Page 69 of Allured By Her

“Like I did? I thought you were straight up until a few hours ago,” I said.

“Me too!” she yelled and we both laughed in unison.

“Fuck, I have no idea what I’m doing anymore, Mia. This is all very fucking confusing,” she said, staring down at her toothbrush.

We both brushed and rinsed and went back to my bedroom so I could give her something to sleep in.

Tenley detangled her hair as I searched through my drawers for something that would work for her, and got pjs for myself too. The bed was pristine since the pad had soaked everything up. I tossed it in the washer and made a note to run that tomorrow when I got back from work.

I did not want to go to work tomorrow. I really wanted to call out. Liam was there to cover anytime, but I still felt a little guilt for not going in due to staying up too late for sex.

Still, I imagined what Lark would tell me. She would absolutely skip work for sex, and I was pretty sure she had. Lark would tell me to go for it, and I knew she’d be proud of me when I told her why I hadn’t gone in. I set an alarm on my phone to remind me to get up so I could send an “I’m sick, I can’t come in” message to Lark and Liam in the morning so they wouldn’t be worried.

“I’m skipping work tomorrow,” I said through a yawn when I handed Tenley her pajamas.

“Lucky. I wish I could, but I have to write at least five thousand words,” she said.

“How many pages is that?” I asked. I had no idea how many words were in a normal book.

“Too many,” she said, pulling my shirt over her head.

“Are you still going to go to Common Grounds?” I asked.

She shook her head and pulled on the shorts I’d given her. “No, it’s so much less fun when you’re not there. Plus, Lark is going to be staring daggers at me all day and I’d rather keep this between us for now.” That made sense.

“If you want, you can go home and get your stuff and work here. I’ll probably be sleeping or something,” I said. A nice long nap was definitely in my future. There was nothing quite like a good, hard nap.

“That could work,” she said. “How about this: we go to my place and have a nice breakfast and I’ll pick you out some books and then we can come back here, and you sleep while I work.”

I imagined that scenario in my head. It sounded pretty close to perfect.

“I’ll make the lattes,” I said.

Tenley grinned and leaned over to kiss me. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

Chapter Fourteen

It turned out that Tenley moved around a lot when she slept. I was also pretty sure she had talked a few times in her sleep. I woke up several times when she flipped over or scooted close to me. It wasn’t the most restful night, but waking up next to her with her golden hair in my face was priceless.

My alarm went off a few moments later and I sent the message I’d typed out last night to Liam and Lark. He wrote back immediately to tell me to feel better and to not hesitate to take another day if I was still feeling bad. I wasn’t going to do that, but it was nice to know that he was supportive of sick days.

“Good morning,” Tenley croaked.

“Shhh, it’s still really early,” I said, putting my phone on silent and setting it aside. “Go back to sleep, babe.”

Tenley’s eyes were still shut, but a soft smile played on her face.

“I like it when you call me babe,” she said. “No one has ever called me that.”

I was surprised her ex hadn’t, but I had heard him call her “Tens.” I wouldn’t call her that and remind her of him.

“I like it when you call me ‘doll.’ No one has called me that before,” I said and that made her smile wider and open her eyes.

“Then I get to be first in calling you doll,” she said.

“You do,” I said, kissing her forehead. “Go back to sleep.”

She shut her eyes and a few minutes later she flipped onto her other side and mumbled something I couldn’t understand.

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