I hugged him just as tight or as close as I could get seeing as he was stronger than me.
This lasted not long enough for me before I felt his lips at the top of my hair and he said, “Dresser, middle right are my tees. Tag one when you go to sleep, yeah?”
I nodded though I didn’t know about that. I’d brought a sexy nightie. I now had a conundrum. The sexy nightie (for Chace) or his tee (for me).
I didn’t choose before he kissed the top of my hair, gave me a squeeze and let me go.
But I felt the tips of his middle three fingers light under my chin and I again did as he silently commanded and gave him my face.
“This probably won’t go quick but I’ll get home soon’s I can.”
I nodded.
His fingers slid like a whisper over my jaw making the skin of my neck and cheek tingle in a good way as he whispered, “Thank you, baby.”
“You’re welcome, honey.”
He grinned, a small grin that didn’t reach his eyes. Then he bent his head and touched his mouth to mine.
I got another mouth touch after he went to his bedroom, I went to the kitchen and started rooting through for dinner fixin’s and he came back wearing his sweater, jacket and boots.
He left.
I made tacos. I ate tacos.
I put the leftovers in one of those reusable but disposable tubs that Chace, upon inspection, seemed to have a lot of.
I watched his big flat screen TV.
When the clock was about to strike midnight, I took off my makeup, moisturized, brushed my teeth, put on my sexy nightie and slid into Chace’s bed.
I thought I’d never get to sleep, what with where my body was resting. A place it had never rested in twenty-nine years, not only it being Chace’s bed, but any man’s.
But his mattress was the fraking bomb. It felt like a firm cloud.
So, seconds after my head hit one of his pillows, I was out like a light.
Chapter Nine
Worth the Wait
I swam up from sleep, feeling warm, delicious, my eyes fluttering open and closed as I felt weird sensations at my back and waist.
My eyes kept fluttering as a warm body fitted itself to the curve of mine, a strong arm circled my belly and pulled gently back so my warm body fit snugger into the one behind me.
Chace was home.
“Honey?” I called, my voice barely audible.
His arm around my belly gave me a squeeze. “Go back to sleep, baby.”
God, he really felt nice. Everything felt nice. His awesome mattress. The down comforter over us. Pillows that were just the right mixture of firm and yielding. The warm cocoon we were in. Chace the length of me, holding me close.
Then where he’d been, why he’d been there and the nuance of Misty that was attached to it penetrated. My eyes quit fluttering, my consciousness quit doing the same and I came awake.
“Are you okay?” I whispered.
“Go back to sleep, Faye,” he whispered back.
I laid there in the curve of his body, beyond comfortable, warm, safe, having had a nice night in a nice house and not being out in the cold dark investigating a murder and telling a family someone they loved was dead.
Then I moved my hand to his at my belly.
When I asked it this time, it was firmer.
“Chace, are you okay?”
His fingers extended out, mine fell through, his caught mine, lacing them and he closed both of our fingers tight.
Then he said quietly, “No. But I’ll be all right after I sleep.”
I pulled my hand from his but immediately turned in his arm.
He immediately adjusted with my body’s movements as he started, “Faye –”
I wrapped my arm around his waist, pressed close and asked, “Do you need to talk?”
“I need to sleep,” he answered.
“Maybe you should talk,” I suggested quietly and cautiously.
“Actually, baby, what I need is sleep.”
“It was bad,” I whispered.
“Yeah,” he whispered back.
Oh jeez.
“So you should talk,” I urged softly.
“Honey, you’re sweet but what I need is sleep.”
“You should get it out.”
His arm around my waist tightened and his voice got a little impatiently growly when he said a warning, “Faye.”
“It isn’t good to sleep on stuff, Dad says so,” I pressed.
“Your father is a wise man but I’m not bein’ nice, shieldin’ you. It’s late and I really need sleep.”
I pressed closer to him and whispered, “You bury stuff, it can fester.”
“Faye –”
“You have to work it out.”
“Faye, honey, seriously –”
“You don’t want to talk, then work it out another way. Make love to me.”
His body went completely still, he said not a word and I was with him on both counts.
Did I actually say that?
I would find that I did when in an instant I was on my back and Chace was on top of me.
“You serious?” he whispered.
No. I wasn’t serious. I was crazy.
Though, one couldn’t argue with the fact the weight of his big, heavy, warm body felt good on mine.
“Yes,” I whispered back.
“You ready for that?”
No. I absolutely was not ready.