Chapter 12
He stayed the night. He couldn’t find any sane reason why he shouldn’t, and he wanted to wake up next to Alex. He wanted to witness her Sunday routine, to participate in it, even. He didn’t want to worry about old man comments or whether he’d settled for the first woman to show him a good time in months. He pushed away the pervasive thoughts that he was following the same exact pattern as always. Alex was perfect for him. That was all there was to it.
When they woke, it was to a neighbor blasting music from their car right outside the bedroom window. Alex groaned and shifted, brushing her thigh against his cock. He smiled into her tangle of hair and let his hand drift down until it rested on her abdomen. He couldn’t think of much that would be better than lazy sex on a Sunday morning.
“Good morning.”
Her eyes popped open, and she sat upright. “Um, I’ll be right back.”
He watched her naked ass as she fled to the connected bathroom. He could hear the water running and assumed she felt the need to brush her teeth. He idly wondered if he should do the same before he entertained the idea of making her scream his name at least once before breakfast.
She came back looking like she’d scrubbed her face. Grant got up and spent a minute in the bathroom before heading back out to find Alex. She wasn’t in the bedroom anymore, and he sighed in disappointment. He’d just have to track her down.
She was in the kitchen cracking eggs into a bowl. “Since dinner failed to impress last night, I thought I’d make breakfast,” she said when she saw him out of her periphery.
“You don’t have to impress me, sweetheart.” He stepped close enough to kiss her temple, and she angled her face for a better kiss. He was right; she tasted of toothpaste.
“I want to spoil you, I guess.”
“Cereal for dinner is fine by me if I get to spend the hours before and after wrapped up in your arms.”
She felt her insides melt into goo at that. “Mmm.” It didn’t take much for her to sink into his arms and find that he was hard and naked and demanding her attention. “Grant, really?”
He kissed the tip of her nose. “I could eat. This isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.” He waved at his erection.
Alex nearly changed her mind as he thrust into her hip and she felt the beginnings of tingling neediness creep up her spine. “You’re going to make me sore.”
He stepped away immediately. “We don’t want that, now do we? Can I help you with breakfast?”
She felt the loss of body heat and wanted to cave, but she decided she’d better go ahead and feed them. “No, I don’t need help. I’m just gonna throw some sausages in a pan and scramble these eggs.”
He left the room and returned wearing his boxers. He passed behind her and began opening and closing her cabinets until he found the plates. She smiled to herself as he set the table that sat just outside of her galley-style kitchen. She was going to regret having to go back to real life at the end of the day.
“What do you have going on this week?” he asked as she was plating the eggs.
“It’s my turn to supervise student pick up in the afternoons. Then on Thursday we have an open house for the parents to come in and see what their students have been up to.”
“Sounds like fun.” She set a plate in front of him. “Thanks.”
Alex sat with her own plate, thinking about the open house later that week. They didn’t typically have a huge turnout, but they were required to be there in case one of their students came with their parents. It was a bit of a chore, but she could always grade papers or something while she was sitting around. She lived close to the school, so it was easy to go home and then go back. “How about you?”
“You got lucky; I don’t usually have weekends off, but Floyd owed me after he was sick.”
She watched him eat for a few minutes before saying anything else. “Do you normally at least get two days off out of seven?”
“Sure, but not consecutively. It’s kind of like retail. We’re open every day but Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. We’re open from seven to seven. We rotate shifts, but I’ve been there long enough that I always open.”
“So you get up early and go to bed early,” she stated. It sounded like her schedule.
“Yeah, and I eat dinner early. It worked out when Reagan was home because she was on a similar schedule being in school. It doesn’t usually work out with dating because women don’t want to eat that early and they’re always disappointed when I want to be in bed by nine-thirty.”
“It just so happens that I keep a similar schedule,” she said with a nudge of her toes to his calf.
“I hadn’t thought about that.” That would be an interesting change.
“Yeah.” She gave him a smile. “I get up early and go to bed early, too. Some nights I don’t even bother with an actual dinner, I just eat a snack while grading tests. Occasionally, I even get to watch TV.”
“I’ve been there. I hated cooking for myself when Reagan went to college. It felt like such a waste. Sometimes I’ll cook on a Sunday if I’m off and then stock the fridge for the week.”
