to fix it. I just wasn’t sure how.
“I guess I’ll go,” Chris said, looking at me warily as he stood up, returning my attention to him.
“Thanks,” I said.
“I’ll walk you to the door,” Landry offered.
“I’m jumping in the shower,” I told him.
I was surprised that he didn’t bring his coffee into the bathroom and talk to me. He normally did that in the morning, but I was in a hurry, so it was fine. I shaved, looked at my eyes in the mirror, and saw how red and raw they looked. There was no amount of Visine that could fix it; I needed to sleep, and that was it.
I called for Landry once I was out and changed, and when I was at the hall closet putting my camel hair coat and cashmere scarf on, he came walking out of the kitchen.
“I made you breakfast,” he told me as he crossed the room.
“Oh babe, I’m not awake enough to even eat yet. You have it, okay?” I smiled at him before checking in my shearling-lined denim jacket from the night before for my wallet.
I felt his hand on my shoulder. Turning, I was faced with the blue-green depths of his eyes. “What?”
“I’m worried about you.”
“Baby, I’m okay, just go to work.”
“You’re tired,” he said softly, his hand sliding around the side of my neck, stroking my nape. He leaned me forward so our foreheads touched, inhaling me.
“I’ll be okay,” I assured him, smiling as I drew back. “I just need my sunglasses.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t go, huh?”
“No, I have to go, and you need to go to work.”
“Okay.” His voice dropped low as he closed his eyes. “But please call me if you need anything, all right?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “You know I will.”
“You’ll come home for dinner.”
“I’ll try.”
“Trev.”
“I don’t know what Benji’s gonna need. I don’t know if I have to go collect for him or pay people. I have to find out, and that could take time. I won’t know anything until I get there.”
“I can make pot roast. It’s your favorite.”
“You’re not listening to me.”
“Just come home.”
He could get so fixated.
“Baby—”
“You worked all night,” he cut me off sharply, his voice rising. “I hate it when I sleep alone, and I just… you need to not do that anymore. I hate it, I really hate it.”
“I told you that you could invite any of your friends over to stay with you when I—”
“I need to feel you next to me when I wake up in the middle of the night, Trev. That’s what I need.”
“I know.” And I did. Sometimes when he woke up alone in the dark, he would call for me, wanting to make sure it was me, in voice and body, there beside him. “I’m working on changing it.”
“It’s time,” he insisted.
“Okay.” I nodded, putting my hand on his smooth cheek. Seeing his eyes, the hunger in them, never failed to flip my stomach over. The man had no idea how sexy he was with his beautiful mouth that drove me right out of my mind. The way he kissed me; how expressive his lips were, and pliant; what they looked like when he smiled or laughed or smirked; and what they felt like stretched around my hard cock, gliding over skin he had made wet.
“You took that breath,” he accused me, looking pained.
“I did not,” I denied, even though I had.
“You want me on my knees.”
“No,” I lied.
“But I heard—”
“Hospital. I have to go.”
“Trev?”
The idea of him sucking me off had me shivering with want. Whenever I got tired, I got horny, and I had no idea why.
“Trevan,” he whined my name.
I groaned softly.
“Baby….”
I grabbed his face hard, stilling him completely, making him stop. “You think stupid shit sometimes. You think you have to do something for me to make me love you—like I could stop now even if I wanted to.”
He caught his breath.
“Just stop. I gotta go.” I sighed, dropping my hands off him, ready to leave.
He stilled my flight with hands clutched on my coat. “I’m gonna cook for you, so you need
Debbie Gould, L.J. Garland