“I will always come home to you. I won’t lie and tell you what I do isn’t dangerous sometimes, but I’m always careful, and now, with you, I have a whole new reason to stay safe.”
“Did you take care of whatever it was you were doing in Vegas?” she asks, and I feel my muscles tighten at her question; I’m not used to sharing things about my job with anyone but Kenton.
“I did as much as I could. Hopefully it won’t take long for the police to get the situation figured out.”
“What does that mean?” she asks, and I let out a long breath, wondering how much I should say. “You can tell me,” she encourages.
“There are bad people in the world. You know that, Sophie. I just don’t want you to know how bad some of them are, and I really don’t want to talk to you about this right after I just got home and I’m still inside you in our bed. We should make a pact now to never talk about work stuff while we’re in bed.”
“Fine.” She sighs before lifting her head and putting her chin on her hand. “You know how you want me to talk to you?”
“This is different. You and I both know it is.” I run my fingers through her hair. “There are going to be times I can’t or won’t tell you about my job.”
“Why?” she asks, shifting, making me groan and my dick jump.
“There are things I will always shield you from, and my work is one of them.”
“Don’t you think it’s better for me to know?”
“No, I don’t. If it’s something you need to know, I will tell you. Otherwise, you’re just going to have to trust me.”
“Okay, but if something happens to you, I’m going to kick your ass.”
I smile and flip her to her back, making her scream out in surprise. “How are you going to kick my ass when you can’t even get out of this position?” I ask, bending down to pull one of her ni**les into my mouth.
“I could if I wanted,” she breathes, pulling my mouth closer to her breast.
“You think so?” I ask before moving to her other nipple.
“I know I could,” she says, wrapping her legs around me; her hips rise up higher, causing me to sink deeper into her.
“Fuck,” I groan, surprised to feel myself hardening inside her.
Her hands go under my arms, her fingers running along my back before hooking around my shoulders. She moans before licking up my neck, breathing into my ear. “Ready?” she says, biting down on my earlobe.
I’m so lost in her that I’m caught off guard when one of her legs unwinds itself from my waist and goes to the bed. Her arms shift, and then I’m suddenly on my back with her standing over me on the bed and looking down at me.
“Holy shit,” I say in shock.
“Told you I could get out of it.” She smiles down at me before sitting, straddling my hips.
“Where did you learn that?” I ask, running my hands up her thighs.
“Devon, Maggie’s fiancé, is a cop and taught me some moves. He said it would help build my confidence back if I knew I could put someone on their back if they ever got me down.”
“You’re awesome, baby. I’m proud as f**k of you right now.”
“Really?” She smiles.
“Really.”
“Thanks,” she says shyly.
“Come here, sweet Sophie.”
I can see that she’s tired. I pull her down to lie against my chest, running a hand over her hair and down her back. I hold her until I hear her breathing even out and know she’s asleep. I roll her over and make sure she’s covered before I leave the room.
Daisy’s sitting outside the bedroom door when I open it. “Hey, girl.” I scoop her up before going to the kitchen. “Things are going to change around here. First, I think you may be getting a friend to play with,” I say, referring to another dog. “Then, we need to talk Sophie into moving in. Do you think you can help me with that?” I ask her. She doesn’t care about anything except that I’m paying attention to her.
I walk over to the bag I dropped inside the door and pull out my phone. I slide my finger across the screen and make a call I’ve been avoiding since I met Sophie. I love my mom, but I also know her. If she knew about Sophie before, she would have been demanding I bring her around, and I couldn’t do that. I needed to give Sophie time to get used to us being an us. Now, though? Now, I don’t care. There will be no more of her not doing shit because she’s afraid. I refuse to let her live the rest of her life like that.
“Hey, honey. Are you home?” my mom asks as soon as she picks up.
“Yeah. I got in a couple hours ago.” I walk into the kitchen, setting Daisy down before washing my hands and going to the fridge to grab a bottle of water.
“How was your trip? Did you have fun?”
“It was work, Ma. I wasn’t partying it up in Vegas,” I tell her with a chuckle.
“Well, you were in Vegas. Why wouldn’t you try to have some fun while you were there? You think I don’t know what you do in your free time?” I can see her in my head rolling her eyes. “I know how you and your brothers act when you’re single.”
“Yeah, Ma, but I’m not single anymore,” I declare, smiling.
“You guys are such man-whores. I swear—it’s a wonder one of you didn’t end up on that show 16 and Pregnant,” she says, completely missing what I just said.