Laughter bubbled in my chest. “I think I know that as well.” I pulled him closer and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “We have dogs awaiting us.”
“I’ll go.” He yawned.
The past week had been insanely busy at the grocery store—especially with the collection of food for the soup kitchen—and Christian had come home and fallen into a deep sleep every night. We hadn’t made love in four days—pretty much a newrecord for us. Both being twenty-six meant high sex drives. Plus, this was one of the ways I knew how to demonstrate my love. Hopefully, when we were less driven to fuck each other—like in sixty or seventy years—he’d still know how much I loved him.
“Let me go. You either go back to sleep or take a long shower.” I caressed his stubbled jaw. “I’ve got you.”
“Yeah, you really do.” His eyes drifted shut.
I extricated myself, propelled to the shower, and was ready to go with Sable, River, and Stormy within a short period of time. We hustled downstairs and, after I shoved my feet into my boots, we tromped out into the backyard.
The air was fresh, and the sight of our land as far as I could see gave me a sense of peace.
Miss Esmeralda’d had a minor medical scare last week, and that terrified me. I didn’t want to think about the world without her.People grow old. People die. Circle of life and all that shit.I shuddered. Yes, time inevitably marched on. I just offered a request to the universe that I got to keep her for longer.
Stormy, after having chased the puppies around for a long time, sat by my side.
“Breakfast?”
She bolted for the house.
River and Sable followed.They’re not going to be puppies for much longer.The siblings were almost a year old, and Stormy had passed that milestone a while back. Her maturity helped me greatly in my training sessions.
After wiping down wet paws, we headed for the food bowls.
Christian and I worked hard to ensure each dog waited calmly for their food. Which happened most of the time.
After I’d provided everyone with breakfast, I turned my attention to preparing pancakes and bacon—with real maple syrup—for Christian. Whether I’d be serving it to him in bed—
He traipsed into the kitchen with damp hair and a grin on his face. He smacked a kiss to my lips. “How can I help?”
“Sit and enjoy watching me?”
He squeezed my ass through my denim jeans. “A pleasure.”
And so we chatted while I cooked. Soon enough, we were eating what, if I could say so myself, was damn good grub. A thought occurred. “You fed the cats?”
“Yep. Left their door open, too, but they don’t seem interested in coming downstairs yet.”
“Because they know the syrupy plates will be in the dishwasher before they get to the kitchen.” We’d only made the mistake of not clearing everything away just once. And had discovered Jasminelovedsyrup. Clearly she’d been trying to coax Snowy to join her when we’d arrived back.
Neither cat had appeared the least bit embarrassed at having been caught. Hence the putting of dishes into the dishwasher after every meal.
“That’s true. You cooked, I’ll clean up.”
“We’ll do it together and be finished sooner. I can’t wait to show give you the gift I arranged for you.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Arranged?I thought we agreed on no gifts.”
I rolled my eyes. “Right—like organizing a reunion party with my first training class wasn’t a gift.”
“Hey, that party was for me as well.”
“Yeah. You put everything together and then served food. I sat in a pile of puppies for the entire party. That hardly seems fair.”
“You had fun?”
I blinked. “Of course.”
