Page 123 of Love Takes Home

I look at Ginny, trying to hide my grin. The panicked look in her eyes tells me I’m about to do the right thing.

“I don’t think so.” I smile at Ginny. She gives me a relieved smile in return.

“Is this your way of asking me to move in with you?”

“Yeah.” I shrug. “Pretty much.”

Davis leans closer to me. “Dude. If you ever ask her to marry you, you probably should do a better job of it than that.”

Ginny laughs. “I don’t want to talk weddings for a very long time, okay?”

“Works for me,” Mr. Mills taps the table, “and my wallet.”

“Daddy. I’m so sorry.”

“Sweetheart, money can be remade. Your happiness is worth way more to me than that wedding cost.”

Ginny gets up from the table and moves behind her dad, giving him a hug from behind and kissing his cheek. “I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you too, sweetheart.”

She then moves behind Davis and repeats the hug and kiss. “I love you too, big brother, even when you’re an ass.”

“Why didn’t you tell Dad the same thing?” Davis pouts.

“Because I feel like he’d still ground me if I called him one.”

I watch this family, a dad with his grown children, and realize that as much as I can give Ginny, there are still some things that we will never have. Not yet, anyway.

Chapter 35

Ginny

I’ve been out ofthe hospital for two weeks now. My physical injuries are mostly healed, all that remains from Keith hitting me is some discoloration on my cheek. But what hasn’t happened? Joker naked. He’s trying to treat me with kid gloves. Gently. He takes care of me, but he’s nottaking care of me. He helps me in the bathtub, washing my back—but never my front. He wraps me up in his arms every night because I sleep better that way, but he’s insisted on wearing sleep shorts and pajama pants, and while not all of him has remained unaffected, he refuses to acknowledge it. He won’t even jack off. Is he like some freak of nature or something? He refuses to do something about it. And I really want to do something about it.

I’ve made up my mind that this morning I’m going to make it happen, or humiliate myself trying. But at least I’ll have tried. I slip out of bed and tiptoe as quietly as possible to the bathroom. Once inside, I take care of things and change out of the oversizedt-shirt and sleep shorts into a nighty that I hid last night. It’s a silky, slinky thing with spaghetti straps. My tits look amazing in it and it skims my hips, stopping right below my ass cheeks. Any movement, and I’m bared. I might be hoping that it doesn’t survive if I come out the winner of the battle of wills here.

I tip toe back to bed and raise the covers to crawl back in. Joker immediately opens his arms for me and I nestle myself against him, making sure my ass is right up against his morning wood. The minute his hands touch the fabric of the nighty, he freezes.

“What are you doing?” he asks in his husky, sleepy morning voice.

“Nothing. Getting back into bed for a little while.”

“Huh.” He grunts, but his thumb is unconsciously rubbing circles across my belly, his favorite place to touch. It’s almost like he knows it is my most insecure area, so he wants to make sure I know he loves it. How did I get so lucky and find a man like this? It still doesn’t make any sense to me.

“Let’s go back to sleep. It’s early,” I tell him, wrapping his arms around me tighter and wiggling my rear a little.

“I think you’re up to no good.”

“And I think I’m up to something very, very good,” I sweetly reply.

His lips brush my exposed shoulder, and I hear him groan. I imagine his eyes rolling to the back of his head. His hips begin to grind, almost on their own accord, seeking out some friction.

“Hey, Joker?” I ask as seductively as possible, which admittedly isn’t.

“Yeah, Beautiful?”

“Will you kiss me?”

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