That’s how I fall back to sleep, as the little spoon. Instead of making me feel emasculated, I feel cherished and unbelievably happy for the first time in months.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Tessa
* * *
I snuggle up to Verek’s back when I start to wake up, glad he’s here with me. I wish he had never left in the first place.
Did he honestly think that while he was gone, I would forget all about him just because I didn’t speak to him for several months?
I’ll never stop caring for him, no matter what.
Verek will always be the man who set my heart racing and made me feel alive in record-breaking time the first night we met.
He’s also the man who saved me from hell. It was his kind voice, telling me I was going to be okay, his gentle hands carrying me out of that place with his cool leather cut, protective and still warm from the heat of his body, wrapped around me like a blanket.
I couldn’t let him go, even if I tried. And I don’t want to. The heartbreak of missing him seems to have completely faded away now that he’s here. My naughty hands can’t keep off him, unable to resist the hard muscles in his strong arms, or his chiseled abs that lead down to his mouthwatering cock that I finally got to taste last night.
Verek’s offer to return the favor set butterflies loose in my belly, but I’m not ready to do something so brazen just yet.
I would like to wake him up with another blowjob, but when I hear and feel his stomach growling, I know playtime will have to wait until after I make us a late breakfast. It’s almost lunchtime, but Verek seemed to need the sleep, and I’ve been content just cuddling up to him for the past few hours.
Pressing my damp lips behind his ear because I know that will wake him up, I ask him, “Ready for some breakfast? I can make pancakes.”
“Hell yes,” comes his gruff response. Stretching his long legs out so far they hang off the bed, Verek takes my hand that’s on his hip and drags it over his stomach and up to his chest before kissing the center of my palm and placing it back over his heart that’s thumping away. “After breakfast, how about a shower together?” he asks.
“Maybe,” I respond, even though I don’t think I’m ready to get naked in front of him. Not that I think Verek would mind if I showered with him in my pajamas. He’s already seen me naked too, the night he found me. Still, it’s a big step I’m not ready to make.
“What else do you have planned for the day?” he asks.
“Nothing really,” I answer. “Why? What do you want to do?”
“Whatever. We could stay in this bed all week if you want.”
“Tempting,” I say with a smile he can’t see. “Food first, though.”
“Sounds good. Want me to take Lola out?”
“Thanks, but I’ll take her if you want to grab a shower,” I tell him.
“That’s a good plan. I still feel gritty from the road trip,” Verek says before he slips out of bed. Standing next to it, I watch in awe as he lifts his arms above head. He stretches his torso deliciously while wearing nothing but my pink shorts. They do nothing to hide his morning wood that I’m already salivating to get my hands on again.
Jeez. The man hasn’t even been back a full day and he already has me so horny I may combust. My body is begging for more than dry humping, that’s for sure. And for whatever reason, Verek seems more than willing to oblige.
Verek
* * *
I pull on my jeans and brush my teeth with a little toothpaste on my finger while Tessa gets started on breakfast.
She’s spoiling me by feeding me and working her mouth on my cock the way she did last night.
I’ve just come out of the bathroom when there’s a knock at the door that causes Tessa to instantly go tense.
“I’ll get it,” I say since she’s busy flipping pancakes. Like I would let her answer it anyway while I’m here.
She relaxes a tad and tells me, “It’s probably Lucas or Jake.”
“They should text or something before they come knocking and scare you like that,” I remark.
“It’s fine,” she says, although I know it’s not really.
I still check the peephole before I open up, seeing the slightly shorter one I think is named Lucas on the other side.
“What?” I ask when I throw the door open. Lola comes over next to me. She lets out a soft bark at the kid before sitting beside my feet like she thinks I may need backup. I pat her head to let her know she’s a good dog, but I’ve got this.
Lucas’s eyes widen in surprise as he looks me up and down like he wasn’t expecting me to answer the door or still be inside the apartment. “Oh. You’re still here.”
“Oh good, you’re not blind,” I grumble. “But your detective skills need some work. If you and your friend were keeping an eye out all night, wouldn’t you have realized I still had to be somewhere in the apartment complex since you never saw me leave?”
“Oh, right. Sorry,” he says with a wince.
“You didn’t even come to check on her, not even once,” I point out with a disappointed shake of my head. “Now, what do you need?” I ask, just as another man wanders over beside him, looking incredibly perplexed.
“Is this the right apartment?” he asks aloud to either the kid or myself as he eyes my lack of a shirt in confusion.
“Who the hell is he?” I ask Lucas, not liking the fact that he let a stranger get so close to Tessa’s apartment.
“Oh, um, that’s the reason I knocked. This is Paul. He’s here to see Tessa.”
Fucking hell he is!
Staring at the man again, I now notice he does look familiar. I remember seeing him briefly at the hospital the night we found Tessa.
And shit, I guess that’s not my decision to make about whether or not he can see her.
“Just a second,” I say to the nervous-looking, clean-cut man in his perfectly pressed khakis and a white polo. Unfortunately, I’m reminded that he’s not butt-ugly. He looks like he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and has always gotten whatever he wanted in life.
I grab the front of Lucas’s shirt and yank him inside the apartment, shutting the door behind him. “Don’t you think you should’ve asked first before bringing him up here?” I snap at the kid in a hushed voice.
“Roman approved it…the other day, before he left,” he croaks out.
“Does Roman fucking live here?” I growl at him while still holding a fistful of his shirt. “No, he doesn’t! It wasn’t his call!”
“Verek? What’s going on?” Tessa asks. I hear her footsteps as she comes up behind us.
I finally let the jackass go and straighten up to face her. “You have a visitor.”
“Ah, yeah, I know,” she says, holding her spatula with a half-smile when she glances between me and Lucas. “I’m looking right at you.”
“No, another one,” I explain. “Paul is here. He’s standing right outside the door, actually,” I remark while shooting another glare at Lucas.