Page 100 of Smith

I’d never slept with a woman full out on top of me. It wasn’t a comfortable position but Aria’s sleepy, warm, soft body on top me was my new favorite way to sleep. It sucked I couldn’t enjoy waking up with my woman for the first time with nothing weighing heavy, no secrets between us, no coming up with excuses to push her away while holding her close.

I needed to get my ass up and get on the road.

Aria’s problems were over. In a few hours after we got what we wanted from Billy Rice we’d hand him over to the police and Aria’s file would officially be closed for us. The police would do their thing but Z Corps’ part would be done.

“Need you to roll off, baby.”

“I very much dislike Billy Rice,” she dejectedly grumbled as she just as dejectedly rolled.

I tagged my phone, stopped the alarm, then rolled with her, coming up on my elbow.

Damn, she was pretty. I didn’t need the light to see it. Her beauty just filled the room. And I almost threw all that beauty away, almost lost it, would’ve, if it wasn’t for her calling me on my bullshit. That thought made my gut roll.

I brushed her hair off her neck, kissed her throat, moved to her lips, kissed her there, but pulled back before I texted my team to hit Billy’s without me.

“Sleep, baby. I’ll be home in a few hours.”

“Home,” she muttered and it sounded like she was smiling.

I rolled back the other way, hauled my ass out of bed, and got dressed.

It wasn’t until I was standing in the doorway of her bedroom looking at a sleeping Aria did it finally hit me.

This was it.

This was how every morning of the rest of my life would start, or a variation of it. But the mainstay would be the same—waking up next to Aria.

On that thought, I walked out of the bedroom, through the quiet dark of her house, out the front door to Jonas idling at the curb.

I did this with my head full of the future I never would’ve believed could be mine, with a woman who I never would’ve believed I could earn, but I had.

Meaning when I left Aria’s I knew without a doubt she was mine.

“Clear,”I called out from Billy Rice’s empty bedroom.

Three more ‘clears’ were called out from Theo, Jonas, and Easton from three other bedrooms.

What the fuck?

It was four AM on the dot and the asshole wasn’t in bed.

His truck was parked in his driveaway. As of ten minutes ago when Garrett ran a trace on Billy’s cell it was inside this house.

But no Billy.

I yanked my phone out of my pocket, found Cash’s name, and hit the call icon.

“That was?—”

“He’s not here. You got anything?”

“No. Me and Coop have eyes on the house from the back, clear shot of the storage parking lot, and three of the neighbors’ back yards. No movement.”

Fucking hell.

“Cell’s in the kitchen,” Theo announced.

“Standby.”

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