“How the fuck?” he demands on a growl.
“How the fuck indeed,” I murmur. “You started whatever this is with me, and I have a feeling you’re not going to like the way it turns out. For whatever fucking reason, you thought you had the upper hand when you didn’t. I didn’t even know who you were a couple weeks ago, and now you’re going to wish you never fucking approached me.”
Ending the call, I toss my phone beside me on the couch again, shifting my beer back to my right hand. I lift the remote control and press the play button. I want to get back to these Viking bastards. They seem interesting as fuck.
I’m not sure how long I've been watching the show, but when the sun threatens to blind me, I realize there’s no way I’ll be getting any sleep today. Oh well. Once Millie goes to work, I can come back here and catch a few hours of shut-eye in an attempt to catch up.
Turning the television off, I stand, stretching my sore muscles. I am too fucking old to sit in that piss-poor position all night. My entire body is stiff, and I’m majorly feeling it. Pickingup my beer bottles, I carry them to the kitchen and toss them in the trash just as I hear the bedroom door open.
I don’t know why, but I expect to see Heidi emerge from the bedroom, but instead, it’s Millie. She’s wearing sexy sleep shorts and a spaghetti-strap tank top, no bra. Her hair is messy, her face is bare, and she looks absolutely fucking stunning.
“Mornin’,” I murmur the moment I drop the bottles in the trash.
Her eyes widen as she lifts her gaze to meet mine from across the room. She forgot I was here, that much is clear. But fuck, she’s still goddamn pretty. I can’t keep my lips from twitching into a smirk at the surprised expression she’s wearing.
She doesn’t say anything in response to my greeting, but that’s okay. Her expression and getting to look at her sexy body are all I really need this morning. She shuffles toward me, scooting past me and toward the coffee maker.
I watch her, enjoying just being this close to her. I know she is still pissed at me, but she won’t be forever, and I’ll never get tired of being near her. I shouldn’t have left when I did, but I was afraid I was going to say something I couldn’t take back.
And also, she fucking pissed me off.
If I’m being honest, straight up pissed me off. My initial reaction was to just walk away and never look back. But after about five minutes down the road, I realized that was just my bruised pride doing the thinking for me.
Millie might have pissed me off, but she’s my woman, and nothing is fucking changing that.
Not even her.
MILLIE
I successfully ignore his sexy ass as I make my coffee, then padback to my bedroom, closing the door behind me. Heidi is still asleep, but I know she won’t be for long. Like me, she’s used to late nights and semi-early mornings.
It’s eleven, and I know she’ll be waking up soon. I couldn’t stay in there with him, though. I couldn’t be that close to him. I know I won’t be able to stay pissed at him if I do. So I had to make my coffee and hurry away without looking like I was hurrying away.
“You are a mess,” Heidi whispers before she throws her arm over her eyes.
“I am a mess,” I confess.
Lifting my cup to my lips, I close my eyes and take a sip, allowing the hot liquid to slide down my throat. Heidi clears her throat, and I hear her shift around on the bed. Opening my eyes, I watch her as she leans against the headboard, her gaze focused and pointed directly at me.
“That man is totally fine, and I know you’re mad at him, but he cares for you.”
“He does,” I admit.
I know he does. But it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t piss me off. Because he does piss me off, a hell of a lot. I’m not sure he loves me. I think he wants to control me more than he loves me, and that’s where I’m having an issue.
“But he doesn’t love me. Not like he should.”
She snorts. “Honey, men don’t love like they should until they’re slapped with a good dose of reality.”
“Yeah? You speak from experience?”
There is a moment of silence where we stare at one another, and I can’t help but wonder how the fuck I don’t know this story. Heidi only ever talked about the men she was seeing while we were together. She never told me about her past, even if that’s all I could ever talk about.
“I do,” she whispers. “I was in love once, too. Believe it or not.”
My lips twitch into a smirk. “I believe it.”
“It was a long time ago,” she says. “He was a rough man, just like that one. But when the love was there, boy, was it electric.”
