“What time is it?” I asked, noticing the sunlight flooding into the room.
“Just after nine,” Cole replied, rolling off me and sitting on the edge of the bed.
“After nine! I slept in. Why didn’t you wake me?” I panicked, sitting up and letting the sheet fall away. It wasn’t until I saw Cole’s eyes widen that I realized what I’d done. As the sheet had dropped away, it had exposed my naked boobs, and now the man was hypnotized.
“You needed your sleep,” Cole mumbled, reaching out and trailing his finger along my arm leaving the flesh goose pebbled.
“Well, someone did keep me up all night with his antics,” I threw back at him only to earn myself a wide grin. The man was pleased with himself all right. Every muscle in my body ached, and I was starving, but there was a a sense of happiness I hadn’t felt in a long time.
“Guilty as charged,” he declared.
“You’re dressed,” I pointed out.
“I’ve already been out. Thought I’d come and check on you, make sure I didn’t kill you last night with my … antics,” Cole offered smugly.
“You’ve been out already? Cole, you should’ve woken me.” I felt guilty. Cole had had as little sleep as I, yet he was already up, dressed, and hard at work.
“It’s fine. But I do have a favor to ask,” Cole asked nervously, rubbing the back of his neck and looking everywhere but at me.
“What do you need? And if you say me bent over with my ass in the air, you’re going to be very disappointed. My vagina needs a break. She hasn’t seen this much action since …”
I never got to finish my sentence. Cole slammed his lips down over mine in a bruising kiss.
When he pulled back, he held my chin between his thumb and forefinger. “I don’t want to hear about the other boys who’ve seen you naked, Grace.”
His possessive demand sent a shiver down my spine. “Boys?”
“Well, they sure as shit weren’t men if they let you go,” Cole growled.
“I was going to say my battery-operated boyfriend, but …”
“Yeah, well, you won’t need that either. Not while I’m around.”
My heart pounded. My head spun. I was trying not to read too much into his words, but my mind was running away with me. The idea of forever with this man had already crept in once or twice, but then he went and said things like that, and I almost dropped to my knees and begged him to ask me to stay.
Gulping down my emotions, I forced myself to focus. “Okay, back to the topic at hand. You said you needed a favor?”
“Yeah, I do. But if you’re too busy or don’t want to …” Cole’s babbling was adorable. He actually thought I might turn him down.
“Cole,” I tried to center him. I put my hand on his thigh and his eyes snapped to mine. “What do you need?”
“You know how I told you yesterday we lost a cow but the calf survived?”
“Please tell me that it’s still alive?” I practically pleaded. The last thing I wanted to talk about first thing in the morning was a dead baby cow.
“Yeah. She’s fine. But she’s hungry.”
“She doesn’t have a momma.”
“Poddy calves are usually bottle fed, but it takes time …”
“And I’m going to do it,” I declared. “Let me grab a shower real quick then you can show me what to do.”
I bounced out of bed, ignoring the fact that I was naked as I danced across the bedroom into the bathroom. It wasn’t until I looked in the mirror that I saw what a disaster I looked. Talk about completely fucked. My hair was standing on end and resembled more of a bird's nest than an actual hairstyle. With a shake of my head, I turned away from my reflection and started the shower. I had a cute little calf depending on me and I wasn’t about to let her down.
Quickly, I finished up and was just stepping onto the bathmat when I heard my phone.
“Grace, that’s yours,” Cole called out.
