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Her hands dropped, and she stared at me like she couldn’t believe I’d just circled back to that. “Caspian.”

“What? I’m offering solutions.”

“You are impossible.”

“Then stop complaining.”

“You are the most irritating man I have ever met in my entire life.” She was smiling when she said it, though, the kind of smile that gave away the fact that I wasn’t truly bothering her nearly as much as she wanted me to think.

I bent down, grabbed my sweats from the floor, and pulled them on while she stayed stretched across the bed, still smiling at me. “And you love me anyway.”

Lakelyn’s smile softened at that, losing some of the teasing around the edges. “I do,” she confirmed softly.

There was no teasing in her voice that time and no hesitation either. She said it like it was the simplest truth she knew.

Lakelyn finally let the sheet fall back onto the bed and reached for the robe she had tossed over the chair earlier. The second she turned her back to slip her arms into it, I smacked her ass hard enough to make her jump.

“Caspian!” she hissed.

I grinned while she twisted around to glare at me, one arm still halfway through the sleeve.

“What? You walked past me with all that ass out like I was supposed to ignore it.”

Lakelyn shook her head, but the smile trying to break free gave her away.

After that, we showered together. Normally, seeing Lakelyn naked and wet all over again would’ve had me trying to start round two before we ever made it out the bathroom, but I had too much business waiting on me, and on top of that, I was hungry as hell.

I pulled a fresh shirt over my head and ran a hand over my face.

My phone was still buzzing. I could feel the weight of the day pressing in, all the shit I had to handle and all the people waiting on me. But leaving Lakelyn always felt wrong, like I was walking away from the only place that made sense.

Lakelyn wrapped her robe around herself, tying it tight. “What time are you picking me up tonight?”

“Picking you up?” I repeated in confusion.

She pulled back wearing a frown. “Caspian Black. I know like hell you haven’t forgotten about the party tonight!”

Damn.

I damn near had.

That fucking Halloween party.

I hadn’t been excited about it from the beginning. Costume parties weren’t really my thing, and neither were crowded rooms full of people I didn’t know, drunk off cheap liquor and trying to guess who the fuck everybody was supposed to be.

I never understood why grown-ass people needed one night out the year to put on wigs, fake blood, plastic teeth, and shit they would be embarrassed to wear any other day.

Lakelyn, on the other hand, had been excited for weeks.

Before she finally settled on our costumes, that woman had suggested damn near everything except dressing me up like a fucking pumpkin.

First, she wanted us to be a vampire couple. I told her absolutely the fuck not. Then she mentioned Chucky and his bride, which was another immediate hell no. I wasn’t putting on a red wig, striped shirt, and overalls just to spend the night looking like an oversized murderous toddler.

Then came a mummy and Cleopatra.

Lakelyn actually smiled when she suggested that one and asked, “What do you think?”

I told her I thought it was some bullshit that I had to walk around wrapped in toilet-paper-looking shit all night while she got to be fine.