Page 72 of The Leaving Road

Sloan stalked over to me and led me over to a barstool, where he sat me on his lap while he nestled into my neck, making lazy circles on my thigh where my robe had ridden up,

“Where ya going?” I asked her, desperate for a distraction from the havoc Sloan was currently relaying on my body.

“Jace is picking me up and bringing me to the office to go over some things since I start next week…”

“Lexie…” My warning tone had Sloan tilting his head in question.

Lexie shook her head and gave a sternnot nowvibe, and I had no choice but to just shrug and let it go—for now, anyway.

“Look! We should go out tonight, shake off what happened yesterday, yeah?” Her quick change of subject wasn’t lost on me, nor Sloan, but we both knew better than to address it.

I groaned, “I’m not sure I feel like going out to drink or anything like that, Lexie.”

“Let’s just grab dinner then. Is there somewhere easy we could all go?” she asked hopefully. “I’ll ask Jace, and Dexter if I see him at the office today.”

I didn’t have the energy or want to fight with her on this, so I just nodded. “Dinner sounds good, Lexie. Just text me the details.”

Maybe we could bail…

Her phone beeped just in time, and she shot us both a smile and a brief wave as she made her way out of the kitchen and house. “See you both tonight! No bailing!”

I waited until I heard the front door click before I released my breath. “How did she know I was thinking about bailing?” I frowned.

“It was written all over your face, baby. I hate to tell ya, but you don’t have much of a poker face.”

I whipped my head to look at him and give him my best angry eyes. “That’s not true! I have thebestpoker face.”

“Oh yeah?” He kissed my nose, and I immediately melted.

“Maybe…” I sighed as he started kissing my neck. “Actually, I don’t care.” I moaned when he sucked on my collarbone, and he chuckled.

Tiny nails on the wood floor and little puppy whimpers met my ears, and I hopped off Sloan—all sexy time thoughts gone—and I made my way over to where they had set Peaches and the puppies up in the living room. I felt a bit ashamed that I hadn’t checked on them last night after my shower, but when her wiggly body came into view and her happy whines continued, all those thoughts left my mind as I made my way to her. I climbed over the gate that was set up and sat as she crawled into my lap, and I held her while she licked my face.

“She missed you,” Sloan said from behind me.

“You should have woken me up earlier. What time is it, anyway?”

“A little after one p.m.”

His response startled me, and I jumped a little, which caused Peaches to slide off my lap and head back to her puppies to lay down next to them.

“Why did you let me sleep so long? You should have woken me.” I frowned.

“You needed the rest, Magnolia. Plus, I needed to run home and grab some things from my place, anyway.” He shot me a look, letting me know that it wasn’t up for debate, but I couldn’t help but give him a little bit of attitude. Arguing with Sloan had become one of my favorite things.

“Little presumptuous, don’t you think?” I questioned, but he just scoffed at me and invaded my space.

“I told you what last night meant. Did you think I was joking?” His hand found itself in my hair, and his grip was firm and rough but pleasant as he tipped my head back to meet his. “You’re mine.”

“Yes. Yours,” I murmured.

Chapter 46

Magnolia

I wrung my hands together and bit my lip, casting a quick glance over at Sloan as he drove us to dinner. You better believe I tried to get out of it, but once Lexie sent me the address and time, she promptly stopped replying to my text messages. She didn’t even give me the chance to bail.

I’d shown Sloan the text message, and he shrugged, saying he knew where that was. He told me it was a cute little Mexican restaurant that wasn’t big but had awesome margaritas. I tried to be sly and mention something about ourfirst datebeing with a group of people, but that only caused Sloan to laugh at me and inform me that he knew what I was doing.

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