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“Your friend Willa happened.”

She burst out laughing, scooting around to sit beside me. “Oh man. I’ve been there. Once I took a spin class she was subbing for and at the end I couldn’t even manage to get off the bike. Her power-lift class? I couldn’t raise my arms above my shoulders for nearly a week. Picking up a coffee cup was almost more than I could manage.”

“She is a beast of a female,” I agreed. “One morning and she has already defeated an entire hockey team of orcs. Even Ugwyll and Ozar were winded, although they would never admit it. And Ozar still made us stay extra-long at practice. I think he didn’t want his exercises to be less exhausting than Willa’s. Between the two of them, we will all surely die.”

Abby was nearly in tears laughing. “I’ve never been so glad I’m not an Orc on the Tusks hockey team. You poor thing.”

With her last words she reached over and wrapped an arm around me, leaning her head against my side. I closed my eyes, relishing the touch of her hand, the feel of her soft hair as it brushed my arm, the faint smell of lavender and mint and the powdery smell of her clothing, all mixing with the scent that belonged only to Abby.

“Are you too tired for lunch?” she murmured against the side of my chest. “I put your sub in the little fridge. Why don’t you take a nap, then eat later.”

“That sounds wonderful. I don’t know if I have the energy to get up so I can lie down on the couch.” That, and I didn’t want to move away from Abby. Could we both fit on the couch? Could I convince her to nap with me? Before I could think of asking her, she reached up and pulled a blanket from the couch, draping it across us as well as she could with one hand. I helped with my free hand, and the pair of us managed to cover our legs and hips.

“Nap with me.” It would have been a command coming from Ozar or Ugwyll, but the words from me had a soft note, almost pleading.

Abby let out a quiet chuckle. “I shouldn’t. I’ve got a million things to do. But a nap really does sound nice right now.”

And with that she sighed, snuggling closer against me. Her breathing slowed, and as tired as I was, I couldn’t let sleep easily claim me. I wanted to savor her softness against me, the sound of her breath. She had a million things to do, but napping with me took precedence. When I finally drifted off to sleep, it was hope that filled my mind. Hope and love.

25

ABBY

Iwoke up to the sound of Bwat softly snoring. During our nap I’d slid down his side, and my head was now resting on the orc’s lap. My one hand had moved from his waist to the side of his ass, and my other hand was against one of his inner thighs. His hands were in less compromising positions with one on my mid back and the other on the floor beside his outside leg.

Thank God he didn’t have any morning wood poking me in the ear or eye. Afternoon wood? Evening wood? I honestly had no idea what time it was. Looking around as best as I could from my position, I realized that we were alone in the room. Either Daniella and Malik had come back from their late lunch break, found us like this, and decided to give us space, or our nap had been very short. I was betting the former, which was horribly embarrassing to think about.

Bwat stirred as I carefully sat up but he kept sleeping–which gave me a chance to really look at him in this vulnerable moment. Although with Bwat, I got the impression every moment was vulnerable. He wasn’t an orc to hide his feelings or put on a brave front when he was feeling anything but brave.

It was something I truly admired about him. There were no layers to uncover with him. He was the man he presented himself to be.

My favorite romances always had a dark and brooding hero with secrets and wounds the heroine needed to work to uncover. It was sexy as hell in the books, but the actual men I’d dated like that? Exhausting. Frustrating. So much damned work. And in real life, all my effort would never change them. They would always be sexy and emotionally volatile, which made for fun sex, but was absolutely horrible whenever we were not in bed.

I scooted out from under Bwat’s arm, tucked the blanket around his legs, then on impulse, leaned in to place a kiss on his cheek. My friend. The sweetest man I knew.

I was willing to bet he was absolutely incredible in bed.

The thought had my face heating. Suddenly my mind was back to last Friday, when I’d somewhat drunkenly hit on him and he’d been the gentleman, tucking me into bed and sitting beside me until I felt asleep. The next day I’d been glad he hadn’t taken me up on my offer. If he had, I would have assumed I owed Bwat something.

But with Bwat, nothing was ever transactional. Dinner didn’t mean he expected sex. Nothing he did for me ever held any expectation on his part. It was freeing. And it was giving me the space to consider our friendship and if I did want more without any pressure at all.

Picking up my laptop, I tiptoed out of the room and down the hall where I found Daniella and Malik in an empty office, writing a list of ideas for the upcoming calendar shoot on a dusty whiteboard.

“Oooo, it’s sleeping beauty,” Daniella teased.

“You two were so damned cute with that blanket. You were drooling on his crotch. Just a little turn to your left and you would have been right in position.” Malik winked.

“Hard to do what you’re hinting at with his pants on.” Was I really having this conversation with my co-workers? How totally inappropriate. But somehow Daniella and Malik had moved from co-workers into friend territory.

“We didn’t want to wake you. I know you haven’t been getting a lot of sleep lately, and I heard from the other orcs that Willa whooped their asses this morning,” Daniella said.

“Willa always whoops ass. And evidently Ozar did not want to be known as the wimpy one. He put the team through the wringer on the ice afterward.” I walked over to eye the whiteboard. “Are you two thinking of putting this out as soon as we can and doing another one for next year, or just going with next year’s calendar and pre-selling it before the season ends?”

“The latter,” Malik said. “I’d love to put one out for this coming year, but by the time we get the shoot done and get everything back from the printer, it’ll be well into February.”

“We can still pull it off if we pay for expedited printing and shipping.” I pointed to the name under January. “Let’s do a group shot for January just in case we can’t get it printed before the end of the year. And while we’ve got the photographer booked, let’s have him take a round of photos we can use next year. We can presell those calendars in the fall when the season starts. Actually, we can sell both the old stock and the new ones for the fans who might have missed out or want the pictures.”

Daniella grimaced. “That’s really rushing the timeline, Abby.”