Page 102 of Enforcer

So I don’t overthink it when I plug in my phone and text Dante before locking it up and crawling into bed.

Come back tonight? I miss you.

Once in bed, I close my eyes, knowing he can get in when he’s ready. I smile as I fall asleep, hope in my heart and levity in my soul.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

DANTE

Alyssa groans and tries to roll away from me in bed, but I hold her firmly to me. She moans softly, snuggling into my chest, and then gasps.

When she sits up and turns around, I plaster a grin on my face.

“Good morning, tesoro.”

Clutching her heart, she levels her breathing. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“Mm,” I stretch and watch her eyes drink in the blanket that slides down my torso as I do so, “did I?”

“How did you get in here?” she asks, promptly rolling her eyes as she realizes this is afamilyproperty. “Never mind.”

“Did you not ask me to return and tell me you missed me? Or was that your alter ego?”

Smiling, she lies back beside me, looking up at the ceiling, dancing with the rising sun beyond the townhouse. “I didn’t think you’d come.”

I grab the blanket and act as if I’m going to leave. “I can go…”

Her hand stops me, landing on my arm like a weight. Like an anvil dropped on me from above.

“Stay. Well, as long as you can. I know you have to work today, as do I.” She closes her eyes against the idea, and I ponder an idea, mulling it over in my head before blurting it out.

Things with her feel great, but I don’t want to ruin anything.

She’s as delicate as a flower that hasn’t gotten enough water, and the slightest wind in the wrong direction could make her petals fall off.

“We don’t have to do anything we don’t want to do,” I tell her, cuddling up to her side and nipping her ear.

She preens, her body pressing into mine as if she’s the cat, and I’m the rays of afternoon sun beaming in the window for her to lounge in. “We don’t?” she breathes.

I break from her ear. “We don’t. We can take the day for ourselves. Let them handle everything.”

“A day for ourselves,” she echoes raspily as I skim the shell of her ear with my tongue.

“We deserve it.”

“Mm,” she agrees, turning her face into mine. Her lips hover over mine before I gently press forward and initiate a kiss.

She returns it tenfold, her moan giving me more of a buzz than the first sip of coffee in the morning.

“Well,” I mutter, pulling back from the lips I could kiss all day long, “you’d best go get dressed.”

“What? Why? I thought…”

I cover her lips with my finger, revelling in the softness of them against my calloused skin as I draw her bottom lip down with my fingertip.

“I told you we could take the day. I didn’t say we’d be in bed all day long. Go on, get dressed. I’m taking you out.”

I watch as worry fills her eyes, anxiety crawling back through her body that—a moment ago—was lax and putty in my hands.

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