Page 45 of Owning Emma

Chapter 20

ROMAN

I awoketo the sunlight streaming into my eyes, my bones so stiff, the slightest movement made me cringe. I blinked a few times, trying to blink away the sleep as my head lolled to the side. My breath froze in my throat as I took in the sight of the bodies next to me.

In rapid succession, the memory of last night flooded me. Us forcing Emma to watch a movie, her repeated yawns until I finally pulled her feet up onto my lap so she could stretch out. My fingers twitched against her ankles as I thought about the objections she gave me until comfort finally got the best of her and she put her cramped legs onto my thighs herself.

Now, hours later, it seemed by the grey on the television screen that not a single one of us made it to the end of the movie. As if he felt my gaze, Shaw suddenly opened his eyes, the hazel orbs locking onto me before they drifted to his shoulder where Emma’s head lay, right where his head had been resting. A slow smile curled up one corner of his lips at the sight of the sleeping woman on his shoulder.

“Time?” he whispered when his eyes found mine again.

I brought my wrist close to my eyes and blinked a few times, trying to take in the numbers. “A little after seven.”

He nodded. “Should we wake her?”

Should we, yes. But I didn’t want to do it. She was overworked and rarely slept past five in the morning, and to see her lay this peacefully on Shaw’s shoulder made something inside of me stir and flutter. Despite that, I knew that if we didn’t wake her up soon, one or both of us would get the lashing of a lifetime.

“You do it,” I instructed.

“Fuck no,” he grunted. “She’s going to flip out on us. You be the first victim.”

“I’ll give you a week off,” I offered.

“Shit of an offer, I can take off whenever I want,” he countered.

He could, but I was hoping in the early morning haze, he would have forgotten that. “I’ll pay you double.”

“You think any amount of money is going to make me wake her, then you are sorely mistaken, my friend.” He hissed, “I already have such little expenses that I have more money than I need anyway.”

“I’ll buy you a second motorcycle.”

“I haven’t gotten to ride my first much lately as is,” he replied.

“You guys are the biggest wimps I ever met,” a groggy feminine voice cut in. Both our eyebrows raised as we looked at each other and then at her. “I’m awake, you can stop arguing.”

“We weren’t exactly arguing,” I answered defensively as my fingers rubbed against her ankles.

“Disputing. Bartering. Whatever.” Her eyes finally opened. Following a few blinks she looked around, her head shifting against Shaw’s shoulder without pulling away from him. “I fell sleep.”

“We all fell asleep,” Shaw clarified.

“What time is it?” She brought one of her little hands up to her eyes, trying to rub the sleep away.

“A little after seven.”

She jumped up, pulling her feet away from my hands. “What do you mean it’s a little after seven?”

And she wondered why no one wanted to wake her. “We slept until after seven.”

“That can’t be. You have company coming today . . . soon.” She stood, looking down at us with panic in her eyes.

“That might be true, but that doesn’t change the fact that you were fast asleep, drooling on Shaw’s shoulder until after seven.” She narrowed her gaze at me when I mentioned the drool.

“First of all, I do not drool.” She held a finger in front of herself, and I could dispute that first fact. There was a wet spot that had soaked through Shaw’s t-shirt, but I thought it wise to let that one go. “Secondly, I have so much to do, and I don’t think I can get it done in time. Why didn’t you wake me sooner?”

Shaw, being the obviously smarter of the two of us, had kept his mouth shut during her whole freak out, leaving me to be the sole person under Emma’s firing gaze. “We were all asleep, Emma. It’s not like I had my phone to set the alarm. I left it in the office.”

She turned on Shaw as if she suddenly remembered he was there. “What about you? Why didn’t you wake me?”

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