“You can try...” It’s a threat and a promise.
“If you hurt her?—”
I stop him before the words are out of his mouth. “I won’t.”
“Yeah . . . We’ll see about that.”
Fury rolls through me as I watch him walk the fuck away, fuming.
He’ll get over it.
She may have been his to take care of till now, but that’s about to change.
ASHTON
I will never ever be a morning person.
Nope. Not happening.
—Ashton’s Secret Thoughts
Istep out of the shower onto the heated marble floor the next morning, thoroughly enjoying the little luxury while the rest of me feels I’ve been run over by a train. And not just a little one-car, half-assed one either. Nope. This sucker had about fifteen cars and a caboose, and they were all heavy as hell and chugging along at full speed.
Dramatic—yes.
Wrong—not so much.
Even the eucalyptus that hangs in the shower, because of course Jameson Murphy has a cleaning staff that actually hangs fresh eucalyptus in the shower, does little to soothe me.
“Ashton...” Jamie calls out from the other side of the bathroom door, having apparently let himself into my room,the ass, and I throw on my robe.
As much as I wanted to roll over and bury my head under the pillow when I woke up, I forced myself out of bed and into the shower, hoping to give myself a few minutes alone before Kyrie woke up. Just a few minutes of silence. I’m not sure if it makes me selfish, but I swear to God, if Jamie is standing on the other side of this door with her in his arms, I might actually cry.
“How are you feeling?” he asks, thankfully alone, as I crack open the door and watch the steam billow out into the bedroom and smack him in his handsome face.
“That depends,” I tell him, rolling my lower lip between my teeth. I swear I never used to think that old tees with the sleeves ripped off and gym shorts could be sexy, but that was before I saw them on him.
This giant jerk might just force me to eat my words.
It’ll be the only thing I’m eating, but still...
“On what?” he asks, his mouth tipping up into a sexy, crooked grin.
“I was going to say on whether or not you were holding Kyrie in your arms.” Shock settles in his shamrock-green eyes. “I really just need a few more minutes of calm before my head can handle her levels of squealing.”
Those eyes darken as he takes two steps closer, and I take one back, like a dance between us... the dance of avoidance.
Only this isn’t a stage, and there isn’t room for a pas de deux.
The backs of my knees hit the vanity, blocking me from going further, as Jamie’s big hand sifts through my damp hair and cups the back of my neck.
What the hell are you doingis on the tip of my tongue until I melt under his touch because Jamie Murphy is massaging the base of my skull, and it feels so damn good.
I close my eyes and drop my head to his chest and don’t even care that I’m leaning against him so long as those fingers don’t dare stop what they’re doing. “Nah, Ace. I just checked on her, and she’s still sound asleep. The trainer isn’t coming for another hour so I can get her up and fed if you want.”
“Absolutely not . . .” I whimper.
“You don’t have to do it all alone?—”
