Page 198 of A Matter of Time

I scowled at him and he left. I heard the front door shut and then the clicking of several locks. He wasn’t taking any chances. My phone rang seconds later.

“Hi.” I sighed, nestling down into the bed.

“I’m gonna drive you to work in the morning and pick you up after. From now on you go nowhere without me. You understand?”

“I understand.” I sighed. I loved it when he was possessive and told me what to do. Nobody else had ever cared, besides Dane. They were the two men in my life who—“Oh shit.”

“Oh shit what?”

“I gotta tell Dane about you.”

“And that’s bad?”

“It’s kinda bad.”

“Why?”

“He thinks I’m wasting my time with you.”

“I’ll talk to him. Gimme his number.”

“Are you high?”

He laughed softly. “Baby, I know you’re afraid of Dane Harcourt, but believe me, I’m not.”

I wasn’t convinced of his sanity. Not afraid of Dane? “Okay.”

I gave him the number and he repeated it back to me, then told me to watch TV or start my novel.

“You’re hysterical,” I grumbled. “Just come back soon.”

“I will, baby. I love you.”

Words so casually spoken that tore right through me. “I love you too.”

And when he hung up, I closed my eyes and grabbed his pillow. It smelled like him and I was content to lie there in the warm apartment and wait for my man to come home.

I woke up and realized the room was dark. I was under the covers, my ankle was wrapped, and when I shifted, I hit a mass of solid heat. Sam was beside me, sleeping soundly on his stomach. I rolled over, draping my good leg over the backs of his thighs, and read the digital display on his nightstand. It was just after four in the morning. I had no idea how long he’d been in bed, but from the chilled skin on his legs I couldn’t imagine long. He had to be exhausted. He usually slept in pajama bottoms, but he was naked. I couldn’t keep my hands off him.

“I’m glad you’re home,” I whispered before I kissed the spot between his shoulder blades.

He grunted but didn’t move.

I rolled off him, onto my back, and stared at the ceiling in the darkness, trying to make my body calm down. I wanted him, but he was tired and I had to kill my motor. When he shifted, turning toward me, his hand going to my abdomen, I froze under his touch. I had butterflies in my stomach along with the familiar tension as heat raced through me. It was his fault. I craved him.

“Why are you awake?” he asked softly, his hand sliding over my bare skin, slipping under the waistband of my sweats, inside my briefs to touch me, wrap his fingers around me.

I groaned, arching up into his hand.

“Your skin is so hot, J.”

“Please,” I begged him, moving, sliding in and out of his fist. “Please, baby.”

He rolled off the bed and I heard him fumbling around as I pulled off my clothes, stripping naked as fast as I could. A drawer opened, there was the pop of a cap and then his hand on my thigh, dragging me forward, my bent legs resting on his arms, his lubed fingers slipping inside me gently as his other hand closed around my cock.

“You missed me.”

“Yes,” I said hoarsely. “Please.”