Page 35 of Power Play

“What?” I ask.

“Your tush is cold,” he says, laughing. I slide a hand around and feel my butt cheek.

“Oh my gosh,” I say with a giggle.

“Don’t worry, baby girl,” he says, pulling me in even tighter. “Daddy’s got you. He nuzzles into my neck, taking in a deep breath, and I swear I feel his whole body go limp, like he’s lighter or something.

I sigh, letting the feeling of him holding me wash over me. My brain is fighting me to remember that this is very,verytemporary. But my heart is letting me forget that, drowning it out with the sounds of his peaceful breathing.

I clutch onto his arms, letting my eyes shut and my head get heavy on the pillow.

I open my eyes slowly, blinking in the bright sunlight that’s streaming through the windows. I feel the heaviness of his arm draped across me. But then I hear it again—the buzzing that’s just loud enough to shake the lamp on the nightstand, making an obnoxious clanking sound that finally pulls me out of the best sleep I’ve had in four years.

I grab my phone that’s dragging all over the end table and flip it over. I spring up when I see Tyson’s name. I look at the time.Fuck.It’s nine o’clock. I start at the restaurant at noon today.

“Hello?” I answer, trying my best not to give off inanyway that I am in bed with his best friend after a night full of hot sex and showers—and the two most explosive orgasms of my short twenty-two years.

“Where are you?” Tyson says, his voice scratchy. I can practically smell the beer-tinted morning breath through the phone.

“I, uh…” I say, my voice drifting as Levi stirs, looking at me through slow blinks. “I’m in my room.”

Levi mouths to me, “Who is it?”

“Tyson,” I mouth back.

“Fuck,” he whispers, pushing himself up.

“What’s your room number? Where’s Levi?”

“Uh, you know, I actually don’t remember. I’m still in bed. I’ll check. I’m not sure. Have you called him? He’s probably still in his room.”

“I called you first,” he says.

“Ah, okay. Well, let me get dressed, and then I’ll, uh, I’ll meet you downstairs for breakfast. Why don’t you call Levi and see if he wants to meet us while I get ready.”

“Okay, yeah,” Tyson says, hanging up.

I let out a sigh of relief. When I look at Levi, though, he looks calm, peaceful. Not at all worried that my brother is going to catch us.

“What?” I say, biting my lip, suddenly feeling a little bit insecure under his gaze.

He shrugs.

“I just realized that I’m still in bed with you,” he says. I look up at him.

“Is that…okay?”

He just smiles, leaning forward for a quick kiss.

“It’s…it’s way better than okay,” he says when he pulls away. I bite my lip again, trying not to smile like a fucking schoolgirl. We jump when his phone vibrates on the other nightstand. He reaches across the bed for it.

“Hey, Ty,” he says. He looks at me and smiles with a boyish shrug. “Uh-huh. Oh, man, yeah. Late night. Hmm? Oh, yeah. Breakfast sounds perfect. Gimme, like, five or ten minutes. Mhmm. Cool. Bye.”

He ends the call and tosses his phone onto the bed.

“I guess we should go down separately,” I say, but his fingers crawl across the bed and interlace with mine.

“If that’s what you want,” he says. I look back at him again.

---