Page 62 of Missing Pieces

Chapter Twenty-Five

I wake up to the smell of bacon cooking in the kitchen. I stretch my arms above my head as I roll over onto my back. I smile at the memories of last night. Makeup sex with Easton is definitely worth the fights. Maybe deep down I just wanted to be mad at Easton because I knew what the outcome would be. No holds barred sex. And if it continues to be this way I might just need to find a way to be mad at him more often.

“What’s that grin on your face for?”

I look up and just about start drooling. Easton is standing in my bedroom door completely naked holding two plates of food in his hands. His defined muscles covered in a light sheen of sweat from the heat of the kitchen.

My grin turns into a huge smile. “You.”

He walks toward me and sets the plates down on the nightstand next to the bed. “And why is that?”

“Because I’m still mad at you.”

He folds his arms over his chest, “Oh really? I thought those, how many was it?” He counts on his fingers, “I think that was six orgasms last night didn’t prove to you I was sorry?”

A blush begins to take over my cheeks, six glorious orgasms was quite adequate, but I figure pressing his buttons would be more fun. I press my lips together and shrug.

Easton jumps on the bed, straddling me, his dick getting harder by the second. “Really? Six wasn’t enough? You are a tough girl to please.”

He trails his fingers up and down my arms, sending heat right to the apex of my thighs. I try to reach for him, but he keeps my arms pinned down as he leans into my neck. His hot tongue leads a trail up to my ear. “Maybe I do have one more in store for you.”

I let out a groan, anxious to see what he plans to do but my groan quickly turns into a screech as he tickles my sides. I am beyond ticklish and this is pure torture for me. I try to kick him away which just makes him tickle me more. I try to yell out stop, but I’m laughing to tears. One of his hands makes it to my feet while the other stays at my belly. I nearly kick him in the face trying to get free when Poe comes running in and jumps on the bed. He starts barking like crazy and jumping between the two of us. Just as Easton settles down, Poe jumps off the bed and puts his face right into our breakfast.

“Poe!”

He takes off in a sprint leaving us alone in the bedroom with no breakfast. Easton reaches over and grabs the one piece of bacon Poe managed to miss. “Peace offering?”

I snatch the bacon out of his hand and shove it into my mouth. “Fine. I forgive you.”

He smiles at me, barring his beautiful white teeth, a smile like I haven’t seen before. His eyes crinkle at the corners and there is a depth of emotion coming from them that scares the shit out of me. I wouldn’t call it love but it’s definitely the look of falling and that’s on a level I cannot deal with right now. I do my best to change the subject as smoothly as possible.

“Thanks for breakfast. I’m sure it was delicious. But that damn dog. I swear he acts like a sweet little pupples and the next he’s the devil incarnate.”

I watch as the grin on his face lets up a little. “Pupples?”

I smooth out a section of the blanket with my hand, a smile at my lips. “That’s what I used to call Poe when he was a puppy. It stuck because I still call him that sometimes.”

Easton grabs my hand that keeps smoothing out the blanket. “When did you get him?”

I swipe a piece of loose hair behind my ear. “Right after Drew and I moved to Chicago. He started his new job, the reason we moved out to Chicago after we got married, and I was still looking for work. He worked all the time and I was lonely. I had volunteered at a shelter and I met Poe and we fell in love.”

I look up at Easton and continue, “Drew wasn’t happy when he came home to a dog in the house. And I understood, we didn’t discuss it and we discussed all major decisions. I guess I went behind his back, as he put it. In all fairness, at least he was trained! It’s not like I brought home a dog that was shitting all over the carpeting.”

“So why did he keep the dog when you guys separated? It seems he was never too fond of Poe.”

I shake my head. “He wasn’t. And he was just being a dick. When I say we discussed all major decisions I mean we did talk but we always went with his choice.” Anger starts to well up in my veins as I think back on our relationship. “God I was such an idiot with him. I just dealt with it for so long it felt so normal for me to just step back and let him lead the way. My opinion didn’t really matter that much.”

Easton grabbed my chin and forced me to look up at him. “Don’t sell yourself short, Harper.”

I sigh and lean my head into my knees, shaking my head. “One of the most fucked up things is that I was offered an amazing job back in Boston, but he told me that his career was more important. He didn’t even have any job offers at the time but insisted we didn’t move to Boston. God, I am an idiot.”

“No, you’re not,” Easton says while rubbing circles into my back.

“You know, all I have ever wanted was a family. A big one because I was an only child with parents who weren’t always around. I wanted the sound of laughter in my house. And every time I brought up that we should try to have kids, he would brush me off and say maybe next year. Because he didn’t have time for them. It’s not like he would have raised them. He was too busy with his floozies to care about me or a family.”

My blood began to boil as I reflected on what I finally realized was the biggest mistake of my life, marrying Drew.

“Harp, hey, it’s oka—”

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