I released a laugh that was still a partial sob.
“From this day forward… You. Share.Everythingwith me. I want to know if you bump your knee or break a nail.” His voice dropped to a whisper and his brows knitted. “You should have told me.”
“I want to protect you?—”
“No.” He shook his head. “It’s a job.”
“You love your job.”
He rested his forehead on mine. “I loveyou.”
CAGE
“I have an early morning.Are you going to be okay?”
She pulled away and grabbed a tissue from the coffee table. “Yeah. If you don’t think I’m the neighborhood whore, then I’m good.”
That stung, but I deserved it. “I’m a jerk.”
She grunted a laugh. “You’re jealous. It equally pisses me off and turns me on at the same time.”
When would she learn? “I don’t like being jealous.”
“So you’ve said.” She tossed the tissue in the kitchen trash and filled a glass with water, drinking the whole thing without stopping.
I hated seeing her tear-stained eyes and her overall look of physical and emotional exhaustion. Mostly, I hated that I was responsible for part of it.
She wrapped her arms around me. “I need to feed Trzy, take a bath, and hopefully crash for a few hours before Shayna wakes up. I highly doubt she’ll sleep through the night. Not that I’m one to talk.”
“You seemed to sleep well last night.”
“I sleep better with you.”
“Yeah? Then you should move in with me.”
“Whoa!” She held up her hands. “Stop right there. It’s one thing to be your baby mama, but cohabitation too?”
My gaze shifted to her tummy. Why? Because I was an idiot, who for an insane moment thought that twenty-four hours after possible conception there would be something to see.
“Go.” She rolled her eyes. “You have ‘work’ early in the morning.”
“I’ll stay …”
She shook her head then grabbed my shirt, demanding my lips—just another thing that woman did that made it impossible not to want to spend every breath with her.
“Good night,” she whispered.
“Night.” I kissed her nose and turned, grabbing the door handle. “Lake?”
“Yeah?”
Keeping my back to her, I closed my eyes. “Ask me to stay.”
“You don’t have?—”
“Ask me. If youneedme the way I need you, then ask me. Ask me like your needs matter more than my job.”
I swear I could hear her swallow so hard. I wanted her to tell her pride to fuck off around me. More than anything in the whole damn world, I wanted her to surrender her emotions, herneedsto me the way she surrendered her body. Maybe that made me a greedy bastard, but I couldn’t help it. With Lake I wanted absofuckinglutelyeverything.
