“Do you give them money?” he questions, sounding annoyed at the idea.

“I used to.” I drag in a deep breath then let it out while resting my hand against his jaw. “I stopped when it started to become a habit for them to ask me for money every other week, when they knew I got paid. It’s difficult enough to take care of myself most months, and if something happens and I need money, I have no one to ask besides Brie. And she and Kenyon don’t have extra, with them paying for a wedding and saving for a house.”

“Glad you stopped giving in to them.”

“Me too, but it still hasn’t stopped them from asking me, and it didn’t stop my dad from breaking into my house.”

“If I find out—”

“You probably never will,” I cut him off. “He’s stupid, but not that stupid, and even if you did get evidence that he’s the one who broke in, it won’t matter anyway.”

“He’d go to jail, baby.”

“Yeah, he’ll spend a few days in jail then be out and back to his old ways. Jail doesn’t scare him or my mom, and laws don’t either. Both of them have seen the inside of a courtroom more than you probably have. For them, it’s their normal.” I shake my head. “When I tell you my parents are messed up, I mean they are messed up beyond what the normal definition of messed up is.”

“I don’t know that there is a normal definition of messed up.” He smiles.

“Whatever. You get what I’m saying.” I yawn.

“Yeah.” He folds his arms around me and rests his lips to my forehead for a moment before tucking my head under his chin, and ordering there, “Sleep.”

“Only because I wanted to do that anyway,” I murmur.

And the last sound I hear before I fall asleep is him laughing, which means I fall asleep with a smile on my face.

Chapter 11

Cobi

WHEN THE DOORBELL GOES off along with the chime on my cell phone, I roll and look at the clock on my nightstand. Seeing the time, I bite back a curse. It’s just nine, and today is the first day I don’t have to work and Hadley doesn’t either. Our plans for the day are to go see Harmony at some point, but we don’t have to do that until this evening. I should be sleeping in, waking with my woman, and then making love to her—before and after breakfast. What I shouldn’t be doing is looking at the Ring App on my phone and my mom’s face near the camera like she’s trying to see inside it.

With a low frustrated growl I get out of bed and grab a pair of sweats along with a tee. I pull on my pants then head through the house and down the stairs to the front door, slipping my shirt over my head as I go.

When I open the front door, my mom smiles like she hasn’t seen me in years, and my dad rolls his eyes at her when she greets me with a chirpy, “Hey, honey, we were hoping you were home.”

I look at my dad, and ask, “Seriously, you let her drag you into this?”

“Got no choice. You should know that by now. Sorry, bud.” He shrugs, but he doesn’t actually look sorry at all. Really, he looks like he’s enjoying this.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mom asks, looking between the two of us. “What’s wrong with a mom wanting to check on her only son?”

“I don’t know, Mom. Maybe the fact that I told you about Hadley, and you just couldn’t control yourself long enough to meet her this evening, like I told you you would. Instead, you decided to ambush us before we’ve even gotten out of bed for the day.”

“I’m not ambushing you,” she snaps, and my dad chuckles, which makes her smack him in the stomach with the back of her hand.

“Hadley isn’t even awake yet.” I hope she gets my drift, but my mom is stubborn in her own ways, so she ignores me and I sigh. “Fine, just make some coffee while I wake her up and tell her what’s going on.”

“I can do coffee, and breakfast.” She smiles happily.

“Christ.” I jerk my hand through my hair. “All right, Mom, but please don’t scare her off when you do finally meet her.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

“Right.” I kiss her cheek, and she smiles at my dad over her shoulder before moving into the house and up the steps. When she’s halfway up, I turn to look at my dad. “Seriously?”

“What?” He smirks, and I shake my head. “It’s a rite of passage.”

“You’re loving this.”

“Yep.” He pats my back then squeezes my shoulder before heading up the steps behind my mom.

I close the door and go up after them and don’t stop to watch them greet Maxim, who’s happy to see them both. I head straight to the bedroom and close the door. Hadley is still passed out, but without me in bed with her, she’s moved to her stomach. Her hair is spread out behind her. The smooth skin of her back and the side of her breast can be seen, with the blanket barely covering her ass. I bite back a different kind of curse and take a seat on the side of the bed, sliding my fingers down her face. Her nose twitches, and then her eyes open when I call her name softly.

“Please don’t tell me that you have to go to work right now,” she says, finally focusing on me and the fact that I’m up.

“Nope, but my parents just showed up here, so I guess you’re going to be meeting them now instead of later. Unless you want me to help you make a sheet rope and escape out the window.”

The unease in her eyes slides away at my joke and a beautiful smile curves her lips. “Do those things even hold up?”

“No idea. I guess we’ll find out,” I say as she rolls to her back, pulling the blanket around her and tucking it under her arms.

“I’d rather not be the one to try it out. Maybe you should go first to see if it will hold,” she suggests with a smile.

“You think you can hold my weight?”

She shrugs. “Probably not, but we can just tie it to the side table.” She glances over at it and I do the same. My side tables are basically just a box with a small drawer; they don’t even weigh twenty pounds each.

“I see you’ve got jokes this morning.” I laugh, placing my hands on the bed on either side of her, and lean down to kiss her quickly before saying, “I’m sorry about this.”

“It’s not a big deal.” She rests her hand on my chest. “I’ve already prepared myself for meeting them. I’ll be okay.”

“No, I’m sorry I don’t get to spend all morning in bed and in you.” I slide my fingers along the tops of her breasts exposed just above the blanket.

“Well then, I guess I’m sorry too.” Her nose scrunches up. “There’s still tomorrow, right?”

“Even if I have to tie you to the bed, toss our phones, and board up the doors and windows, we are not leaving this bed tomorrow unless it’s to eat. ”

“I like the way you think.” She grins then puts pressure on my chest. “Now, let me up. I need to get dressed so I can meet your parents.”

I don’t budge; instead, I drop my face closer to her. “You sure you’re okay with this?”

Her face softens and her hand comes up to rest against my jaw. “I’m sure, or as sure as I can be.” She touches her mouth to mine briefly. “All of this is new for me, but I think—with talking about things—I’m becoming a little better at accepting… well, everything.”

The word everything is heavy, and I pull her up against me. “Good.”

“Now, let me up before your parents think we’re in here...” Her cheeks turn pink as her words taper off.

“Think we’re what?” I smirk, and her eyes drop to my mouth.

“You’re such a jerk.” She laughs, shoving against my chest and getting off the bed.

I roll to my back and then my side so I can watch her walk across the room.

“Baby, you gotta know it’s adorable how shy you are when I’m not inside you.”

“Honey.” She stops to look at me over her shoulder. “You have to know how annoying you are whenever you open your mouth.”