Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Gideon
You’re part of this family now.
Mae’s frank statement echoed through my head all the way back to Autumn’s house. Our house? Fuck, I didn’t know. This day had been confusing, and I wanted it to be over.
I stopped inside the door from the garage and frowned at the dark little box of a house. The day was over. It was time for bed. She didn’t remember me lying next to her last night.
A pressure wound itself around my shins. The cat.
“It’s been a long day.” Autumn flipped on the light. “It’ll be so nice to sleep in my own—” Those expressive amber eyes shot toward me. Her pink lips parted.
“Our bed,” I said more to see how she reacted. I was not disappointed. The ripe mouth, the way she blushed when she thought of me and the bed at the same time.
She pursed her lips and a worry line formed across her forehead.
Heat coiled in my gut, but I needed a clear head to figure out how to stop the sale. I couldn’t get wrapped up in this lust I felt around Autumn, but we also had a deal and I hadn’t done my part yet. I didn’t want to consider the consequences of having a baby.
The main problem was that getting between Autumn’s legs could be detrimental to my clear head. I wasn’t sure what the hell to think about kids yet, and I didn’t need her soft-in-all-the-right-places body wreaking havoc with my thinking.
But I wanted to fuck her. Badly.
She’d been a rock all day. Facing her family, telling her mama, and cleaning up after dinner. The only time she’d wavered was when she’d realized I was supposed to meet Taya at the club.
I’d meant what I’d told her. Last night had been fun—sitting with a sexy woman who wasn’t afraid of what she liked and was proud to share it with others had been refreshing. It was the first night in a long time I hadn’t talked solely about my job.
“I have a futon in the office.” She took off down the hall. The cat pranced behind her.
No fucking way. I hadn’t slept on a floor, futon, pullout, or in my car since college, and I wasn’t doing it now. “We need to get used to sleeping together.”
She stopped, frozen.
“Not like that, firecracker.” Not yet. As soon as my lawyer expedited my early morning request, I’d retroactively fix the target I’d drawn on myself when I’d married her with no prenup.
And we’d have divorce papers just as quickly.
I wasn’t ready to wade into the mess that was parental rights and custody arrangements.
But I also wasn’t sleeping on a goddamn futon after slumbering next to her last night.
“We’ll sleep in the same bed and get used to each other for another night. Without alcohol.”
The bloom was back on her cheeks. Would she blush like that after she orgasmed? How far would it spread over her body?
The heat coiled tighter in my gut. I’d sleep with a raging erection all night if I kept those thoughts up.
“It was easier when I didn’t know you were in bed with me.”
Not for me. I’d caught myself watching her twice.
What was it like to sleep with that much abandon?
To be sprawled in a near stranger’s bed and snooze like it was the safest, most comfortable spot in the world?
I paid for an excellent mattress. I had room-darkening shades for the wall of windows if needed.
I was regimented about when I had caffeine and how much.
Nothing fucked with my sleep, and yet, at best, I could get a few hours of actual rest. Otherwise, a mouse could cough and wake me up.
“I can wait until you’re asleep.”
She lifted her chin, rallying at the idea of going to bed with me. A guy with a lesser ego might be insulted. Instead, I was amused.
“No,” she said, “otherwise Sprinkles will take your spot.”
“The cat sleeps in the bed?” I wasn’t used to sharing, and I wasn’t used to cats.
“Every night,” she said, like she was challenging me to cut the cat off. “Didn’t you ever have a house pet?”
“No. The dog worked more than I did.” Sawyer had passed shortly after I left for college. I suspected Dad had forgotten to feed him. One more strike against the man. “Mom didn’t like cats.”
She smothered her surprise. Was it unheard of not to like cats? “If I lock her out, she’ll yowl at the door.”
“She’s welcome to stay.” Part of me was curious how the tiny feline thought she could rule the bed against two adults.
Autumn jerked her thumb over her shoulder and cocked her head. “I’ll use the bathroom first and then . . .”
I punched down my brewing laughter. She was uncomfortable. I was . . . interested. Intrigued.
I never overnighted with a woman. If we ended up in the same bed, that meant we had gone to that bed for one specific reason. I didn’t witness bedtime routines. I saw no pajama choices. By morning, I was alone again. Just how I preferred it.
Autumn’s butt swayed against the long sweater she had on over her leggings. I’d seen her in all of two outfits, but she’d hidden her ass with each of them.
I ground my molars together. An ass like that shouldn’t be hidden. I could quickly become obsessed with the globes of her butt bouncing under the fabric.
Heat circled under my collar. She’d disappeared into the bedroom. I wandered through her kitchen, peeking into cupboards and being nosy in a way I hadn’t been willing to do while she watched me.
She had one box of cereal that had collected dust on the top of her fridge.
Her eggs looked farm fresh and my damn mouth watered.
It’d been decades since I’d had those. The chickens had gone shortly after Mom’s death.
In the freezer, I had to pause to check out her assortment of ice cream.
Rocky road. Tin roof sundae. Chocolate. Mint chip.
My wife didn’t just like salty food, she also liked chocolate. I filed that knowledge away like a good husband who might need it to prove her brothers wrong.
They weren’t wrong about anything.
I brushed the thought away and went to the hallway closet. It caught me off guard as much as the lineup of ice cream. Tubs of—I leaned into the small, lightless space. Decorations and art supplies. Another bin was marked Lessons.
Wasn’t there room in her classroom for this stuff?
A door squeaked open and I stepped away from the closet. I gently pushed the door shut, resisting the urge to slam it in a rush to see Autumn emerging fresh-faced from the bathroom.
She was sitting up in bed by the time I entered.
Her sweet smell hung in the air. The cat was circling at the base of her feet.
Autumn’s freshly washed hair was loose around her face and my gut clenched.
The rusty halo around her head looked like the most expensive crown a guy could buy, and I’d seen a few expensive ones in my time in Vegas.
She smoothed what had to be a handmade quilt over her lap. “Help yourself to whatever.”
There was one thing I wanted to help myself to, but there was a cat in the way. Beyond the cat was a woman who was about to fidget out of her skin. Her fingers worked a loose string on the quilt.
“You’re going to unravel that thing.”
She looked down and let out a nervous laugh. “Oh, yeah. Wouldn’t be the first time. Mama’s had to fix a lot of holes I made pulling strings. She finally made me learn how to sew up a patch myself.”
A fine scar ran down the side of her arm, just above her elbow. Instant concern propelled me forward. Without thinking, I ran my finger down the uneven white line. On each side of the line were smaller pucker marks. “What’s this from?”
Her wide, unblinking eyes were staring at me.
I was tracing her skin. I yanked my hand away. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. I almost forget it’s there. It’s from the accident when I was a kid. With my birth parents.” She screwed up her face. “It’s always weird to call them that, but it’s just as odd to say my first set of parents, you know?”
I didn’t. I’d lost my mom, but I’d forgotten that Autumn and her sisters had lost a mom and a dad in one fell swoop.
“My mom used to talk about you guys.” I got lost in the memory.
Mom making dinner and bustling around the kitchen while I worked on homework at the table.
“She’d tell me everything she heard about the Kerrigan girls. ”
“Really? I mean, I know people followed our story, but it’s weird, isn’t it? How we were strangers before yesterday, yet you probably know more of my story than a lot of my coworkers.”
“Coworkers like Mark?” The fond memories of my mom evaporated as I envisioned pummeling the unknown man’s face.
“No.” She frowned, her gaze getting a faraway look. “I don’t think he knows any of it. I’m so used to people knowing that I don’t really talk about it.” She gasped. “I have to tell him I’m married. I’ll have to tell my friends, but I should get to him first. Since we . . .”
“Since you were seeing each other?” My teeth ached from clenching so hard.
“It was barely that. The first date was more of a random meeting in the coffee shop. Then it was like a work picnic before school started, where we kept talking after. The third was official, and then . . . Well, you don’t want to hear about that.”
“I assure you, Mrs. James, I very much do.”
She lifted a doubtful reddish brow. “He asked me to go to Spokane with him to meet his parents.”
The fuck he had. I kept my temper reined in. “Spokane is over a six-hour drive away.”
“Right?” She puffed out a breath. “An overnight trip at least. He’s easy to talk to, but I didn’t think we connected that hard. We didn’t even . . .” She flicked her gaze away.
“He planned to on the Spokane trip,” I said, irritated. My heart rate jumped. What if I’d missed her at the elevator? She’d have returned to Bourbon Canyon and might’ve taken Mark up on his offer.
“And he probably doesn’t even know Mama isn’t my birth mom.” She shook her head, the damp strands of hair dancing over her breasts.
The knowledge eased the burgeoning rage inside me. “You didn’t tell him?” As if I mentioned my parents, living or dead, to anyone.
She shook her head and dropped her gaze.