Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 125(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 84(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 125(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 84(@300wpm)
“I feel you. Feel your presence.” I’ve been aware of her since the first day she came into my life. Funny how I could live for so long without knowing I had a soulmate then the moment I did, everything changed.
“We have electricity back, and I washed the dishes from last night. Then I took Frankie and Beans out for a walk after I shoveled a path. I thought the harness would be hard to figure out, but I got it on my first try. Oh, and I made you coffee. It’s behind you on your nightstand.”
I call out to my phone, asking for the time. I grunt when I learn the sun is barely up in the sky. “And now I know you’re a morning person.”
“I take it that you aren’t.” Amusement laces her tone.
“I’m a morning person,” I tell her as I push my tired body into a sitting position. I’ve never ached like this before, and I like it. I like the reminder of what I spent the night doing. All the ways I took my beautiful girl. “If you consider noon to be morning.”
“I want you to teach me something.”
“Anything.” The word comes without hesitation. I won’t hold anything back from Laura, which reminds me I need to call the sheriff later today. I figure I’ll tell him the whole thing was a misunderstanding, and there’s no need to come up my mountain.
“I want to make breakfast…with you.” She sounds almost shy in her request. “No one ever taught me how to cook, and you seem really good at it.”
Her words make my heart twist as I remember the way she called herself unadoptable. Being bounced around from home to home, it makes sense that she would have grown up without getting some essential life skills. “Pancakes or eggs?”
She’s quiet for a long moment.
“Both,” I finally decide for her. “I’ll teach you how to cook both today.”
A few minutes later, I find myself standing behind her. My chin is resting on her shoulder as she pours pancake batter onto the griddle. “Like this?”
I make a little hum of approval as the sunny-side eggs sizzle. My hands are around her curvy hips, and I love this. I love the chance to get to do something so ordinary with my woman. I want a hundred more mornings just like this. Hell, that alone would make it worth getting up early.
I guide her through the cooking process, pausing to steal little kisses as she works. I keep my hands on her the entire time too, moving through the kitchen with her like we’re one fused being.
She never complains. In fact, she keeps pausing to kiss me back and touch me too. But something is different about her kisses this morning. Actually, there’s something different about her whole demeanor. She seems sad though I can’t figure out why.
“I can teach you to cook anything you want,” I tell her when breakfast is over. She’s on my lap because I needed her there while I ate. Needed to feel her curves and know she was getting enough food. That’s even more important to me now that her body could be starting work on junior.
I hope like hell my swimmers have already made their journey. Maybe by this time next year, I’ll be a dad. The thought fills me with a burst of excitement. Never figured I’d have a family again. But being with Laura, it’s all I can think about.
She strokes her hand down my beard. “You should take a shower. You’re supposed to meet with a client at your shop today. Duke will be here soon to pick you up.”
I frown, wondering how she knows that.
“I snooped through your calendar this morning,” she says by way of explanation, a slight note of guilt in her voice.
“What’s mine is yours now,” I reassure her. I mean it too. Everything that’s mine now belongs to Laura. My cabin, my shop, my business, my heart. Even my soul. It’s all hers.
She doesn’t respond. She stands and begins gathering the dishes, putting them in the dishwasher.
I come up behind her and put my arms around her curvy frame. “You could join me in that shower.”
Maybe I’ll fire Duke. Maybe I’ll fire my clients too. Just stay home and spend all my time with Laura in our cabin. I like that idea. Why should I leave when I can focus on breeding my woman?
She presses a soft kiss to my cheek. “You’ll never get out the door on time. Now, go on.”
I grumble under my breath and squeeze her firm ass. Doing that brings flashes of last night to mind, of the way she bent over on the bed for me. “Fine but tonight, I’m taking you out on a date. Our first real one.”
Laura
“Our first real date,” I mutter to myself as I start the dishwasher. There will be no date tonight, and the sound of a vehicle in the driveway only reminds me of that.