Page 85 of Love Him Like Water

“Gonna be nonstop until we find him,” he said.

“Yeah,” I agreed, exhaling hard. “Tell Cage on your way out that Elian should be here by seven.”

“Will do,” he said, heading out.

Putting the screen to sleep so it required a code to open up to the camera feeds, I made my way upstairs, peeling out of my clothes, my gaze on Lore the whole time.

I needed to leave her the fuck alone.

I needed to get some fucking sleep.

But as I climbed into the bed, I couldn’t seem to stop myself from curling toward her, from wrapping an arm around her.

She made those sweet little kitten noises in her sleep, wiggling back against me.

And, yeah, my cock stirred to life.

But it was something other than that.

A feeling that moved through my gut and up across my chest.

It was a sensation that didn’t have me running my hands over her, waking her up, and burying inside of her.

Instead, it had me holding her close, drifting off to sleep with the feel and scent of her all over me.

And I had no fucking idea what that meant.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Lore

“Hey, Mrs. Lombardi,” Elian greeted me, giving me his usual smile, but there was a tightness around his eyes.

“Hey, Elian. You look like you didn’t sleep well last night,” I said, going toward the coffee pot, but finding it cold already.

More proof that Renzo had been gone for hours.

I wouldn’t have even known that he’d been home at all if not for the clothes on the floor.

I’d dreamt of him endlessly the night before.

Not the sweaty, frustrating, fantasy dreams I’d been plagued with thanks to not having had any relief for so long now. Something that had my mind running wild with ideas of Renzo being sick of me. Of Renzo going and finding someone else to have sex with. Thoughts that had been making me too queasy to even eat since they came to mind almost a week ago now.

No, these were softer, sweeter dreams.

Ones of him holding me tight.

No sex.

Just intimacy.

Just… closeness.

But, of course, I woke up alone yet again. With no hope of seeing him. Yet again. Let alone have him hold me.

“I didn’t,” he admitted as I started to reach for the coffee, but then thought better of it.

“Hey, you want to go get some good coffee with me?” I asked.

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