I was coming again, and my back arched completely off the bed as all of my muscles tightened and a low keening came out of my throat.

Between the clenching of my pussy, my nails digging into his back, and my fist pulling at his hair, I tipped him over the edge with me.

I was still catching my breath as he pulled out and laid his head flat on my chest between my breasts.

“I love it when you put your fingers in my hair,” he sighed, lazily sucking a nipple into his mouth as I ran my fingers through the hair in question. “Feels so fuckin’ good.”

His eyes closed for a while as his breathing slowed, and I realized that he had just driven all day. He must have been exhausted. I closed my eyes, and was seconds away from falling asleep when his head popped up from my chest and he quickly rolled off the bed.

I pulled the blankets back over me, intent on falling asleep, when I felt cool air rush over me, followed by a stinging slap on my ass.

I twisted my head to him with a startled look on my face, but he just raised one eyebrow at me.

“Told you not to call me Grease,” he chastised, pulling on his boxer briefs. “Go in and go to the bathroom, yeah?”

I watched him, confused as hell as he walked out of the room, and then I could hear him checking the locks on the front door. I hadn’t moved while he was gone, and when he realized I was still lying in the same spot, he looked at me in exasperation before pulling me out of bed to stand on my feet.

“Go to the bathroom,” he ordered seriously.

“I don’t have to go. What the heck is wrong with you?” I asked, shaking my head in confusion.

“I take care of you, yeah?” he asked, kissing my forehead. “You need to go to the bathroom after you’re done with sex. Just trust me on this.”

I stood silently for a moment before a vaguely-remembered conversation with some girls at school popped into my head. When realization dawned, my face blushed a deep red.

“Callie,” he called from where he was propped against the headboard, “I figure that’s probably something a chick learns from her ma. Didn’t know if she had that talk with you. Stop overthinking it and go.”

He checked his phone and then slid down the bed with a sigh as I walked toward the bathroom.

But I couldn’t help overthinking it.

He was right—my mom hadn’t had that talk with me.

I wondered what other conversations I was going to go without before pushing it to the back of my mind where everything else was hidden.

I finished following his directions and climbed back in bed with him. When the heat of his body sank deep into my back, I closed my tired eyes—ignoring the sounds of the apartments around ours.

“Happy Birthday, sweetheart,” he whispered with a kiss to the back of my head.

I slept through the night for the first time in three weeks.

Chapter 37

Grease

It felt good to wake up with Callie. It felt even better that she hadn’t put any clothes on before climbing back into bed the night before.

She was sprawled out on her belly with one hand on my chest and her knee raised up where it was digging into my hip. She’d been restless as she slept, but she hadn’t woken up in the night, and I wondered when her nightmares had stopped. The nightmares were one of the things I’d worried about while I was gone, and the guilt over not being there to take care of her afterward was another reason I’d distanced myself.

I rubbed my hand over my beard. I’d been a dick.

Half of me was irritated as hell that she refused to move and the other half felt guilty for leaving her ass in Sacramento while I did my shit in Oregon. The whole situation was a fucking powder keg, and I knew at some point it was going to blow. We couldn’t keep living like we were. Neither one of us wanted to be away from the other—but it didn’t look like anything was going to change in the near future which meant I was going to have to get my shit together.

I was going to have to figure out a way to make it work, because I sure as hell wasn’t going to give her up.

Her mouth was open as she slept, and I got a good look at the way her braces were pushing her lips away from her gums. They looked like some sort of medieval torture device in her mouth. I wasn’t sure how she smiled with that shit, but only seconds after I thought about it, she was doing just that as she woke up.

“Hey,” she whispered, her eyes opening into slits.

Fuck she was cute when she just woke up. How had I forgotten shit like that?

“Morning, Sugar.”

“Do you have to leave today?” she asked me, straightening her legs so she could curl into my chest. “You had things going on this weekend.”

She lowered her eyes as she spoke and her body was stiff against mine.

“Nah. I moved some shit around. I need to be back up by Monday—Tuesday if you give me a reason to stay,” I mumbled, distracted by the way her body softened against mine.

Her tits were pressed up against my side, one of them practically resting on my chest. I pulled my hand from behind my head and went straight for it, pinching it lightly as her leg slid up my thigh.

“I’m freaking awesome. There’s your reason,” she told me lightly, her hand sliding down my chest to run over my stomach.

“You’re not lying,” I agreed, letting go of her nipple and pushing her face up to mine. Just as I was about to kiss her, her eyes opened wide and her chin hit my chest hard making me grunt. “The fuck?”

“I haven’t brushed my teeth!” she mumbled, barely opening her mouth.