Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
But there was something more to it now, something beyond innocent comfort. There was need and…there was something right about lying there.
His breathing became even, and one arm went around her waist.
She would give him a couple of minutes and then ease away.
But it was warm and cozy, and she liked the sound of his breathing and the way she felt with his arm around her. Safe. Protected. Beloved.
Just a minute more and she would get up.
She drifted to sleep, letting the darkness surround them like they were the only people in all the world.
* * * *
“Dude, someone fucked you up.”
TJ looked at Aidan O’Malley. Aidan had shown up bright and early with his fiancée, Carys Taggart, in tow. She was currently hanging out in the kitchen with his cousins and Lou. There was the smell of bacon and coffee floating around, and he wanted to join them but nope. He had to follow Aidan’s finger with his eyes and get his blood pressure checked.
“That’s what happens when you’re kidnapped by a Bavarian mobster,” TJ shot back.
He sat on Tasha’s bed, the comforter rumpled, and there was still an indentation on the pillow where Lou had lain her head.
“Have you had any headaches?” Aidan tilted his head up so he could get a look at the bump over his left eye.
“I feel fine with the exception of being sore as hell.” And his dick hurt, but that wasn’t the aforementioned mobster’s fault. It was Lou’s because she was so sexy and pretty and he hadn’t been able to get inside her yet.
He probably wouldn’t have a real chance until they went to the club.
Tonight. He needed to play it cool and not freak her out. Once they were on the dungeon floor, she would sink into the play and be in the moment. Like she’d been before when they were in the cell.
Aidan brought up a small flashlight. “I need to check your pupils. I don’t think you have a concussion because Cooper would have caught that, but I like to be thorough.”
Cooper had in fact checked his pupils, but he’d suspected Aidan would put him through it all again.
Aidan was a second-year resident at one of Dallas’s largest hospitals. He was working on becoming a trauma surgeon, while Carys was doing her OB-GYN residency or she would be in here, too, giving her opinion. Carys and Aidan could be playfully competitive, but some of that light was gone from his friend’s eyes now, likely because Tristan wasn’t with them. TJ remembered when all three of them would have been joking and teasing and Tristan would say that he didn’t need medical school because he’d been forced to watch three hundred seasons of Grey’s Anatomy.
“Do you feel groggy? Did you have a hard time waking up?” Aidan asked as he moved to the other eye.
TJ fought not to blink. “Well, I was definitely hard. Shit. Did I say that out loud? I’m jet-lagged and spent a good portion of the last couple of days drugged out of my mind. And not in a fun, chose-this-path way.”
Aidan looked like a younger version of his father, Liam O’Donnell. He had dark hair that was always a bit too long and intelligent green eyes. He was wearing scrubs because he was going straight to work after he left. He glanced over at the bed, likely putting together the fact that both pillows had been used. He frowned. “You brought a woman here? In Lou’s house?”
Did everyone think he was an asshole? He didn’t spend a terrific amount of time with Aidan, but he thought the guy knew him better. “I would never do that. I wouldn’t have done it before, and I won’t do it now or ever.”
Aidan’s expression went blank, and then he seemed to figure it out. “Lou slept with you?”
“Lou slept beside me,” he corrected. “And it’s not like that’s such a big deal. I spend a lot of time here and the couch sucks, so I sometimes fall asleep on her bed. I’m staying for a couple of months this time around, so Tash is letting me have her room. Lou kept me company, and she fell asleep.”
“I do not get that,” Aidan replied, pulling a stethoscope out of his bag. “I don’t get the whole we’re-just-friends thing.”
Of course he didn’t. He’d found his future wife at the age of…birth, practically. Aidan and Tristan had been trailing after Carys since they were freaking toddlers. “We’re not. We’re not just friends. Not now.”
Aidan seemed to think about that. “I guess I don’t understand the timing. If you loved Lou, why wait?”
“It wasn’t right. It wouldn’t have worked back then. Timing is important.” He was a tad irritated by the other man’s judgment. Aidan had it easy. Aidan hadn’t ever worried there was something wrong with him. He matched Carys in every way. They’d literally fought over who had the highest GPA. Aidan never had to consider if he was the best choice for the woman of his dreams.