Atticus tugged his pillow from under his head and smashed it against his face.“No way is it morning yet.”
“What did you say?”
He lifted the pillow enough to let his words become clear as he repeated the sentiment with an additional curse word, but then smashed it down again.
Slade’s warm body moved up close to him.“I’m sorry, but it is.”
“What timeisit?”he asked, lifting the pillow enough to be understood.
“Six thirty.”
Atticus sighed and yanked the pillow away from his face.“That’s only morning in your world.The one where overachievers live.In my world, I’ve still got two hours of night left.”
He was already running on far too little sleep.It was what?Only two days ago that they’d spent the entire night at the hospital?
Maybe once he’d slept for eighteen hours straight, he’d feel like himself again.Unfortunately, Atticus didn’t have the discipline to go to bed at a decent hour.If he had, he wouldn’t be so damn tired.Last night, rather than coming home and face-planting to catch up on the sleep he’d missed, Atticus had spent far too much time outlining the missing statue case.He felt kind of stupid treating it as they would a missing person’s case, but since this was technically his first case with the task force, he wanted to show Brantley and Reese that he was serious.Regardless of what he was looking for.
The next thing he knew, it was midnight, and he was once again shorting himself on sleep.Especially since Slade felt it was necessary to get up at the ass-crack of day.
“You talk to Carson?”Atticus asked.
“I texted him last night.He was still at his parents’ house.It was their anniversary.All the kids got together to throw them a party.”
“I guess that’s a good enough reason to back out on dinner,” Atticus mumbled.He’d been looking forward to spending the evening with Slade and Carson.Especially since that was the plan.Then Carson came by, but only to tell them he needed a raincheck on dinner.Unfortunately, that raincheck had extended to sex as well because Atticus ended up going to bed alone.
“How many people were there?”he asked, though he didn’t expect Slade to have the answer.
Slade rested his head on the pillow.“I guess if you count his brothers, Wade and Jaxson, and his sisters, Piper, Renee, and Cara, that would be six.Then there’s Piper’s son, and if any of them have significant others.”
“Do they?”
“I honestly don’t know.”
“He’s got a big family, too, huh?”
“He does.And they’re close.”
For whatever reason, Atticus liked that Carson was close to his family.He knew the same couldn’t be said for Slade.While he seemed to have a good relationship with his mother, a decent one with his father, Atticus had heard stories about Slade’s relationship with his brothers.Although he understood Slade’s reason for hating Spencer—the guy screwed his wife—he didn’t know the full story behind his animosity toward the others.
“Shouldn’t surprise you.”Slade rolled to his back.“Carson’s a damn good son.Even a good friend.He’s just a really shitty boyfriend.”
Atticus wasn’t in the mood to listen to Slade dis Carson this morning.“I should get ready to head in.”
He tried to sit up but was flung back when Slade grabbed his arm.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Slade said quickly.“He’s tryin’ now.I’ll give him that.”
Too tired to fight, Atticus relaxed against the pillow.What he needed to do was get his tired ass out of bed and into the shower.Since Reese had texted about a potential new case for the entire team, Atticus wanted to get an answer for the missing statue as soon as possible.He hated the case already, and he’d only been working it for one day.But he would be damned if he was going to give up or skirt his responsibilities.It might’ve been a shitty assignment, but Brantley and Reese wouldn’t have given it to him if they didn’t trust him to get it resolved.
That or they hated him.
“What’s the plan for today?”Slade asked, his hand wandering beneath the blanket, shifting over Atticus’s stomach.
“I was plannin’ on taking a … oh, fuck,” he hissed when Slade’s fingers curled around his cock, soft and gentle.
“I’ll take one with you.”
“Take one what?”he asked, his train of thought completely obliterated by the pleasure of Slade’s hand.
