Leaving Harlow’s bed hadn’t been easy. When she’d automatically reached out for me in her sleep the moment I’d gotten up, I’d nearly climbed back into her bed.
For Christ’s sake, the woman needs to sleep at some point.
We’d spent the entire night sleeping a little…and then fucking.
Sleeping a little more…and fucking again.
Harlow would be lucky if she could even walk this morning.
Or should I say this afternoon since it’s after twelve?
I’d lost track of how many times I’d reached for Harlow during the night. Finally, in the early morning hours, I’d promised I wasn’t touching the poor woman again so she could sleep.
However, when I’d woken up a few hours later to the euphoric sensation of Harlow’s beautiful lips wrapped around my cock, that promise had gone south in a hurry.
I’d finally forced myself out of her bed an hour ago so she could sleep, resolute in my decision to make us both breakfast.
We needed to eat after all the energy we’d burned through in a single night.
“Good morning,” Harlow said sleepily from the entry to the kitchen. “What are you doing?”
I turned my head, and my heart leapt into my throat as I saw her standing there in the same sexy nightgown she’d been wearing the night before.
I swallowed hard, trying not to remember how quickly that particular nightgown could come off her body. “Entertaining the dogs, I think,” I drawled. “Good morning to you, too, gorgeous.”
The dogs went to greet her enthusiastically. She fussed over both of them before she stood up straight again.
She shot me a beatific smile, and strolled over to where I was standing. Lifting onto her toes, she laid a good morning kiss on me that made it hard not to drag her back to bed.
Afterward, she eyed the pan on the stove. “Are you…cooking?”
I nodded. “Our French toast came out so bad even the dogs wouldn’t eat it.”
She laughed, and the musical sound made my damn chest ache.
Harlow put her hand on the handle of the frying pan. “I’ll cook if you do coffee.”
“I wanted to make you breakfast,” I said grumpily.
“You have no idea how much I adore you for trying,” she answered sweetly. “But I already know it’s one of the few skills you haven’t mastered. I don’t mind doing it for you.”
“I’m definitely not a cook,” I said unhappily as I walked to the coffeepot.
I grabbed one of Harlow’s favorites, and dropped the pod into the coffee maker. At least I could operate that kitchen appliance.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said huskily. “You have extremely advanced skills in other areas that more than make up for your lack of cooking skills.”
I turned to look at her, and then grinned like an idiot when I noticed her eyes were roaming over my body like she’d rather have me for breakfast.
I’d pulled on a pair of pajama pants, but I hadn’t bothered to get dressed yet.
Well, okay then. If I have a choice, I’d much rather be her stud than her chef.
“You okay?” I asked gruffly. “It was a wild night.”
Last night hadn’t exactly been a tender night of discovering each other’s bodies. It had been more like a raging wildfire that we’d kept trying to put out over and over again.
Immensely satisfying, but totally exhausting.
“I feel fantastic,” she assured me as she cracked some eggs into a bowl and started to make our breakfast. “What about you?”
Shit! How could I tell Harlow that she’d rocked my whole damn world last night, and that I’d never be the same because of it?
Since I couldn’t find a way to convey my emotions in words, I simply said, “Me, too. I’m great.” I paused before I added, “I’m sorry about what happened to you in Texas, baby. No woman should ever have to go through that. If you tell me the bastard’s name, I’d be happy to have…a talk with him.”
Knowing how much he’d hurt Harlow, and then walked away from her when she’d needed him the most, he’d be lucky if he was still breathing when our…discussion was over.
“No, you will not,” she scolded. “It was a long time ago, and I don’t want you going to prison or getting sued over him. He’s not worth it.”
I was slightly mollified by the fact that she was worried about me and not him. “I think the guy must have had a screw loose to do what he did. Instead of being a dick, he could have supported you and your ambitions. You were working your ass off.”
“I’m actually glad he didn’t,” she replied philosophically as she dipped some bread and laid it gently in the large frying pan. “If he had, I wouldn’t be here with you right now. I think it worked out the way it was supposed to be. Maybe previous heartache makes a person appreciate it more when they find a good relationship.”
Hell, what could I say about that statement? I was damn glad she hadn’t married the idiot, too. “It could have been a lot less painful and still ended with you at Montgomery, and the two of us together,” I answered as I put cream into Harlow’s coffee.
“I may have turned down the internship if I hadn’t wanted to escape Austin,” she mused. “I had a good job, and I could have just sailed through my doctorate. Although, if that relationship had never happened at all, I probably would have applied at Montgomery, eventually. It was and still is my dream job.”
“I’d rather it hadn’t happened,” I told her as I put her coffee down on the island for her. “Did you want the baby, Harlow? Did you have a plan?”
“I’m not sure I really had a solid arrangement all worked out,” she said in a thoughtful voice. “I had the resources to raise a child on my own, and I had no plans of giving it up. That was about as far as I got in planning my future. Everything happened so fast. Getting pregnant was completely accidental. I was sick, and I think the antibiotics I got from the urgent care affected the efficacy of my birth control. So it was a shock that led to yet another shock once I found my fiancé in bed with another woman. Everything just compounded until the final blow of miscarrying.”
“Did your mother know?” I asked, hoping she had someone with her when it happened.
“No,” she said as she shook her head slowly. “Not until after it happened. Because it occurred so early, I was in and out of the hospital in twenty-four hours. There was no point in getting Mom upset. I was on my way back to California anyway.”