss. He’d start asking questions, worrying about how he could make things better, and I’d end up having to tell him that I’d slept like shit because he made me horny as fuck. And that was absolutely not a road I was ready to go down at the moment.
I rolled onto my back and turned my head to look at him. God, he really was beautiful. Even all sleep-rumpled and hooded-eyed.
“Mm-hmm,” I hummed, stretching my own limbs. I’d held myself so stiff all night long, worried if I moved or shifted he might let me go. Pulling the covers over my mouth—morning breath—I said, “But I need coffee. STAT.” Where his voice had come out all morning-sexy and smoky, I sounded like I needed to hack up a furball.
He grinned down at me, dimples and all. “I think I can handle that.”
I jolted when he leaned in faster than anyone had any business moving at such an ungodly hour and pressed a kiss to my forehead before rolling out of bed.
It was chaste and nowhere near as tender as the one on my neck in the night, but it still packed one hell of a wallop. I lay there, stunned into immobility, as he grabbed a shirt and pulled it on before heading out the door.
It took me a few moments to get with the program, but eventually, the call for caffeine after a long, sleepless night became too strong to ignore. I forced myself to climb out of the world’s most comfortable bed and padded to the bathroom as I rubbed at my tired, scratchy eyes. A quick glance in the mirror at the state of my hair forced a yelp from my throat. Sure enough, the wet bun had been a mistake. I had frizzy little fly-aways all over the place, and the part that had come loose was matted and crimpy at the same time. I pulled out the elastic holding it all in place and flipped my head over, running my fingers through the tangled mess.
It took me a good few minutes, but I eventually tamed it into a slightly less crazy top knot. I brushed my teeth and scrubbed my face clean, slathering on moisturizer and tinted SPF in lieu of makeup. After putting on leggings and a plain white tee, I added a flannel of Gage’s from the closet, rolling up the sleeves and knotting the hem so it fit better.
The soft, over-washed cotton felt buttery soft, and when I lifted the collar to my face and sniffed, I got a hit that was all Gage. Even if the shirt had made me look like a sloppy wreck, I would have worn it for the smell alone.
Luckily, it looked kind of cute.
“There she is!” Marcia greeted as I entered the kitchen. She and Grandma Buttons were sitting on the barstools, cups of steaming coffee in front of them. Gage closed the door to the fridge at my arrival, a bottle of creamer that happened to be my favorite in his hand. The grin he pointed my way froze on his face as his eyes raked over me, coming to a stop on the flannel. I knew he recognized it by the way his Adam’s apple bobbed on a thick gulp and his pupils dilated. He seemed momentarily stunned as his mother waved me over for a sideways hug. “Morning, sweetheart. Hope you had a good night’s sleep.”
