Slate hugged her with one arm and turned to kiss her forehead.
“I know life is short, and we don’t know when our time will be up, but I never, ever want to do something stupid and be the reason someone else’s life is cut even shorter. So I choose not to drink when I know I’ll be driving. Even if it’s only one drink, or if I know it’ll be hours before I have to get behind the wheel of a car. I can’t do it. I sincerely appreciated the wine earlier, and believe me, if I wasn’t driving I’d have had a glass or two. But…anyway, that’s why I only had a sip.”
“I think that’s very smart.”
“I don’t want you to think I’m judging you if you have a drink with dinner or anything. It’s perfectly fine. I just can’t do it. I think of that sweet old man and it still upsets me.”
“One of the kids I went to high school with drove after drinking, crashed his car on prom night my junior year,” Slate said quietly. “It was extremely sad. His date didn’t die, but she ended up in a wheelchair. Her spinal cord was severed. So I get it. And for the record, I’m very careful. I limit myself to one drink if I’m driving.”
Ashlyn petted his chest, loving the feel of the crisp hair there. “I know. I’ve noticed.”
“And now that I’ve ruined the mood…can we talk about how revved up you got by sucking my cock?” Slate asked.
Ashlyn burst out laughing. With any other man, she’d probably be embarrassed, but Slate made it feel natural to talk about pretty much anything while lying naked in each other’s arms. She propped her head on the hand on his chest and looked at him. “Couldn’t help it. You’re seriously hot, Slate.”
“Back at ya, babe. Seeing your lips stretched around my cock was a dream come true.”
She smiled. “Good, because I’ll be trying it again, since as you stopped me before I was finished.”
It was Slate’s turn to laugh. “You want me to come in your mouth, Ash?”
“Um…maybe?”
He grinned. Huge. “Works for me.”
Ashlyn abruptly yawned. “Sorry,” she muttered. “I should get going.”
Slate stared at her for a long beat before finally nodding. “You want to shower before you go?” he asked.
“No. It’ll wake me up too much. I’m gonna go home and crash. Besides,” she added, “I kind of like smelling like you.”
“Like smelling you on me too,” he told her. “You gonna be able to stay awake long enough to get home safely?”
“Sure.”
“While you’re changing, I’ll make you a tea to go. Yeah?”
“Sounds good, thanks, Slate.”
He sat up, taking her with him. Then he put his fingers under her chin and tilted her face up to his. He kissed her, longer, slower, and sweeter than any other kiss they’d shared so far. When he pulled back, his eyes roamed over her face and body.
“You have sex hair,” he announced with a grin.
Ashlyn rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You have a sex hickey,” she retorted, nodding to a spot on his chest she hadn’t been able to resist sucking on earlier.
“Gonna wear it with pride, babe,” he said, seemingly not embarrassed in the least that she’d marked him. He kissed her once more, hard and fast, then scooted out from under the covers.
Ashlyn admired his ass for a moment as he walked around the room gathering up the clothes he’d taken off earlier. It was muscular and round, and Ashlyn wanted to put her hands on him once more.
“Up,” Slate ordered. “Before it gets any later. Not thrilled about you driving around this time of night, but I know if I say anything about it, you’d lose your shit on me and tell me I was being ridiculous and a Neanderthal.”
“Um, you just did say something about it,” Ashlyn informed him.
Slate ignored her as he pulled on a pair of gray sweatpants…without putting on any underwear. When he turned to face her, she had to swallow at the sight of him. She’d never understood women on the Internet going all ga-ga over pictures of men in sweatpants, but right then, she got it. She could clearly see the outline of his cock, and the suggestiveness of it seemed even hotter than seeing him bare somehow.
“Eyes up here, Ashlyn,” Slate said, the humor easy to hear in his tone.
She forced her gaze from his mouthwatering cock up to his face.
“Get up. Get dressed. I’ll get your tea,” Slate said.
Ashlyn nodded.
“Fuck. So cute,” he muttered, before turning and heading out of the bedroom.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Ten days.
That’s how much time had passed since their first date, and Slate had talked to Ashlyn every day since.
He was thrilled with how well things were working out. The sex was out of this world. He’d never been with a woman as passionate, enthusiastic, and sensual as Ashlyn. But it was more than that. He enjoyed hearing about her days. Was interested in hearing how her clients were doing. Looked forward to sharing the funny things his teammates said and did at work.
And he was utterly obsessed with that damn tracker app.
Pid have given him shit earlier that afternoon when he’d checked it for what seemed like the fiftieth time. He just wanted to be sure Ashlyn was progressing through her deliveries without any issues.
They’d had plans to hang out for dinner tonight, but after his workday, Slate was in no mood or condition to do anything but go straight home and sit on his roof deck and decompress. He didn’t want to disappoint Ashlyn, and it wasn’t as if he didn’t want to see her. He just needed to sit in a quiet space for a while without having to talk to anyone.
He waited until he got home before calling her, so he could concentrate on the call and not try to drive and talk at the same time.
“Hi!” she said happily when she answered. “You on your way?”
Even though she could’ve seen his location on the tracking app, she didn’t seem inclined to use it much. Slate didn’t know whether to be pleased or irritated by that.
“I’m not going to be able to come over tonight,” he told her.
“Oh.” He could hear the disappointment in her tone.
“Frankly, work sucked,” he said. “I wouldn’t be the best company tonight, and I’m actually feeling a bit nauseous anyway.”
“You’re sick?” she asked in concern.
“No. But for four hours this afternoon, we watched bodycam and helmet cam videos for training. My head is swimming. I feel as if I’ve been on a boat in the pitching and rolling ocean for hours.”
“Oh my God. Four hours of watching that stuff? I’ve seen some of those videos on police officer bodycams, and it makes me sick to watch more than like two minutes at a time. I’m so sorry, Slate.”
“It usually doesn’t bother me so much, but since we were trying to figure out what went wrong on the mission of a team we’re analyzing, we had to watch each man’s video over and over. So yeah, it was a bit much.”
“I don’t get seasick or carsick, but I sometimes get really bad headaches,” Ashlyn said. “I’m not sure I’d call them migraines, because I only get them now and then, but they can make me super nauseous too. The only thing that helps is lying in a dark room with no sound. So I get it. Is there anything I can do?”