Page 75 of Without Apology

He grinned. “You mean it hasn’t been obvious before now? How about you?”

“One serious boyfriend in college. All four years.”

“What happened?”

Despite the fact I’d gotten over him years ago, I didn’t like to talk about it. “He wanted to travel. Study for his Master’s at Oxford.” Implied was that my inability to fly had ruined the relationship. “We were young. That’s the longest relationship, anyhow. After that, there was nothing serious.” I found the older I got, the pickier I became.

“Where did you and your sister live after your parents passed?”

“We stayed in the same house. You should’ve seen this town. Neighbors mowing lawns, food for months on end, volunteer pickups for me after school, free services like gutter cleanings. This town was amazing. She still lives there in that house, now with her husband and kids.”

“You two are still close I take it?”

“Very. How about you? Any siblings?”

“No. I was an only child.”

“Do you and Emma hang out outside of work?” Since he didn’t have family and she seemed the closest to him, I wondered if they were friends outside of the job.

He shook his head. “No. Emma prefers to spend time alone when she’s not working.”

“Is that what you prefer, too?”

“I used to.” He rolled me over, pinning me to the bed. “But since I met you, I get lonely when I spend the night without you.”

I waited for the humor to show on his face. When it didn’t, I realized he was being serious. My hand reached out to touch his face. “Maybe I won’t be the only one sad when you have to leave,” I murmured, not meaning to have voiced the thought out loud.

“Peyton—”

I wouldn’t let him finish. It was what it was. I hadn’t meant to make it more. So I reached out and started tickling him. “Nope. No more depressing thoughts.”

But he didn’t react to my tickling, which made me the prime target when he turned the tables. I shrieked in laughter, my body responding with jerky movements with his amused face above me.

“I’m not ticklish, but it appears you are very.”

Cooper apparently thought he heard his owner in trouble and wanted to come to my rescue—if you could call it that. He jumped onto the bed in the middle of the melee, nuzzling Simon to get to me. Thankfully, he wasn’t much of a guard dog and didn’t bite. But it did have me in hysterics.

Though Simon was laughing, too, he tried to console the dog. “Your mum is okay, big guy. I promise.”

Finally, wiping my face from the tears of my laughter, I ordered Cooper off the bed and onto his own. Then I got up to give him some love pats for semi-coming to the rescue, and for his trouble, I gave him a bone.

Simon was still grinning. “Am I taking his place in the bed for the night?”

“No. He’s too big, and I tend to be a bed hog.”

“Can’t wait to find out if that’s true.”

***

I woke up with Simon already out of the bed, and the smell of coffee coming from the kitchen. I was back to naked and delightfully sore in all the best places. While I threw on a short robe, I saw Cooper was gone from his bed, too. As I puttered out to the kitchen, I could hear Simon’s low voice.

“I have no idea how many scoops of food you get mate. But two is all you’ll get from me until I can verify with your mum that you’re not using those sad eyes to get more than you should. Bollocks, I can’t stand your pathetic look like you’re starving. You can have three, but don’t tell her.”

His back was turned as he scooped another cup into Cooper’s bowl and patted him on the head.

I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing. Standing in my space, dressed back in his suit, but with his feet bare and his shirt open, he was the sexiest man I’d ever seen.

He was also quite sweet with my biggest love. “He gets two cups,” I said and watched Simon turn to see me leaned up against the door jamb.

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