She was bent to the mirror gliding on lip gloss.

Through the mirror, her gaze came to him in the door.

“Good news, Talon. I’m officially done with my monthly visitor,” she declared.

“Do not tell me that shit when you’re about to get fucked against the basin even if you were still on your period,” he warned in return. “I’m hungry, I want steak, and I want to take my time when I take that dress off you.”

She straightened but didn’t turn to him, though her eyes pointed at the mirror didn’t leave him.

In fact, they slid down and up the length of him.

He fought getting hard.

Again, strike that.

He continued fighting getting hard.

“You clean up pretty good too, baby,” she shared.

He ignored that.

“Where’s Brooks?” he asked.

“Change of plans,” she told him, going back to the mirror and her lip gloss. “Margot and Dave are keeping him for the night.”

Excellent.

“Then hurry and finish, Addie, ’cause you’re packing a bag and spending the night with me. I wanna fuck you in my bed and do it right this time.”

That made her turn fully to him. “In my opinion, you did it right last time.”

“Make no mistake, fingering your clit ’til you come and/or you sucking me off for the last five days, I got no complaints. But the pussy ban bein’ done, I wanna celebrate. So hustle up ’cause my official first date is gonna end with both of us seriously getting off.”

She gave him that grin of hers that said clear she knew she owned his dick.

If you told him a year ago he’d be down with any woman laying claim to his cock, he would have laughed his ass off.

Now, that shit wasn’t funny.

It just was how it was.

“You counted the days?” she asked.

“I counted the hours,” he answered.

He hadn’t but he did a quick calculation in his head because he knew her smart ass would test him.

She did.

“How many hours has it been?”

“Depending on when I finally get back inside you, around a hundred and forty-four.”

She started laughing.

“I’m thrilled you’re amused, babe,” he said. “But get your hustle on.”

She moved to him, body in full sway, and he hoped like fuck she actually wasn’t wearing underwear because he’d decided to get off on the slow burn and get them both off on it later.

When she made it to him he didn’t move out of her way, and she read that correctly.

She put her hands to his abs, rolled up on the toes of those boots and touched her mouth to his, leaving some lip gloss.

Only then did he get out of her way.

He stood and watched as she slipped her lip gloss into the bag that was waiting on the bed and said, “I’m gonna let Dan out. We’ll come by and get him before we go to my place on the way home tonight.”

“Cool, honey,” she murmured, strutting toward her closet.

He let out the dog and was letting him back in when she came down with her bag.

He took it from her as she put on her coat. They went out to the porch. Addie locked up. And he grabbed her hand and held it as he led her to the passenger side of his truck.

He threw her bag in the middle and helped her up, shutting the door when she was settled.

He rounded the hood, angled in, started her up and headed them out.

They were on the road before he asked, “Your period always this long?”

“It’s of me, so it’s like me. Sometimes it’s a couple of days. Sometimes it’s a whole week. There’s no rhyme or reason. It likes to surprise me.”

“Fantastic,” he muttered.

She giggled.

He loved that giggle. It didn’t come often so it felt like a gift when he got it.

He still wished her period would settle into a two-day program.

“What’d you do today?” he asked.

“Online shopped like a pro,” she answered. “Brooks’s Christmas is almost done. Izzy, Johnny, Charlie, Deanna and Dave are done. I have to go into the city to pick something up at the store I saved on shipping to send there for Margot, and when I’m there, I’ll get some other stuff to finish up. You’re almost done too and—”

He cut her off, “Babe, I thought you weren’t getting me anything.”

“I got in the spirit and decided to think it’s the money I make that I’m buying presents with and the money you gave me I’m paying bills with, and I’m not going crazy. But I get to participate in Christmas. So let’s end this here, okay?”

Toby was seriously down with her getting in the Christmas spirit however she wanted, so he shut up.

She picked up her thread. “I hit Macy’s to get some Christmas wrap, then the craft store to get some supplies. Made a few cards. Did some tidying of the house. Put in an application for a receptionist position at that law firm in town. They’re down with entry level and the pay isn’t gonna have me living the high life, but it’s pretty good, definitely better than what I’m making now, the hours will be steady, and if I get it, I can burn my smock. Took Brooks to Margot and Dave’s. Got ready to be fed at a fancy restaurant by my hot-guy, loaded boyfriend and then properly banged. And oh, Lora called, and she has an annual Christmas Eve’s Eve party every year and she invited us to come. If work doesn’t get in the way, do you wanna go?”

Toby was processing how she got all that shit done in one day.

He still managed to answer, “Yeah.”

“And just to say, Matlock Mart is closed Christmas Day and shuts down at six Christmas Eve, but since I’m one of the cashiers with the least time in, I might have to work the Christmas Eve shift until the bitter end.”

“It’s cool, babe,” he muttered.

“Okay, so, full disclosure about Christmas Eve. Izzy, Margot and I got into a text group, and even though all Margot and Dave’s boys and their families are coming to town, we decided to make a new tradition and we’re doing a safari dinner on Christmas Eve.”

“A what?”

“Drinks and appetizers at mine. Dinner at Johnny and Izzy’s. Dessert at Margot and Dave’s. It took us approximately fifty texts to talk Margot into doing dessert, but since most the party will be sleeping at their pad, we felt it should end there and not somewhere everyone has to drive home. Not to mention, she has to feed that brood Christmas dinner the next day.”

Toby said nothing because there was nothing to say. That made sense.

“Izzy’s doing a buffet,” she put in.

“Right.”

“And if I have to work, since I’m doing apps, I’ll get it all ready and you might have to come over and warm some stuff up and play host while I sort myself out when I get home, and then I’ll take over.”

“We could do that part at mine,” he offered.

“Then how would everyone see my kickass lights and hideous wreath?” she asked.

He grinned.

“Izzy’ll help you,” she told him. “And Margot no doubt will horn in.”

“It’ll be cool, Addie, I’ll have it covered and that sounds like a good time.”

“Yeah,” she said, but there was something not committed to that word.