“I’m ignoring that,” she said as she began rummaging in her drawer for clothes. Once she’d found what she was looking for, she looked back at me and said, “I’m going to have a shower. Don’t come in there and disturb me. I need time today to get ready.”
I raised my brows. “When have I ever disturbed you?”
Her eyes widened. “When the fuck have you not disturbed me? You can’t keep your hands to yourself.”
I moved fast, and a moment later I had her in my arms. Bending my mouth to her ear, I growled, “That’s not disturbing you, sweetheart. That’s giving you what you want. If you’d like me to show you what disturbing you is, I’d be happy to do that at any time.”
Her breathing picked up and she attempted to push out of my hold, but I tightened it instead.
“Are you going to keep me trapped or can I go have a shower?” she asked, feigning annoyance.
“I’m going to let you go, but I need your answer first.”
“My answer to what?”
“Your answer to whether or not you’d like me to show you what disturbing you is.”
Her eyes widened again, but in a completely different way than before. This time, they flashed her desire for me. Her desire for me to disturb her. “Yes,” she whispered, clearly affected.
“Yes what?” I demanded, moving my hand to her neck, gripping her firmly there.
“Yes, I want you to disturb me,” she said, her voice all breathy.
I let her neck go, trailing my hand down her chest and over one of her breasts. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, and when my hand slipped down the front of her top to take hold of her breast, she let out a whimper. “Good, baby. Tonight,” I promised, and then let her go. I smacked her lightly on the ass and said, “Now go and get ready. I promise to leave you alone.”
As she walked out of the bedroom, I thought about everything we’d been through over the past month.
Layla had remained patient with me while I got my shit together concerning my father’s death. I was still dealing with it, and I knew I would be for a long time still, but I’d moved past those initial hollow feelings. Since then, I’d reconciled the events of that day in my mind and was okay with Marcus’s death. My only regret was that it had affected Storm. They were still dealing with the fallout of his death, and fuck knew how that was all going to play out.
“Donovan!”
I turned to look at Layla standing in the doorway. “What?” I asked.
“I was calling you,” she said, clearly frustrated.
“What’s up?”
Her face softened a little. “I changed my mind. You can come and disturb me now.”
Fuck.
I strode to where she stood, grabbed her hand and led her to the bathroom. “Clothes off,” I ordered as I began peeling mine off.
The look on her face gave her thoughts away. Layla fucking loved being bossed around, and I had no doubt she was going to fucking love being disturbed by me.
Four hours later, we collected my mother from her house on the way to Madison and J’s home. I sensed her nerves, and Layla and I did our best to put her at ease before we got there. As I listened to Layla talk to Mum, I realised she could talk her way into anything. She never failed to convince me of anything, and she singlehandedly convinced my mother that she had nothing to worry about where Madison was concerned.
When Madison threw her front door open and greeted us with a warm smile, I figured things might go smoothly. And when she reached for my mother’s hand and welcomed her into her house, I watched my mother’s worry fall away, and I knew everything was going to be okay.
My fractured family was slowly being put back together.
I watched the three most important people in my life chatting, enjoying themselves, and realised I was a fucking lucky bastard.