Chapter 45
Magnolia
I woke slowly the next morning, little parts of me coming back to consciousness, and my heartbeat thumped at the thought of why there was a delicious soreness between my legs. My sleepy mind filtered through last night with Sloan in a dream-like state, and I felt content —blissfully content—until I moved and realized I was alone in bed. That caused me to go from half asleep to completely awake. Looking around the room for Sloan, I felt around and noticed his side of the bed was cold. A quick glance outside showed me the sun was high in the sky, and I scrambled out of bed.
Throwing on some fuzzy socks and a robe, I made my way to the stairs, but before I could make it all the way down, I heard voices come from the kitchen. I had to tell myself not to sprint to the kitchen and give myself away, but I was terrified Sloan had left, that what happened last night was a figment of my imagination or he woke up thoroughly regretting it. I couldn’t have been the only one that felt that. Right? Like everything clicked into place…
I didn’t have time to continue second-guessing myself because when I rounded the kitchen at a completely normal speed , I was met with Lexie and Sloan engaged in what looked like a somewhat heated debate. I found myself raising an eyebrow at them in question.
Once Sloan clocked that I was in the kitchen, he immediately disengaged from his conversation with Lexie and stalked over to me, pulling me into a quick but searing kiss.
“It’s about time you finally woke up.” Lexie’s irritated voice ground out.
I pulled myself away from Sloan and shot him a questioning glare before turning my focus to Lexie. “You’re going to have to fill me in here, guys.” My eyes shot between the both of them.
“While you were enjoying the world’s longest sleep, Sloan over here has basically been moving his stuff in . Which, I don’t mind, but I informed him that he needed your okay before doing this.” She shook her finger in Sloan’s direction, and he rolled his eyes at her.
“It’s one gym bag of clothes, Lexie, one bag.” He let out in an exasperated sigh, and I couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up, despite the twinge of sadness over him bringing only one bag.
“One whole bag, you say?” I flew my hand over my chest in mock horror. “What ever shall we do, Lex? Should we call his…his mother?” I whisper - gasped as Sloan’s throaty laugh rang out, and I felt warm all over. I couldn’t help but shoot him a soft look that had Lexie gagging.
“Okay, okay. I give.” She threw her hands up in defeat, but neither one of us missed her smile—she was happy for me. She pointed at Sloan again. “Do not hog all the hot water in the morning and everything will be fine, yeah?” She gave the signal letting him know she was watching him, and he held his hands up in mock surrender.
“Cross my heart.”
His eyes found mine again and I melted, making my way over to him.
“Ew, okay, I’m going out in fifteen minutes. Please wait until I’m gone to act on your bedroom eyes.”
Sloan stalked over to me and led me over to a barstool, where he sat me on his lap while he nestled into my neck, making lazy circles on my thigh where my robe had ridden up,
“Where ya going?” I asked her, desperate for a distraction from the havoc Sloan was currently relaying on my body.
“Jace is picking me up and bringing me to the office to go over some things since I start next week…”
“Lexie…” My warning tone had Sloan tilting his head in question.
Lexie shook her head and gave a stern not now vibe, and I had no choice but to just shrug and let it go— for now , anyway.
“Look! We should go out tonight, shake off what happened yesterday, yeah?” Her quick change of subject wasn’t lost on me, nor Sloan, but we both knew better than to address it.
I groaned, “I’m not sure I feel like going out to drink or anything like that, Lexie.”
“Let’s just grab dinner then. Is there somewhere easy we could all go?” she asked hopefully. “I’ll ask Jace, and Dexter if I see him at the office today.”
I didn’t have the energy or want to fight with her on this, so I just nodded. “Dinner sounds good, Lexie. Just text me the details.”
Maybe we could bail…
Her phone beeped just in time, and she shot us both a smile and a brief wave as she made her way out of the kitchen and house. “See you both tonight! No bailing!”
I waited until I heard the front door click before I released my breath. “How did she know I was thinking about bailing?” I frowned.
“It was written all over your face, baby. I hate to tell ya, but you don’t have much of a poker face.”
I whipped my head to look at him and give him my best angry eyes. “That’s not true! I have the best poker face.”
“Oh yeah?” He kissed my nose, and I immediately melted.
“Maybe…” I sighed as he started kissing my neck. “Actually, I don’t care.” I moaned when he sucked on my collarbone, and he chuckled.
Tiny nails on the wood floor and little puppy whimpers met my ears, and I hopped off Sloan—all sexy time thoughts gone—and I made my way over to where they had set Peaches and the puppies up in the living room. I felt a bit ashamed that I hadn’t checked on them last night after my shower, but when her wiggly body came into view and her happy whines continued, all those thoughts left my mind as I made my way to her. I climbed over the gate that was set up and sat as she crawled into my lap, and I held her while she licked my face.
“She missed you,” Sloan said from behind me.
“You should have woken me up earlier. What time is it, anyway?”
“A little after one p.m.”
His response startled me, and I jumped a little, which caused Peaches to slide off my lap and head back to her puppies to lay down next to them.
“Why did you let me sleep so long? You should have woken me.” I frowned.
“You needed the rest, Magnolia. Plus, I needed to run home and grab some things from my place, anyway.” He shot me a look, letting me know that it wasn’t up for debate, but I couldn’t help but give him a little bit of attitude. Arguing with Sloan had become one of my favorite things.
“Little presumptuous, don’t you think?” I questioned, but he just scoffed at me and invaded my space.
“I told you what last night meant. Did you think I was joking?” His hand found itself in my hair, and his grip was firm and rough but pleasant as he tipped my head back to meet his. “You’re mine.”
“Yes. Yours,” I murmured.