Page 53 of Friends to WHAT?!

I blink, slowly. “I want you to ask for what you want. Right now.”

His arm tightens at my waist. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” I confirm, breathless. “Please.”

Warm breath coasts along my face when he sighs before asking softly, “Can I kiss you, Leora?”

I say yes.

He pulls me up, closer to him, and presses his lips softly to mine.

My belly alights with stars, shimmering as my heart thunders a song for them to dance to.

When his mouth leaves mine, it glides up to my nose, and he lays a kiss there as well, then my forehead, then the top of my hair as he tucks my head into his neck. All I see is skin and all I smell is his scent and all I feel is the safety of being held in his arms beside his beautiful daughter. Two girls, protected and loved.

I close my eyes and relax, limbs shifting as I release the tension they hold.

One-handed, Wolfe grabs a blanket from the back of the couch and flicks it over us. “Could you stay?” he mutters. “Right here, like this?” He nuzzles my hair. “I really, really,reallywant you to stay, right here, like this. With us.” He sighs. “Just for tonight?”

When he asks so nicely, and my limbs are so heavy, and Amia’s snores are so sweet… how could I say no?

I kiss his neck, and his breath hitches, so I kiss it again.

“I’ll stay,” I murmur sleepily. Then I close my eyes, and I fall asleep on Wolfe Blackwood’s couch, tucked in his arms, where my quiet snores mingle with his daughter’s.

Chapter Twenty-Five

?

I didn’t want to write this chapter title. So I didn’t have to. Everyone say, “Hi, proofreader!”

Wolfe

Warm rays of sun filter through the living room window, dusting my face with soft morning light. The windows aren’t as big as the ones in Fox’s apartment, because his living room faces the street, its windows cover nearly the entire wall. In contrast, my apartment runs along the back of the building, so I get only small, easily secured windows, outside of which resides a fire escape. When we moved in, Sterne insisted that the twin with the child got the safer apartment. Nobody fought him.

On my chest, a weight shifts, prompting me to open my eyes.

That is not the weight of Amia, and soft cotton beneath my hands is not the worn flannel of Amia’s sleep dress.

Last night forms in my mind, a hazy dream as I wake.

The pressure against my chest tells me it isn’t a dream. Leora is here, in my apartment, asleep in my arms, and she fell asleep there beside my daughter, who is…

I turn my head.

There. In front of the TV.

Metal clinks against porcelain, and I ascertain that my daughter has found herself breakfast in the form of delicious, nutritious cereal. TV light flickers in front of her, and a rerun of a cartoon from when I was a kid plays quietly on the screen.

“Did you get any fruit with that?” I ask, voice a low, rough grumble from sleep.

Amia twists, grins, whisper-yells, “No!” and then pops a spoonful of Lucky Charms into her mouth.

I frown. “You need something with vitamins in it, too. Where did you even get that?” I don’t stock sugary cereals. I don’t think it’s at all the correct way for a little girl to start her day.

“Uncle Fox!” Amia replies happily. “Also, Lucky Charms has iron. I read it on the box. That’s why I let Uncle Fox give it to me. If it was unhealthy, I wouldn’t have taken it.”

“Iron isn’t a vitamin,” I inform her. “It’s a mineral, and it’s good for you, but you need vitamins, too.”