Page 60 of Cruel Savior

She was right. We'd been going non-stop for almost twenty-four hours. Stressing her out more wasn't going to help anything.

"You hungry?"

She shook her head. "Huh-uh. You?"

"I can always eat, but I'm more tired than hungry, so it can wait. Honestly, I’m liable to end up face first in the food.”

She gave me a tight smile. Not what I’d been hoping for, but I’d take it—for now.

I grabbed her hand and pulled her up from the couch and into my arms. If nothing else, I needed a kiss. To my surprise, she gave it willingly and kissed me back. It was just the balm I needed for everything we’d been through today.

We proceeded to take turns showering, and by the time I was done, she was already curled on her side of the bed in those damned short shorts and one of my t-shirts. I ignored the twitch of my cock and climbed in beside her.

"I hope you don't mind I decided to sleep in here with you. I just—" she hesitated and I could see the concern in her eyes. "I just want to hear you breathing every time I wake up."

My chest clenched. That was better than any confession of love I could have wrangled out of her. Not that I'd intended to do that.

"You got your alarms set?"

She nodded and I pulled her all the way against me and placed her hand on my chest. "Go to sleep, baby. I'll be right here with you. I promise."

For once in her life, she didn't argue or try to challenge me. She closed her eyes, and within minutes, her breathing evened out and the worry lines on her forehead finally relaxed. Yep, having her here, pressed against me, was the best damned feeling in the world. Finally, she was home.

* * *

"How is it?" she asked, hovering over the island waiting for my critique.

"Honey, you could have fed me day old cookies for breakfast and I would have been fine. You didn't have to go to this much trouble."

"It's an omelet, Axel, not coq au vin. It wasn't any trouble. And it's not breakfast. We slept through both breakfast and lunch. At best, it's a late dinner."

He glanced down at his cellphone to see it was after 8pm. It was true, they had lost a lot of time. "We obviously needed it. How do you feel?"

"I feel great. Once we got past all those hours of waking me up every five minutes, I slept like a rock."

"Same. My arm’s a little sore and my chest feels a little tight, but other than that I feel as good as ever."

She smirked at him. "Actually, that sounds like a lot. Maybe we should take one more night and see how we feel."

I shook my head. "We can't. Text from JD says we're moving out and headed to Seattle tonight. We've got a meeting."

"Is this about that other body that was found in the building."

I hated to admit it, but I wasn't sure. Sleeping through a night and day had lost me a lot of valuable time to follow up.

"I don't know. Probably. As soon as we're done here, I need to get to the clubhouse and get an update."

"I'm going with you." She grabbed her empty plate and carried it over to the sink. I wanted to argue with her, throw the club business card at her, and make sure she never got near anyone dangerous again. But she'd earned the right to be at my side when we went after the Mazzeo fucker. Not to mention, after the escalation to explosive devices, I didn't want her out of my sight.

I finished off my omelet and was about to grab my shit and head to the clubhouse when someone pounded on my door.Again.

"This sure is a busy place. Is it always like this?"

"I don't know when the hell this place became Grand fucking Central, but I'm sick of it. Has everyone lost their mind and forgotten how to use this thing?" I held up my phone and waved it in front of my face. "If someone wants to talk to me, they should fucking text me."

I hopped off the barstool and crossed to the door with a snarl and afuck youready to go for the asshole still pounding on the thick wood.

"What the hell is your problem? You never heard of a—" I wrenched open the door, and everything else I'd been about to spew died on my lips.

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