Page 81 of With This Kiss
I wokeup late the next morning.
Reign was still in bed with me, still in his usual position with all limbs wrapped tightly around my body, as if he were afraid someone might come in the middle of the night and take me away from him.
I smiled at the thought and snuggled in closer to his chest.
“You’re awake,” he said, his voice clear.
“And you’ve been awake for a while. You don’t have to stay in bed with me. I’m sure you have a lot to do.”
“I’ve got nothing going on today. I’ll have to leave later to take care of some…family business, but I’ll be back later tonight.”
“Oh.” Family business said enough. I doubted he would really tell me what was going on if I asked him.
His telling me he kept a flash drive in a bank safe deposit box was one thing, but going into detail about all thegorythings he did for his family was something else entirely.
I looked down at the few chest hairs he had, my finger moving across the warm tan skin, tracing along the inked lotus flower on his chest.
Reign wasn’t as heavily tattooed as I expected, but he had enough that I found fascinating. I didn’t really understand the appeal of tattoos until I saw his.
Now I was wholly fascinated.
“You’ll be back to sleep with me?” I asked.
“I will.”
“Promise?”
“I promise,” he said without hesitation. I smiled and pressed a kiss on his chest, wondering when I had become like this.
Someone who was so consumed with desire for another person, I didn’t know what to do with myself when he wasn’t around.
And so we spent the entire day together. I attached myself to his side until the very last minute when he had to go. I stood by the front door and watched him walk out.
“Lock the door behind me, okay?” he said.
I nodded.
“And don’t open the door to strangers.”
I smiled. “You act like you're talking to a ten-year-old. I’ve been living by myself since I was twenty-one.”
He didn’t smile back.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe because I spent the entire day with you, but everything in me is saying to stay.”
“Then stay,” I said, trying not to sound so clingy.
“I wish I could, sweetheart.”
I took in a deep breath. “Then go. I’ll be here waiting for you, okay?”
He hesitated. I offered him an encouraging look. Finally, he turned around and headed to the elevator. I stayed by the front door and watched him, not going back inside until the elevator door closed, and I could no longer see him.
Then I did as he asked and locked the door behind me.
I was rummaging through my fridge, trying to decide what I wanted to cook for dinner, when a loud bang came from my front door. My heart dropped in fright from the sound, and I moved without thinking, grabbing my phone and rushing forward to my room, where my gun safe was located, and pulled out Barbara.
