He grinned and it was a relief to see he was entirely unoffended.
Then he stated, “Rivera is not doin’ this for me. He’s doin’ it for you. And he needs to know LeBrec contacted you again. And I need to know what he intends to do about that at his end. He might not like it at first but he’ll get me and then he’ll tell me.”
“Okay, I’ll leave the man communication and cop bonding to the men who also happen to be cops.”
“Good call,” he muttered.
“And I won’t answer if Beau calls.”
“No, you won’t.”
I rolled my eyes. Mike gave me another arm squeeze.
It was time to move on.
“Right, so, I picked what we did last. Your turn.”
His face changed again and it changed in a way I liked a whole lot.
“I got choices?” he asked quietly, his face and an underlying note in his voice that was beyond sexy making “Little Dusty” do a little shiver.
“I’m open to suggestions.”
Mike rolled me, ending on top again but this time with his lips at my ear where he murmured, “You whispered a lot of dirty shit to me over the phone and you seriously got off on what I did earlier. How dirty can my girl be?”
“Little Dusty” didn’t shiver with that. “Little Dusty” did a full on shake.
“I’m willing to explore the boundaries of dirty,” I murmured back.
“Then on your belly, honey, and take off the tee. I’m gonna start with your back.”
He was going to start with my back?
At that, “Little Dusty” rocked the core of me.
“Okay,” I whispered.
Mike moved away.
I did as I was told.
Then we spent a goodly amount of time exploring the boundaries of dirty and through it I discovered that good guy Mike Haines had a multitude of nuances.
And some of them were very, very bad.
So bad, they were awesome.
But in the end, I fell asleep in good guy Mike’s arms, his eyes were to the TV and before we’d settled in, he’d gone to open the door and let in his dog. So not only did I fall asleep in Mike’s arms, I fell asleep in a bed that included a golden retriever.
And before I drifted off to sleep with the television news my lullaby, I remembered exactly how much I liked falling asleep in Mike Haines’s arms.
But it was better in a huge, comfortable, scarily expensive bed with a dog.
Unbelievably better.
*
I woke when Mike shifted out from under me and Layla jerked to her belly then jumped off the bed.
My eyes fluttered open then started to close before I realized that Mike wasn’t rounding the bed to use the bathroom. From the direction of where Layla’s jingling dog tags were going, he was exiting the room.
My eyes opened to see the dark shadows of sheets. It took a while but in the distance I finally heard Layla’s tags coming back. She hopped on the bed before Mike shifted back under me.
“Getting a drink?” I mumbled sleepily, my body settling into his, my eyes drifting closed, my arm snaking across his gut.
“Walkthrough,” he mumbled back and my eyes drifted back open.
“What?”
“Walkthrough, sweetheart,” he said, his arm curled around my back giving me a squeeze. “Go back to sleep.”
“Walkthrough for what?” I asked the shadowed planes and angles of his chest.
“The house,” he replied.
“For what?” I kind of repeated. “Did you hear something?”
“No.”
“But –”
“Once in a while, I just do it.”
“Why?”
“Because I give a shit about what’s sleepin’ under my roof. So I wake up in the night, scan the feel of my place and if I feel like it, I get up and walk through. It takes a minute, it makes me feel better and I can lie my head down and know the thing I give a shit about that’s sleepin’ under my roof is doing it safely.”
Seriously, he was killing me.
“I’m an independent woman,” I announced to his chest and his arm gave me another squeeze.
“I know, honey.”
“I can take care of myself,” I informed him.
“I know,” he whispered.
“But what you just said, what you did earlier, carrying me around the room, I’ve never had that. And I loved it. Since I’ve never had it, I didn’t know how good it would feel. And it feels good when you take care of me.”
As I spoke, his body went still except his arm went super tight, pressing me deep into his long, warm, hard frame.
I tilted my head back and with my lips to the underside of his jaw, I whispered, “Talking through stuff with me, listening to me, taking care of me, none of that I ever really had. Ever, honey. Not like this. Thank you for giving that to me.”
His chin dipped and his neck twisted so his lips were a breath away from mine, he whispered back, “You’re welcome, Dusty.”
“You should know I feel safe in a lot of ways with you, Mike Haines, and not just sleeping under your roof.”
“Fuck,” he muttered, rolling me, his mouth taking mine in a soft, sweet, middle of the night kiss that said a whole lot without a single word.
I ended up on my back with Mike pressed into me.