Her lips twitched. “They might decide not to have kids after helping out with my daughter.”
“She’s got a sassy attitude.”
Her expression turned pained. “That’s putting it mildly.”
“She got it honestly.”
She twisted her head toward him. “Are you saying I’m sassy?”
“Don’t know you well enough yet.” He wanted to. “But what I’ve seen so far? Fuck yeah.”
She moved to the edge of the bed and began to unwind the sheet from around herself. “Okay, I really need to go.”
“Should get some sleep here before you do. You go now, you’ll get none. Let your sister deal with your girl this mornin’. She’ll understand.”
“I don’t want to take advantage of—”
“Would you do it for her?”
Cassie hesitated and glanced over her shoulder at him. The dark circles from exhaustion were easy to see. Keeping her up for the past few hours hadn’t helped.
“Yes.”
“She knows your workin’ long fuckin’ hours. Not gettin’ much sleep.” Why the fuck was he working so hard to keep her in his bed? He never did this.
He was turning into a fucking goddamn sucker. Trying to keep this woman in his bed because there was something about her that he didn’t want to let go of.
And if she left...
If she left, they... he might never get this opportunity again. Because later today when the sun was high in the sky, she was going to realize her mistake. It was going to hit her like a two-by-four square across the forehead.
She had a five-year-old daughter. An ex on the run. A temporary job and her life wasn’t settled.
She didn’t need to be adding Judge to that list. She had enough shit to deal with.
She had given herself a little detour with him for the past few hours. But Cassie seemed to be the type of woman to take that detour and then get back on track as soon as possible.
For that reason, he wanted to keep her there as long as possible. Because, again, once she walked out that door...
“I could use a couple hours of uninterrupted sleep.” Her expression was wistful. “It’s too early to call Heather, but I’ll shoot her a text to tell her I’m okay and...”
“And you got some dick.”
“I won’t word it like that.” She chewed on her bottom lip as she stared at the open bedroom door. “My purse is in my car.”
“Know her number?” If she got dressed and went out to her car, she might keep going. He snagged his cell from the nightstand and held it out to her. “Send it from my phone.”
Cassie took it and sent a quick text before handing it back to him. He tossed it back on the nightstand before he finished unraveling the sheet from her and pulled her luscious naked body against his.
“Sleep,” he murmured into her ear, his arm holding her snuggly against him, his chest pressed to her back. He burrowed his nose into her soft hair and closed his eyes when she relaxed against him.
Goddamn, this felt too fucking good. He could get used to having a woman like Cassie in his bed.
Her husband had been a stupid fuck for doing shit to destroy their marriage.
Though, Judge had done the same shit. But the woman he fucked over wasn’t a woman like Cassie.
Did that make it right? No.
Had he been happy? Fuck no.
If he could go back, he’d do things differently. But then, he’d been young and miserable. And didn’t realize his mistake would fuck up shit so badly.
Judge figured Lange was old enough to know better.
Did he have a right to judge the man? Probably not.
Was he going to anyway? Fuck yeah. His name was Judge for a reason.
He was judging that goddamn motherfucker’s ass. Especially when it came to a woman like Cassie. Judge could argue his wife, Jen, deserved what she got. Cassie did not.
What he couldn’t argue was that his son and Cassie’s daughter didn’t deserve to be caught in the mistakes their fathers made.
Judge knew only too well about the mistakes of a father.
Not only him. But a lot of the rest of his brothers did, too.
So, yeah, he fucked up and some might say he got what he deserved.
Cassie and Daisy didn’t deserve the shit Lange dealt them.
It put a lot of pressure on Cassie. So, if Judge could take some of that pressure off of her for a few hours, he was happy to do it.
Plus, it wasn’t a sacrifice. Not at fucking all.
She felt bad about leaving and not saying goodbye, especially after all that great sex. But Judge had been out cold, one long arm flung above her head, the other over her waist.
She had moved slowly and carefully to free herself as to not wake him. Then grabbed her clothes and quietly got dressed out in his living area.
She needed to get home, even though the two hours of uninterrupted sleep hadn’t been nearly enough. Unfortunately, she knew as soon as she got back to the house she wouldn’t get any more before having to get ready for work that evening.
But it was her last shift before her three days off. Three badly needed days of rest. She just hoped Daisy would let her have some.
As she turned the key in the lock of her sister’s front door and opened it quietly, she heard voices.
And Daisy’s excited, rapid conversation.
Her daughter always had plenty to say and was very opinionated about everything.
It could be amusing at times, and other times, it could get wearisome. Basically, her daughter was a five-year-old know-it-all.
Cassie snorted softly as she closed the door behind her and turned.
She froze when she saw a few pieces of luggage parked at the bottom of the stairs in the foyer. There hadn’t been any new cars parked out front, and it wasn’t close enough to Christmas yet for Tyler’s family to show up, so she had no idea whose they belonged to.
She headed past the bags and toward the back of the house and kitchen, where all the noise was coming from.
Tyler was at the stove, his back to Cassie as he flipped pancakes, and Heather was pouring juice.
Her daughter, with bed head and still in her jammies, was sitting at the table, with one of her Dr. Seuss books. She was pretending to read it out loud even though Daisy only knew a few of the words. Basically, her daughter was pointing to the pictures and reciting the book from memory since Cassie had read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish to her five million and one times. Like Daisy, she could probably recite it in her sleep.
However, Daisy said flish instead of fish.
“It’s fish, honey,” Heather was correcting her as she placed a small glass of OJ in front of Cassie’s daughter. “One fish, not one flish.”
“Don’t even bother,” Cassie told her sister as she entered the kitchen. “She knows what it is. She chooses to destroy Dr. Seuss’s greatest classic by choice.”
“Momma!” Daisy squealed and scraped her chair back, jumping down and running at Cassie like a slo-mo Godzilla with exaggerated steps and flying arms. At least that gave Cassie time to prepare for the impact.
Daisy hit her legs, wrapped her arms around them and glanced up. “Where were yoooooou? I was all alone!”
“You were not. Aunt Heather and Uncle Tyler were here. And if they weren’t, you’d be getting cereal and not pancakes from me.”