Page 73 of Frayed Owner

He sighed. Heavily. Then he gave me puppy dog eyes as he closed the bag. “I got you something because of what we talked about—you maybe not being comfortable with things. I thought we could play and explore even if spa night is PG. So before spa night—”

I moved to him and rubbed my hands over his chest. “Okay, now I maybe get when you say my rambling is cute. You’re being pretty cute.”

“You’re always cuter,” he muttered and gave me a soft kiss. “I got you a toy. For us.”

“That’s—not sweet, but presents are nice,” I chuckled, not sure what else to say. “Interesting.”

He nodded looking like he thought he might still get scolded? “Glad you’re interested, but I’ve not gotten you anything real yet. Not even flowers, and that’s such an asshole—”

“Hey, hey, no, no,” I cut in, even moving a couple of fingers over his mouth. “You give me gifts all of the time, Winter.” I flushed when his eyebrows shot up and he looked like he was ready to use the toy. “Not thegiftsI meant, dirty boy.”

He kissed my fingers. “Then I’m confused.”

I smiled. “Every time you use a transportation circle, that’s a gift for me, Winter. I can’t do that. You’re doing something nice for me. The day you did that for me so I could put Clarence to rest—that wassucha gift. It was everything I needed when struggling. How—why would flowers be better? Fuck flowers. Seriously.”

He searched my eyes and kissed my fingers again. “You are such a gem, little sexy. Seriously. You’re so appreciative after not having what you should have. I wish I could be an adult like you to feel that way. I get selfish. I get…”

“You do better than you think,” I promised him. “You’re the one who taught me that.” I hugged him and he chuckled, hugging me back.

“Sooo yes, you want to see what I got then?”

It was hard not to smile. Winter always just brought out the happy. “I’m interested.”

“Interested is good. Really good,” he murmured, leaning down and kissing my neck. “How about a curious?”

“Uh-huh,” I grunted as he worked up to my ear. “I’ll raise you an intrigued.”

“Oh, now we’re getting somewhere,” he purred and lifted me up.

I swallowed a yelp as he set me on my dresser. I glanced past him and swallowed a sigh. Everything had been boxed up and brought here from the room I’d had at my parents’ house, but I hadn’t had time to go through it all or even the desire.

“I can’t do this here,” I whispered, feeling small.

“What?” he asked, doing a double take at whatever was on my face. “Did you change your mind and want…” He frowned.

I shook my head. “I can’t mess around on the furniture that came from my prison and with everything bought with my parents’ money all packed around me.”

Understanding filled his eyes and he immediately hugged me. “Is that why you haven’t unpacked at all and everything is still in boxes?”

“I think so,” I mumbled. “It makes me all feel ick and like I could wake up back there. It’s why I can’t ever sleep here unless I’ve crashed on the couch. I didn’t even realize it or—”

He gave me a soft kiss. “Okay, grab the stuff besides the bath bombs. We’re doing spa night in your room, your domain, and later we’ll figure out what to do about your room.”

“Kelton wants to give me normal and take me to IKEA,” I admitted.

“That’s an awesome idea,” he said firmly, nodding when I glanced at him. “Go get ideas. Start over. You’ve got the money, Bev. Get this all moved out of here and start fresh. We’ll cleanse it and clean it and you can bring in only what you want. The rest you buy and donate the bad.”

“That would beamazing,” I sighed. “I feel like a baby and also an idiot that I didn’t catch this sooner.”

“You have too much always going on to—I’m sorry we didn’t catch that this could hurt you.” He gave me a soft kiss and then rushed me to grab everything saying his scalp was indesperateneed of attention.

Seriously, Winter was just amazing.

He checked with me if he could talk to Tracey about what I said because he didn’t want me overloaded. He promised me that she would be receptive and that way it could be a frank discussion without worrying about hurting each other’s feelings.

Because he’d noticed that I’d said several times that it was really Tracey’s house. She’d lived there for years and I couldn’t even visit after Grandfather died.

But he added that now Clare would be living there—four adult women who had very full lives and needed space. It wasn’t being roommates to save money but for security and long-term.

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