Chapter 25
This arrangement wasn’t working for him any longer, Trevor realized as he stepped over his boys fighting over that damn pink princess chew toy. He hung up their leashes and headed up the stairs only to come to an abrupt halt when his sleep-hazed mind remembered something.
Grunting at Toby and Max to keep it down, he walked into Zoe’s kitchen. He yawned as he grabbed a glass, some ice, and filled it with ginger ale. As he was leaving, he shot a glance at the clock above the stove and nearly groaned. It was nearly eight in the morning. If he didn’t leave soon, he’d probably miss out on the fresh-baked muffins his aunts made every Thanksgiving morning, but he should be able to make it in time for the huge breakfast spread they put out.
If he didn’t haul ass soon, he wouldn’t have the proper nourishment needed to help prepare Thanksgiving dinner. He had about three hours of peeling, chopping, dicing, and washing dishes, and at least one emergency run to the store for whatever ingredient the women of his family needed to complete the insanely delicious dinner they’d serve promptly at one o’clock ahead of him. First, he wanted to check on Zoe and tell her that things just weren’t working out for him anymore.
This wasn’t her fault, of course. She’d respected their arrangement and even followed the rules that they’d both set, but somewhere along the line, it stopped working for him. This whole bullshit situation of having sex with a woman but not sleeping with her and having to sneak into her room first thing in the morning just so he could cuddle with her and admittedly have his very naughty way with her was just too much work.
Plus, if he was going to be honest with himself, he’d have to admit that he was sick of all the work that it required to keep his hands off her in public. Every time he wanted to touch her, hold her hand, or kiss her, he had to remind himself that it wasn’t like that between them and hold back. Denying himself what he wanted wasn’t fun and he was done doing it.
This whole thing was ridiculous, Trevor thought as he stepped over the playful pups and started up the stairs. They’d been together for months and he cared for her, genuinely cared for her. He couldn’t actually remember caring about a woman before Zoe. Before her, he only cared what being with a woman did for him, food, sex, and a beautiful woman on his arm. With Zoe, he’d have to get his own damn food or risk food poisoning unless she made him a yummy sandwich, he’d die without sex with her, and he didn’t give a flying fuck what anyone thought about her. He enjoyed being with her and if anyone had a problem with that, they could go fuck themselves.
He didn’t think it would last once he put his new plan into effect, but then again, he hadn’t thought their arrangement would last this long either. He’d been wrong about that, but he was sure that once their arrangement turned into something a little more substantial, the novelty of the whole thing would wear off quickly. No doubt that his plan would take all the fun and excitement out of sneaking around, and he was pretty sure that’s why it had lasted this long, but he didn’t really care. The sooner he told her, the sooner he could put himself out of his misery and just relax and enjoy being with her until it was time to end things.
When he came to the top of the stairs, he hesitated for a moment. He’d kept her up pretty late last night, or rather this morning, maybe he should just let her get some sleep and he’d talk to her when they both got back from their Thanksgiving plans. He would have to wait until well after six o’clock, the time he usually came home after his family ran out of food on Thanksgiving Day, to talk to her about his decision. He really didn’t want to put this off, knowing how happy it was going to make her.
Besides, he didn’t want to leave without seeing her. It was stupid, but he liked seeing her first thing in the morning when her hair was all messed up, her face was puffy and she grumbled rather violent promises to his manhood. She was so damn cute first thing in the morning.
He walked into her room and wasn’t all that surprised when he heard Toby’s happy panting closing in behind him. He watched as the large puppy ran past him, wagging his tail happily as he raced towards Zoe’s bed, but didn’t jump on the bed. Toby had learned early on not to get too close to Zoe first thing in the morning. Poor Toby had been hit with a pillow a time or two as Zoe struggled to bury her head under her pillow and ignore their demands to get up.
A few seconds later, Max ran in the room and raced to the bed, trying to jump up and failed miserably. He whimpered, demanding that Zoe wake up and cuddle with him. It was the same way the dogs woke him up an hour ago.
After he’d given each puppy some attention, they took their morning walk, ate a quick breakfast, and he took a shower while the puppies played tug of war with his boxers. Every few minutes, he had to tell them to be quiet so that they wouldn’t wake up their mommy. He really should be heading to his uncle’s house, but he wanted to see her first, even if it was only for a moment.
He knelt by the bed and smiled at how beautiful she looked. How in the hell had he ever been stupid to call her plain? She was easily more beautiful than any of the women he’d ever dated, Trevor thought as he reached out with one finger and lightly tickled the tip of her nose. Her early morning growl, which was laced with a little whimper of annoyance, had him biting back a chuckle. He picked up a long strand of her beautiful brown hair and lightly, ever so lightly, tickled the tip of her nose with it.
“Stop it,” she muttered as she lazily reached out and slapped at air, not even coming close to his face.
So, of course, he had to do it again. This time when she went to swat off his tickling attack, he was forced to duck his head or get a weak slap to the face.
“Zoe, wake up,” Trevor said in a tauntingly upbeat voice, knowing that it would drive her crazy.
“Go away,” Zoe mumbled. “I hate you.”
“Because I’m waking you up?” he asked, smiling as he ducked away from another weak attack.
“Yes!” Zoe snapped, clearly aggravated as she was every morning when he did this. Yet, he just couldn’t stop himself from doing it. It was just too damn much fun.
He was just about to up his attack when she flopped over onto her back and shielded her eyes with her arm. Not even two seconds later, her eyes were wide open, one hand was clamped tightly on her mouth and the other one was pressed against her stomach. She was off the bed, running towards the bathroom, and slamming the bathroom door behind her a few seconds later.
“Shit.”
Running his hand through his hair in frustration, Trevor placed the glass of ginger ale on the nightstand, away from the edge where the dogs couldn’t get it and headed for the bathroom. He’d hoped she was getting better. The last two mornings, she’d only complained about feeling slightly nauseous, but she hadn’t been sick. At least, he didn’t think she’d gotten sick.
She hadn’t told him if she had. Granted, both mornings, he’d been so damn busy making her stay in bed, grabbing her toast, ginger ale, and making his lunch on top of taking care of the dogs before he left that he wasn’t entirely sure, but he thought she was okay. When he’d stopped by the office later and asked her how she’d felt, she’d assured him she’d felt great, but clearly, that wasn’t the case if she was getting sick again.
“Zoe?” Trevor said, slowly opening the door. “Baby, are you okay?”
“Yes,” she mumbled, grabbing a toothbrush and loading it with toothpaste.
“You’ve been sick for almost a week now, Zoe. Maybe I should take you to the emergency room,” Trevor said, already trying to figure out which hospital was closer and wondering if he could get his uncle or someone to watch the dogs in case they got stuck in the emergency room all day.
She stubbornly shook her head, spit, and added more toothpaste to her toothbrush and started the process all over again. A few minutes later, she finally finished.
“I’m fine, Trevor,” Zoe said, walking past him, pausing only to pet Toby and pick up Max. Cuddling the small dog, she climbed back onto the bed and pulled the comforter up. Toby waited until she was settled before jumping on the bed and settling next to her and Mr. Cuddles.
Forcing himself not to throw her over his shoulder and take her to the nearest hospital, mostly because she’d probably knee him in the balls again, Trevor sat down near her hip and handed her the ginger ale. Eying him warily, probably because she knew what he was thinking, she took a small sip.
