Chapter 44
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Linc
My brain slowly starts to come back online after one of the best nights of sleep I’ve ever had. Between the sex last night and holding Abby in my arms, I slept like nothing else existed in the world.
I keep my eyes shut, not ready to let the light flood in. Her soft breaths puff against my chest. One of her arms is slung over my middle, and her leg is draped over mine.
I quirk a smile, finally peeking down at her. It looks like she was trying to crawl on top of me. I’m not complaining. She could live the rest of our lives perched on me if that’s what she wanted.
Craning my neck a little, I glance around the room. Wyatt and Kane are nowhere to be found.
A moment of worry hits me, thinking they have decided they aren’t okay with this. While I might be selfishly okay having Abby all to myself, I know it wouldn’t be what she really wants. She has feelings for all of us.
I shove the thoughts away. Wyatt and Kane are both in this.
I don’t know if they’re still in the process of falling in love or already in love with her. Either way, they aren’t going anywhere.
We all need to see what this can be. I think I already know, but I’ll play along if this is what they need.
I strain my ears, listening for any noises coming from somewhere else in the house. The faint sound of clanking dishes tells me they are in the kitchen, probably making breakfast or at least coffee.
I could really go for a cup of coffee, but nothing short of a natural disaster could pry me away from the woman who is currently wrapped around me like a koala. I snuggle back against the pillow, my eyes falling shut.
My fingers start to mindlessly comb through the ponytail I pulled her hair into last night. It’s barely in place anymore after last night’s activities and a full night of sleep sandwiched between three men. I’d redo it, but I don’t want to wake her.
I don’t fully drift back to sleep, but I sink into a peaceful, trance-like state that settles deep in my bones. There’s something about this woman that makes me know in my soul everything will be okay.
There have been very real times in my life when I didn’t know this with any sort of certainty, so having this feeling emanate from a person feels important in a way little else ever has.
I can feel the moment she starts to wake. The cadence of her breath starts to shift. She squirms against me, trying to wiggle herself even closer.
There isn’t much distance for her to erase, but she eliminates the little bit there was between us. She hums, pressing a kiss to my bare chest.
“Morning, angel,” I say, kissing her temple.
“Good morning,” she whispers back. Her voice is groggy and laden with the last traces of sleep that are still clinging to her.
She yawns, rubbing her face against me. I smile, continuing to comb my fingers through her hair.
“Where are the others?” she asks, not even glancing around the room to double-check that they aren’t here.
Maybe she can just sense their absence, like I feel it when she walks into a room without even needing to lay eyes on her. It’s like her soul is connected to mine, so I can feel when she’s close.
Wow… That’s cheesy as fuck and not really like me. Abby is changing all kinds of shit in my world.
“I think they’re in the kitchen,” I say.
She hums, running her fingertip over my arm. She pauses at the daisy tattoo right above my wrist.
“What does this one mean?” she asks.
I can’t help but smile. “That’s for Kane’s mom, Sinthia. They’re her favorite flowers. There’s so many of them growing in her backyard. They kind of take over in the summer.”
“She means a lot to you.”
I nod, feeling the emotion thick in my throat. Not a lot of things make me emotional, but she’s one of the few people who has the direct line to my heart.
Her finger moves further up the inside of my arm to the outline of a vintage motorcycle. “What about this one?”
“It’s the first motorcycle I fixed up with David.”
“That’s Kane’s dad, right?” she asks.
“Yeah.”
“It’s special to have people important enough to imprint a memory of them onto your skin forever.”
My fingers trail over the skin between her shoulder blades where she has a floral tattoo connected with a series of vines. “What does this one mean?” I ask her.
She huffs out a harsh laugh. “Nothing… I was nineteen, bored, and liked flowers. I don’t regret it, though, because the artist was badass and created something really cool.”
I laugh with her because I’m covered in tattoos I got because of similar reasons.
With my other hand, I pick up her arm. I gently touch the two birds etched on her wrist. “These?” I ask.
“Mav and me… our family.”
I keep tracing over the two small birds and the pulse point under her skin. “Would you ever want to add to it?”
The implication is clear. Would she want to add more birds if more people were added to her forever family?
She tilts her head back, looking into my eyes for the first time this morning. “I hope so,” she says quietly.
We lay there, eyes locked on one another for several long minutes. Our hands gently roam over each other’s bodies.
It isn’t in a sexual way that’s leading to anything. It’s purely for comfort and the need to touch one another. Her head snuggles back against my chest.
I could get utterly addicted to waking up with her like this. Given my past, it’s surprising I have been able to avoid any other addictions in my life, but she might just be the first thing I can’t abstain from.
Her finger grazes over my skin. She asks about a few of my other tattoos and laughs when I tell her they don’t hold nearly the same significance as the first two.
“Need caffeine,” she finally groans. She stretches as best she can without separating herself from where she’s glued against my side.
I chuckle, rolling her onto her back, so I’m looming over her. “Then we need to get out of this bed.”
“But I don’t want to,” she groans, letting her arm fall over her face.
I trail a line of kisses down her neck. “I thought you said you needed coffee.”
“I do, but I don’t think my legs are going to work this morning. I’m pretty sure you fucked the life out of them.” She says it so seriously it makes me laugh.
I press a kiss to the corner of her mouth. She whines when I pull away. I stand to the side of the bed, facing away.
“Come on,” I tell her, glancing over my shoulder. “Hop on.”
She crawls over, climbing onto my back. Her arms and legs wrap around me, while my hands grip the back of her bare thighs to support her.
She leans in until her lips are a centimeter from my ear. “Next time you tell me to hop on, I hope it’s on a different part of you.”
I growl, giving her thigh a slap. “Focus.” I walk out of Kane’s room and to the stairs. “We both need some coffee and breakfast before you even think about jumping on my dick.”
She giggles, resting her cheek against my shoulder. I was right about the guys’ whereabouts. Kane is facing the stove, cooking something. Wyatt prods at the coffee maker.
Hearing us approach, Wyatt spins around. He smiles when he sees her on my back. “Tired, beautiful?” he asks.
She peers over at him but doesn’t lift her head from my shoulder. “Mmhmm.”
“You want some coffee?” he asks.
“Please,” she says. She starts to tell him how she takes her coffee, but he holds up his hand.
“I remember,” he says with a wink, then turns back to the cabinet. He pulls out four mugs, setting them next to the coffee maker.
Kane sets the spatula in his hand on the counter and rounds the island. He runs his fingers over her face, kissing her forehead. “Were we too rough with you last night?”
“No,” she says, shaking her head against me.
“You sure?” he asks again. Oh, Kane… He has too big of a heart for his own good.
She nods. “I’m a little sore,” she says, wiggling against me. “But in a good way.” I give her thighs a squeeze, which makes her tighten the hold her legs have on me.
I set her on one of the stools at the island just in time for Wyatt to slide a steaming mug in front of her.
“My hero,” she says, beaming at him with stars in her eyes. She wraps both her hands around the cup, bringing it closer to her mouth as she blows on the hot liquid.
The moan she makes after her first sip has my cock twitching in my sweats. I’m not the only one who notices because Kane spins around, nearly smacking me in the face with the damn spatula that’s back in his hand.
“I want to make a cataloged list of all the ways I can get you to make that exact noise,” Wyatt says, leaning his elbows on the counter.
Abby smirks. “You won’t see me complaining about that.”
There’s just something so natural about having her here. I thought it the week she was here under the guise of helping after Kane’s injury, and I think it now.
The way the banter and conversation flow is easy, much like the way we all move around one another. No one is really thinking too hard about what to do or say. It just is.
My own parents showed me what a relationship should never be. Sinthia and David have shown me for decades what it means to be with someone through the ups and downs and still love each other unconditionally.
It might look different, but I have a feeling deep in my gut that this is the real thing. I think we were all meant to be a part of each other’s lives.
I’ve never been in love before. I haven’t even gotten close, but I’ve felt myself falling for Abby over the last few weeks.
I tried to lie to myself at first because I couldn’t wrap my head around it. It was foreign and scary, but eventually the way my heart felt like it was hammering out of my chest at the mere mention of her was all the verification I needed.
She found her way past the walls I had built around my heart. She accomplished what I thought to be impossible.
After last night, I’m no longer falling. I’m in love with her.
Grabbing the mug Wyatt offers me, I lean my ass back against the counter. I take a sip, letting my eyes lock on Abby.
She’s joking with Wyatt about something with a big smile on her face, but I have no idea what they’re talking about. I’m too focused on her.
She’s a part of me now. I know it’s going to kill a part of me to only have her in secret, but I’ll carry the burden on my shoulders if it means there’s a chance I will get to have her wholly and in the open one day.