Chapter Sixteen
“Did you finally get back to sleep?” Daniel asks after he rolls over and shuts off the alarm.
“Yeah.” I sit up, knowing damn well if I don’t I’ll fall asleep again and make myself late.
He leans in and kisses me. “Wasn’t the worst reason to wake up in the middle of the night.” His playful, sleepy smile still looks sexy. He’s thirty-eight and hotter than hell because he’s real, and brilliant, and I’m lucky he’s my hubby.
I’m damned lucky.
Thank God for unanswered prayers.I brush a thumb over his lips. “No, it wasn’t.”
He throws back the covers and grabs his robe. The townhouse always feels a little chilly first thing in the morning this time of year. I don’t want him to be uncomfortable even if I prefer the view with him naked.
“I’ll get your coffee started, Master.”
Sweet contentment fills me. “Thank you, baby. I might do a lot of thinking about what you said. About not running again.”
He glances back, smiling. “Run or don’t run foryou, but I want you to be happy.” His smile fades as he returns to the bed and sits next to me. “We only get one life, Liam. You’ve smiled more over the last few years than ever before. Mostly when we’re home.” He laces fingers with me. “I don’t want our lives to be wasted in offices.”
“If I retire, does that mean you’ll think about it?”
He squeezes my hand. “Maybe. You need to make your decision first. I’m not trying to pressure you one way or the other, but I won’tnotgive you my opinion.”
I caress his scruffy cheek and kiss him again. “Thank you, baby.”
He rises and heads out to use the bathroom hall on his way downstairs, while I make my way into the master bathroom to use that one.
It’s our routine. The master bath here isn’t large enough for us to bounce around each other on a workday morning, so he uses the other one.
I miss mornings we can shower together in our home. That bathroom is twice the size of this one, with twin vanities making it easy to move around each other and not get in the other’s way.
Maybe retiring would be the better choice.
I’m climbing into the shower a few minutes later when he brings me my coffee and leans in to kiss me. “There you go, Master.”
I catch his hand when he turns. “So if I didn’t run again,wouldyou think about retiring?”
He studies my eyes. “I would definitely have a conversation with you about it and we could start weighing our options.”
I squeeze his hand and release it. “I know it isn’t a conversation we need to have right now, but maybe I’m open to talking about this more.”
The smile that statement earns me might make me decide right now. “Then we’ll put a pin in that and discuss it once you’re ready to. I’m not going to be a kept man. If you’re working, if I can work, then I want to. That variable changes if you decide you want to retire.”
“Okay.”
I retreat into the shower and turn my face into the spray. I am not a morning person, but they’re far easier to deal with when Daniel takes such good care of me. I’d rather work late than get up early, but I don’t set the operating hours on the Hill.
My staff, however, knows to avoid scheduling me too heavily on any given morning and to push things until after lunch as much as possible.
I’m still in the shower when Daniel returns a while later. “Time check, Master.”
“Thank you.” I sigh and shut off the water, reaching past the shower curtain for my towel just to have it handed to me.
He’s half dressed already, in trousers and an undershirt. He can get ready faster than me because he’s not shaving right now, and he doesn’t buzz down the scruff every day.
Still, he’s sexy as hell and all mine.
If I make decisions about my future on a sucky first-day morning, when I’m exhausted, barely awake, and staring at my hunky hubby, I’ll likely make them for all the wrong reasons.
