“Barely.”
“Still counts,” Reese said. “Trust me.”
Mati poked at David’s shoulder. “You’re working. You’re sleeping. You’re having phenomenal sex. You’re doing a good job.”
David huffed out a laugh. “Reese is still tougher.”
Reese jerked back. “Are you serious?”
“You had a problem, and you got over it. You can’t tell me it was easy.”
“It wasn’t,” Reese agreed.
“I watched him do it,” Mati said. “You’ve never seen anyone work so hard at anything.”
David nodded, as if that was what he’d expected. “See, wicked fucking tough.”
Reese laughed, kind of helplessly. “Thank you. That…means a lot. From both of you.”
Mati kissed his cheek, practically crawling over David to do it. David didn’t seem to mind. “What do you say we get some sleep, have slow, lazy sex in the morning, and then do that driving lesson tomorrow?”
Anxiety clutched at Reese’s chest, but he recognized it as the knee-jerk reaction it was and forced it aside. “Yes, sounds great.”
David’s eyes narrowed on his face. “You sure?”
“About morning sex? Never surer of anything in my life.”
David smirked. “I mean about the driving.”
Reese nodded. “Yes. It’s time. I want to be able to do my part if it’s needed.”
David placed his big palm on Reese’s chest, right over his heart. “See? As tough a bastard as I’ve ever met.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Mati stretched out in the back seat of Reese’s car, the afternoon sun streaming in through the window warming her face, content to rest her eyes for a bit. They’d been driving for a couple of hours, and Reese was doing fine—which was no surprise.
She texted Hodges a picture of the back of Reese’s head with the Boston traffic out the windshield beyond, hoping Hodges wouldn’t notice the giant hickey above Reese’s collar.
The immediate response was,Excellent!
They’d started in a deserted parking lot with Reese reacquainting himself with the clutch. From there, they’d ventured onto increasingly busy streets until they’d ended up here, a few blocks from their old hotel in the heart of the city. Boston was not an easy city to drive, given many of its streets had started out as winding cart paths and its citizens weren’t known for their patience behind the wheel. Reese seemed unbothered, though. The few times he’d gotten tense—as anyone reasonably would—David had put his hand on his leg and talked him through it.
Mati only had one worry now. “David, if you keep moving that hand up his thigh, Reese is going to drive right into that truck.”
“I will not,” Reese said, indignant.
David laughed. “I’m making sure he’s good at driving with distractions.”
“More like driving with erections,” Reese muttered.
“That, too,” David said with a toothy smile.
Mati laughed and looked longingly out the window at the city she’d been in for over a week and still hadn’tseen.When this was all over, she wanted to come back. She wanted to explore and eat and walk and see everything.
Including David. More and more, the idea of leaving here, leavinghim, felt wrong.
She jumped when her phone rang. She’d been without it for so long that it felt weird to be able to answer it. Chance and David had agreed it was safe to pick up their phones when they retrieved Reese’s car from the hotel, giving them time to catch up on calls and texts. They’d shut off the location services, but once they were done with their outing, they would turn it back on and leave them at the hotel again.
