Page 135 of Simon Says

They stayed like that until Simon knew he had to get up before he lost the condom and ended up taking chances with her after all.

He kissed her shoulder and lifted her to her back beside him. “Stay put. I’ll be right back.”

She didn’t move, didn’t speak. Simon smiled at that, and went into the bathroom.

When he returned, she’d rolled to her side and had the sheet over her lower body. He walked around the bed and got in beside her. Immediately, she crawled back on top of him.

In a whisper, she said, “Do you mind?”

“Having you for a blanket? No.”

“Good. I like breathing you in and feeling all of you.” She snuggled against him. “I could sleep like this.”

No time like the present, Simon thought. “Honey?”

“Yeah?”

“Before you doze off…Harley didn’t come to see me about Bonnie.”

As if she really didn’t care one way or the other, she kissed his chest. “No?”

“He didn’t want to talk about the fight, either.” As Simon spoke, he trailed his hand up and down her spine, luxuriating in the silky texture of her skin. “I’m sorry, Dakota, but I need to—”

“Talk. I know.” Around a lusty yawn, she said, “Youlovetalking.”

He smiled at her, but didn’t relent. “I wish there was a better time to bring this up, but I don’t think there is.”

Looking wide-awake, Dakota jerked up her head. “You’re not giving me a kiss-off, are you?” She tweaked his chest hair playfully. “Listen up, Sublime. If you were only biding your time till you got what you wanted—”

“I’m not sure a decade would be long enough to get everything I want from you.”

“Really?” Dakota’s smile wobbled, then she lay back down on him. “A decade, huh?”

Refusing to go off course, Simon cupped the back of her head and said, “Honey, how did your mother die?”

She went very still. “What are you talking about?”

Tenderly, Simon sifted his fingers through her drying hair. “You told me your mother passed away, but not how or why.”

“She had an accident.”

“What kind of accident?”

Long seconds went by in silence before she shrugged. “We had this tiny deck off the back of our house. Wooden stairs led to the yard. Somehow Mom fell.”

“Lots of people fall.” Dakota had fallen.

“I know. But she…I guess the railing had rotted, because halfway down, it broke away and Mom went over the side into a large woodpile.” Her voice faded with the memories. “She had multiple rib fractures. A broken leg. So many cuts and bruises. But they told me it was the severe head injuries that put her in a coma.”

“She never came out of the coma? She never had a chance to say what happened?”

Dakota shook her head. “I’d already decided to leave Marvin, so I moved back home. It was close to the hospital. I spent each day with her. And I prayed a lot. But the doctors told me not to get my hopes up. She had so many injuries and every day she looked more frail until…one day she was gone.”

Simon pressed a warm kiss to the top of her head. “I’m sorry to bring it up.”

She pushed up to her elbows to look at him. “Why are you?”

“Because you also fell down some stairs.”

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