The music had stopped, but it started up again. I realized, with a groan, that it was my alarm. Breakfast for guests I wasn’t even sure had made it back to the B&B because I’d been lost in Dawson. If they’d needed me the night before, I hadn’t heard the buzzer.
I moved, and Dawson grumbled, pulling me tight again.
I kissed his chest just below the hollow of his throat. “I gotta get up, but you sleep.”
“No,” he said, arms and muscles capturing me.
I chuckled softly. “Dawson, I have to make breakfast for the guests. It’s Sunday. They’re all leaving except one couple. I have to do this.”
He groaned, eyes finally opening. They were full of heat.
We’d made love three times before he’d passed out, exhaustion and adrenaline catching up to him. I’d stared at him for a long time once he’d caved to the dream world, reveling in the simple fact of having him in my arms. I’d pushed hard at the fear that this was simply another dream in a series of dreams it felt like I was having. I’d focused on the reality of our bodies touching until the rush of emotions that had coursed through me in twenty-four hours dragged me under as well.
I was gloriously sore, and yet, the molten look in Dawson’s eyes made it seem completely possible for me to give myself to him again. Many more times.
The phone started again, jangling out “Can’t Stop This Feeling.”
“Viola the Cruel,” he whispered as he kissed me gently.
I laughed and pushed away from him. He let me. I went to the bathroom, came out, and pulled on a clean pair of leggings, because they would be more forgiving to my sore body parts than jeans, and then I found a long top to throw on over them.
He watched me the whole time, his hooded gaze lighting up my body without actually touching me.
I turned back to the bed, kissed him, and said, “Sleep.”
He grunted his disapproval but didn’t get up.
I smiled and left the room, heading down to the kitchen. I was thankful Jada and I had prepped so many of the menu items for this weekend in advance, because it meant I wouldn’t have much to do. I was surprised to find Jada sitting, dressed, in the kitchen, with a cup of coffee in her hands.
“What are you doing up so early?” I asked.
She looked me over. Her serious expression transformed into a knowing smile.
“Well, don’t you just look like the cat’s meow.”
I laughed. “Does anyone even say that anymore?”
“No, but I’m practicing for the party,” she said.
I turned the oven on and started pulling items from the fridge before repeating my first question. “Really, what are you doing up?”
“I’m waiting for Kaida to come and get me,” she said.
I froze. “What?”
“I’ve got to go back, Vi. You know that. Not only because the event planners will have a thousand different questions for me to answer, but because if I don’t, they’ll try to hitdetonateand figure out we disarmed it,” she said.
While I’d been having sweaty, amazing sex, Jada had worried herself sick.
I was an awful human being.
But I couldn’t regret that Dawson and I had spent the afternoon and the night tangled together. We’d waited too many years to regret it now.
“I want to come with you,” I said, a repeat of the conversation from yesterday.
“I still think you shouldn’t even come,” she said. “But I have a feeling you’ll just be stubborn Vi and show up anyway.”
I didn’t disagree.
