Page 170 of Taeja

“For now. It looks like we’ll be sharing a room. I would’ve booked a hotel if—”

“It’s fine,” Zain said, looking toward Cassedi and Damon.

Cassedi handed Zain a plate and drink, and Damon offered Taeja one, too.

“I said I wasn’t—”

“You haven’t eaten in hours, baby. Eat,” Damon urged, not moving until Taeja took a bite. He smiled and sat beside Cassedi on the other sofa, then started eating.

If anyone looked at the mother-daughter reunion, they would’ve sworn they weren’t apart for many years. But Taeja knew better. This was just a bandage over a badly festered wound. It’d be ripped off tomorrow, bright and early. She just needed to make it through the night first.

After they finished eating, Cassedi took the plates. “Do you all sleep…together? Or in separate rooms? Because I have no problem sleeping on the sofa.”

“Absolutely not,” Damon said. “This is your house. We’ll share the room.”

“Are you sure? I’m sorry. I’ve never seen anything like this before, but I’m trying to wrap my head around it so you can all be comfortable.”

Taeja smiled. “You’re doing your best, and that’s good enough for me. Like Damon said, we have no problem sharing a room.”

Cassedi stopped chewing her lip to smile. “Okay… Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” Taeja and Damon said while Zain nodded.

After they showered, they crawled into bed. This bed was small, barely fitting the three of them, but they made it work. Their bodies pressed against hers, like a nice warm blanket made of hard muscle.

She smiled at Zain, who lay before her. “Look who’s going to sleep with us!”

Zain scoffed. “I’m sleeping on the floor. Hurry and go to sleep.”

“Yu nafi sleep pon the floor—”

“I’m going to.”

Taeja kicked him off the bed.

Damon roared a laugh as Zain landed with a thud.

Zain quickly recovered to glare at her. “Did you just kick me off the bed?”

“Yup,” Taeja replied, wondering how she managed to do that. Maybe it was because she finally caught him off-guard. Smirking, she closed her eyes. “Grung yu waa sleep. Why yaa complain? Doh bawl to me. Goodnight.”

28

A loud crow wokeher. Groaning, Taeja rolled onto her belly, putting the pillow over her head. The rooster was unrelenting; it was giving Taeja a headache.

Sitting upward, she looked at both sides of her. Damon wasn’t in the bed and Zain wasn’t on his pile of blankets.

“Maybe they’re outside,” Taeja said to herself. She got out of bed and grabbed some clothes. She had a quick shower before searching for her men.

Not seeing them anywhere in the house, she dropped herself on the sofa and pulled her phone out to try calling them. As she put the phone to her ear, a man walked through the front door. He was dark-skinned, slim-built, and tall. His eyes shone at Taeja as he sat beside her.

“Hey,” he drawled.

Moving the phone from her ear, Taeja scooted away. “Uh… Hi.”

“What’s your name?”

“Alie.”

---