“Seems to me like you’re already in one, sister. A serious one if he’s spending the night every night and calling you ‘baby,’” Chelsea tossed out.
“You need to talk to him,” Liberty encouraged.
Nope. No way. I wasn’t asking anything personal, nothing that would cement a friendship that had an expiration date. The more I learned about Logan the more he got past my defenses. If I wanted to come out of this without being totally shattered I would not be asking him why he’d kept an emotional distance from women.
Women who are not you.
As quickly as the thought popped into my head I pushed it away.
I didn’t want to be different.
Liar.
I ignored Liberty and addressed Addy. “Are you still pissed at me?”
“Kinda.”
“Then I’m bagging on Thursday workout night. On a normal night, I leave sore. No way am I going into the gym with you mad at me.”
“Whatever,” Addy mumbled. “We’re doing a light workout tonight. I have to meet my mom later to go over wedding plans.”
“I’m still impressed you got Trey to hold off a whole nine months when he swore up and down he wasn’t waiting until after my wedding to marry you,” Quinn told her sister.
“I didn’t do anything. Emily Walker spoke and Trey listened.” Addy shrugged. “At this point, Dad’s offering us money to elope. Two weddings in two months and you know how he gets. I thought after Delaney got married and he was a grouch it was just because it was his first daughter getting married. But he was the same way when Hadley married Brady. And he’s already in a bad mood and your wedding hasn’t even happened yet.”
Jasper Walker was not grouchy, he was emotional. I knew my dad loved me, but there was something different about the way Jasper loved his daughters. I’d never seen anything like it until I started working at Triple Canopy. And it wasn’t just Jasper. Nolan Clark loved his sons, Jackson and Nick. Carter Lenox was the same with sons, Carter and Ethan. Then there was Levi McCoy and the man positively adored his daughter, Liberty. But it wasn’t just love, it was the way the four men showed it. It poured out of them so pure it was beautiful to see. Over the years I’d heard the girls bitch about how protective the men in their lives were. While I knew my dad loved me and he was proud I was a good person, he was not an overly protective man. I would never admit it to any of my friends but secretly I was a little jealous.
What would it be like to have someone love you so much they would do anything to protect you?
A question I’d never know the answer to.
11
“It’s a good thing you didn’t end up in the clink.” Lauren’s breath fanned across my neck.
“The clink?” I chuckled.
Lauren moaned, then I returned the groan when her pussy clamped tight.
“The can, the joint, the big house.”
“Yeah, baby, I know what the clink is.”
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t end up there or I would’ve never experienced a triple. And, honey, just so you know, now that I’ve had this awesome experience I’ll be expecting more in the future.”
“A triple?”
“Three back-to-back orgasms,” Lauren explained and tightened her legs around my hips.
Right.
Lauren must’ve developed amnesia.
“Ren, hasn’t been a night this week you haven’t had three.”
“That’s different.”
“How so?”
“Well…” She stopped and tried to hide her face.
“Oh, no, baby girl, you started it. See it through and explain to me how me getting you off with my mouth before I get you there with my dick is different.”
“That’s just it, one with your mouth. A triple has to be executed in one go.”
Yeah, I wasn’t seeing the difference but she had indeed had three orgasms that I’d barely been able to hold out giving to her and I was spent. Thus, I felt it best to agree.
“Sorry, baby, seems before tonight I’ve been slackin’.”
Lauren’s body under mine started shaking and when her giggle escaped I closed my eyes. Never before had I experienced such a sensation. I’d always been quick to disengage and go someplace in the back of my mind. I’d always known that made me an asshole. But now I was pleased as hell; Lauren was my first. The first woman I’d slept beside. The first I held until I fell asleep. The first I laid in bed and talked to. And she sure as fuck was the first I’d laughed with while my dick was still buried deep.
“I need to clean up.”
She did, then we had a lot to talk about. But first, I wanted a kiss and since her beautiful face was mere inches from mine I didn’t have far to go when I dropped my lips to hers and touched my tongue to her lips. Instead of opening and letting me take her mouth Lauren touched just the tip of her tongue to mine before she swept it over my bottom lip. She took her time, sweet and tentative, and the scar tissue around my heart thinned.
“You have great lips,” she murmured and kissed the corner of my mouth.
The reverence in her tone should’ve put the fear of God in me. The soft touches should’ve had me running for the hills. Instead, I wanted to stay. I wanted to wrap her up and keep her in bed and never let her go. I wanted to cocoon us in her sheets so outside forces couldn’t invade. Build a fortress around us and block out every bad memory.
I was in way deep with Lauren and I didn’t give the first fuck. That above all else should’ve told me now was the time to make a clean break.
But there was zero chance I was going to do that.
I pulled out and smiled when I heard her mew when she lost me.
“Clean up and hurry back.”
Lauren made an annoyed face and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. Keeping them there she muttered, “Always so damn bossy.”
Reminding her my bossy was what had given her a ‘triple’ would’ve delayed her getting up, cleaning herself off, and coming back to me. I rolled to the side wondering when the fuck I became the sort of man who ordered a woman to hurry back. The fuck of it was my urgency had nothing to do with the conversation we needed to have and more about wanting her near.
Yeah, I was in way too fucking deep, sinking deeper, and not giving a shit.
My eyes followed her to the bathroom and I wondered when we got so comfortable in each other’s presence she didn’t bother closing the door. Neither did she try to cover herself up. Lauren was completely at ease in her nudity and it had taken less than a week. This was not a complaint. Merely an observation.
She came out of the bathroom, tagged my tee off the floor on her way back to bed, and had it on before she crawled back onto the mattress and flopped down on her belly, resting her head on my stomach, face turned in my direction, eyes pinning me in place.
“What’s on your mind, Ren?”
“Will you tell me about what happened at Guy’s?”
“Camera’s functional again. A tracker’s been put on his car. And I made my point that you are to be left alone.”
“Just like that?”
If I hadn’t already known what a pansy-ass Guy was after my brief conversation with him I would’ve questioned if the idiot had a pair of balls. He caved surprisingly fast.