Chapter 31
Thirty-one
Lane
I wake up cocooned in Jameson’s strong, tattooed arms, the late morning sun shining through the sheer curtains. His smell envelops me, making it easy to breathe for the first time in days. Being in his arms feels like home.
After going to bed, I stared at the ceiling until the early hours of the morning, sleep refusing to come. My conversations with Jameson, with his mom, with Kam; all playing on a loop in my head.
My body and my heart missed him, craved him, every cell humming with awareness that he was just across the hall. It was my head that couldn’t let go, fear holding me captive.
“Just go to him,” Kam grumbles, pulling the blanket over her head and rolling on her side. “I can’t sleep with how loudly you are mentally fighting with yourself over this.”
“What if he lies to me again?” I ask, sitting up, doubt refusing to loosen its grip. “What if there’s something else down the line he doesn’t tell me?”
Kam throws the covers off with a dramatic groan and sits up beside me. “What if he doesn’t, Lane? What if he keeps showing up, keeps choosing you? That man would set the world on fire just to keep you warm.” Her voice softens. “Now stop punishing Princess Peach and go get your man.”
I hesitate for only a second before throwing back the covers and climbing out of bed, my feet carrying me to the door.
“There’s a robe hanging in the closet. Wear it, and only it,” she mumbles, before lying down and pulling the covers back over her head.
I pause, glancing at the closet door. Fuck it.
I couldn’t stay away, not when he loves with the kind of all-consuming fierceness I never thought I’d find. I know without a doubt I can trust him. Not only with my body, but with my heart as well.
Jameson stirs behind me, arms tightening, pulling me closer. “Mmm…I’ve missed waking up with you in my arms,” he murmurs against my hair.
My lips tip at the corners, voice teasing. “It’s been barely forty-eight hours.”
He rolls, pinning me beneath him. He settles between my thighs, his length hot and heavy between us. “Forty-eight hours is far too long to go without knowing if you were mine.”
“I’m yours. I was always yours,” I whisper, pulling him into a kiss.
He rolls his hips, his hard length grinding against my center. “Is this mine too?”
Just as I open my mouth to answer, raised voices echo from downstairs; Kam and Miles. What the hell?
I sigh, my head falling back against the pillow. “We should probably go see what’s going on down there.”
“No,” he groans, burying his face in my neck, his warm breath sending goosebumps skittering across my skin. “I’m not ready to share you yet.”
I laugh softly. “Have you met Kam? Miles might be in danger right now.”
He trails kisses up my neck. “Fuck Miles.”
The loud, sharp shriek of the smoke detector splits the air. Seriously, what the hell is happening down there?
Jameson curses under his breath and rolls off me. “He’s gonna pay for this.”
He stalks to his dresser and yanks open a few drawers, pulling out items of clothing.
He hands me a pair of boxers and one of his t-shirts before putting on his own clothing; gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt.
I have to roll the boxers several times, and the t-shirt falls to the middle of my thigh, but it works.
His fingers thread through mine, the feeling familiar and comforting, as we slip from the room to see what sort of chaos awaits us downstairs.
My jaw drops when we walk into the kitchen and I see the disaster before me. It looks like a food bomb went off.
My eyes slowly scan the room. Pancake batter is smeared across the counter, dripping off the edge onto the tile. The stove is covered in a slimy mess of eggs and bacon grease. Smoke rises from a blackened piece of toast still sitting in the toaster.
“What happened?” I shout over the still blaring alarm.
Kam sets a plate of fluffy pancakes on the table, with a soft thud. “I’m making breakfast.”
Miles fans the last of the smoke away with a dish towel, the loud alarm finally stopping.
He tosses the towel on the counter and folds his arms. “More like you are being a tiny tornado of destruction.
Mama C is going to lose her mind when she sees this mess," he grits out, his eyes following Kam as she crosses to the stove.
She rolls her eyes, transferring steaming bacon onto a paper-towel-lined plate. “Oh my god, Miles. Chill out. Mama C loves me and knew I was making breakfast. I had every intention of cleaning up after we ate.”
She turns, her lips curving into a sweet smile. “But then you said you and Jameson would clean up since I went through all the trouble of making us this beautiful breakfast.”
Kam is the sweetest person you will ever meet; but don’t fuck with her because she doesn’t take it and she will get even in the most graceful way possible.
When she caught her fiancé cheating, she didn’t cry.
Nope, not Kam. She calmly called the agency she booked the wedding planner through and told them what their employee had done.
Then she called her fiancé’s parents and told them what their son had done.
Lastly, she called the wedding planner's husband and told him what his wife had done.
It was the perfect revenge, and the right thing to do. One hundred percent Kam.
Jameson wraps his arms around me from behind, his warmth seeping into me. “We’d be happy to clean up.”
Miles glares at him before shaking his head and stalking toward the sink. He rolls up his sleeves, muttering about the 'tiny blonde tornado' and something about 'Goldilocks and the three bears'. I have to place my hand over my mouth to stop the laugh that threatens to spill out.
Interesting. Kam gets under his skin.
Jameson pulls me closer, his chin resting on the top of my head. “Where are my parents?”
“The images were too grainy to get a clear ID.” Miles' voice rises over the clink of dishes as he fills the sink with soapy water. “Vic went to pick up files for PIs who fit the description Lane gave. Your mom went with him. They should be back later this afternoon. I’m headed to visit my parents after I help clean up Kameron’s mess.
” he mutters, looking over his shoulder, his glare landing on Kam.
She plants her feet against the tile, her hands going to her hips. “Stop calling me that,” she demands, eyes hard.
His lips pull into a cocky grin. “No.”
Kam rolls her eyes, muttering about ‘stuffy assholes’ as she carries the rest of the food to the small kitchen table.
He gets under Kam’s skin, too. Very, very interesting.
Miles' glare catches on Jameson, over the top of my head. “Someone called my Mom and told her I was in town. And she’s absolutely devastated that I haven’t come to see her yet.”
“That’s for yesterday.”
Miles flips him off before returning his attention to the batter and grease-covered dishes.
Jameson’s head dips, his lips brushing across my cheek. “I’m going to help him before his head starts spinning around. Go eat breakfast,” he murmurs, releasing me from his hold, my body already missing his warmth.
“Thank you for breakfast,” he says to Kam before crossing the kitchen to help Miles tackle the mess.
My eyes track him, a ridiculous smile spreading across my face before I can stop it. It’s insane, really. Someone out there wants to find me, maybe even kill me; but all I can feel at this moment is happiness.
Kam clears her throat dramatically, her smug smile screaming ‘I told you so’.
“Shut up.” I roll my eyes, the words softened by the smile pulling at my lips.
The sweet smell of pancakes mixes with the savory bacon as I drop into a chair at the table, legs softly scraping across the floor.
Kam plops down in the chair across from me and starts filling her plate. “I didn’t say a word.” Her smug smile stays in place while dousing her pancakes with an obscene amount of syrup.
“You don’t have to, your face is saying it for you,” I deadpan, then decide to give her a taste of her own medicine. “Besides, I’m more interested in you and Miles.”
She wrinkles her nose. “Ew. There is no me and Miles. He’s an uptight prick who apparently gets irritated by me breathing,” she mutters, eyes rolling back.
I chuckle, picking up the coffee Kam so thoughtfully had ready for me, the mug warming my hands. “Weren’t the boys on the playground who picked on you the ones who secretly liked you?”
“Gross. I punched little boys like that right in the nose.” Her eyes shine, clearly proud of herself.
I shake my head and lean back in my chair, a laugh bursting from my chest, light and air. “Of course you did.”
This is going to get interesting, watching those two realize they are attracted to one another.
Jameson was still elbow deep in dishwater when I finished breakfast, so I headed upstairs for a shower while I waited. After I’ve scrubbed myself clean, I walk into the bedroom, wrapped in a towel, wet hair dripping down my back. My brows pull together when I don’t find my bags where I left them.
I pull open the drawers Kam saved for me, thinking maybe she put my clothes away, but they are empty. I move to the closet and tug the door open, but only find a couple of Kam’s sweatshirts hanging.
Where the hell did they go?
The door creaks open. “Did you move my stuff?” I call, not turning, eyes still staring into the closet like my things will magically reappear.
“Yes, I moved them to our room,” Jameson says in his deep timber.
I spin around and plant my hands on my hips, head cocked to the side. “Our room?”
His voice lowers, a gentle warning. “Wildflower.”
“Jameson,” I parrot back, voice firm.
He steps forward, handing me a cup of coffee I hadn’t noticed he was holding, his eyes on mine. “Will you please stay in my room with me?”
I give him a teasing grin. “Yes, but only because you brought me coffee.”