by Hayes, Somer
I didn’t hear any movement in the bathroom, so I assumed Grace was settling in for a nice long bath. It wouldn’t hurt if I closed my eyes for just a minute…
* * *
I blinked hard. I couldn’t remember where I was and couldn’t understand the pressure I felt on my cheek. I reached up to brush it away, but it caught my hand and held it. I forced my eyes to stay open and focus. Grace’s face hovered above mine, an amused smile on her face.
“Grace? What are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here on my couch in my house?” she asked.
I sat up. Oh, right. “Sorry, I guess I dozed off.”
“You were sleeping really hard. You must be exhausted.”
I stretched. “Long day, that’s all.
“I felt bad waking you, but I thought you might want to get home to your own bed.”
“What time is it?”
“Almost eleven.”
That meant I’d been asleep on her couch for over two hours. I glanced at the TV and found some home decorating show instead of my football. An empty glass of wine sat next to my empty bottle of beer on the coffee table.
“Where’s Claire?” I asked.
“She was asleep in your arms, but per her vet’s orders, I put her in her kennel. I didn’t want you to roll over and accidentally squish her.”
I caught her wrist and pulled her on top of me and wrapped my arms around her. “Don’t you go using my orders against me.”
She giggled into my chest, and I savored the feeling. Her body was soft and warm, and she smelled clean and so, so feminine. I felt myself growing hard again and hoped she wouldn’t notice. I adjusted and tucked her into my side. She seemed content to lay with me, her eyes on the TV yet somehow unfocused.
“How was your bath?” I murmured into her hair.
“Much needed. Thank you for kitty sitting.”
“Anytime,” I whispered, feeling my eyes grow heavy again.
Grace’s hand rested on my chest, and her forefinger moved in a lazy circle over my sternum. The movement and her touch were hypnotic, and I was helpless to do anything but fall back to sleep with the sweet, sexy vixen in my arms.
25
Grace
I was awakened by the alarm on my phone going off signaling that it was time to feed Claire. I groaned and rubbed my eyes, then froze. I wasn’t in my bed. There was a person under me.
Oh, crap. I’d fallen asleep on the couch with Beau. Guess we’d both been more tired than we’d realized. When I’d finished my bath and come downstairs to relieve him of his kitten- sitting duties, I had instead found the most adorable scene I’d ever seen in my life. Beau, stretched out on my couch with his feet hanging over one arm because it couldn’t accommodate his long form, was asleep with Claire tucked into the crook of one elbow. I allowed myself a few moments to take in the sweet scene, and then with only a little guilt, snuck a picture. It was a moment I wanted to keep with me regardless of what Beau and I were or weren’t.
No matter what else happened, he was the man who had saved my Claire’s life, and I’d always be indebted to him.
I sat up carefully, trying not to wake him. It was one o’clock in the morning. He may as well sleep here at this point. I took the kennel from the coffee table and went to the kitchen where I made Claire a syringe of formula. She didn’t do as well at night. I think she was probably as tired as I was and not impressed with being woken up just to have food forced on her. I made a mental note to ask Beau how much longer he thought she’d need to stay on this schedule. Not that I knew anything about caring for orphaned kittens, but she seemed to be making incredible progress, and I’d have loved to get her to the point of eating on her own and maybe some independence here at the house.
I yawned. She yawned. I grabbed the open bottle of wine and drank. She latched onto the syringe and drank. Once we were both ready to go back to sleep, I tucked her into her kennel and then hesitated. I looked at Beau asleep on my couch. He took up most of it. I’d pretty much fallen asleep draped over his chest. Part of me wanted to crawl back into the warmth of his body and sleep the rest of the night there in his arms, but the more rational part of me knew I should do the prudent thing and go upstairs and get in my bed. I sighed and damned my own sensibilities, then picked up the kennel and went upstairs and got in bed. It felt cold and empty. All I could think about was the fact that Beau Maverick was asleep only a few yards away from me, and I wasn’t taking advantage of the cuddling situation. I rolled over and pulled the covers over my head willing myself to fall asleep. Eventually, I must have because the next thing I knew, it was three o’clock and time to feed Claire again.
I sat up and opened her kennel door. “Are you even hungry yet, little girl?” She was curled up in a tight ball, sound asleep. I felt bad for disturbing her but would feel worse skipping a feeding and possibly setting her back. So, I pulled her out of her warm nest and tucked her under my chin and headed to the kitchen. She snuggled into my hand and went back to sleep. I paused at the couch to peek at Beau. He had rolled over onto his side and tucked his hands into his armpits. It occurred to me that he might be cold, so I pulled a throw blanket from the closet and laid it over him resisting the urge to press a kiss to his temple.
I fixed Claire’s meal and tapped the syringe against her mouth. She bobbed and weaved, clearly more interested in eating than sleeping. “Come on, Claire. I don’t want to do this anymore than you do, but we have to keep you healthy,” I whispered. I’d manage to get a drop or two in, then she’d turn her face away or spit it back out. “Please?” I begged. I wanted to go back to bed but knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep if she didn’t eat.
“You don’t have to force it,” came Beau’s sleepy voice from the couch. “She’s improving, so I’d be inclined to trust her to tell you if she’s hungry or not.” He yawned. “If she starts to decline, that’s when we’ll need to worry about her food intake.”
“I didn’t mean to wake you,” I told him.
“Naw, it’s okay. I didn’t mean to fall asleep here.” He stood and came to me in the kitchen. He squinted down at Claire who had already tucked herself back into my arm and fallen back to sleep. “She’s fine, Grace. Go on back to bed.”
“I’m glad you were here to tell me. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep if she hadn’t eaten.”
“This may be my most unusual house call ever,” he told me with a sleepy smile. His hair was mussed and sticking up on the left side of his head. He looked adorable.
I glanced at the clock. “It’s already so late. Do you want to sleep here tonight?”
“I gotta say, going out in that chilly night doesn’t hold much appeal. You don’t mind me crashing on your couch?”
“Call it payment for kitty sitting.”
“I should start charging all my patients in naps,” he joked.
“You need anything?”
“No, I’m good. Get some rest. I’ll be quiet when I leave in the morning so that I don’t wake you.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m an early riser.”
He lifted a hand and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Good night, Grace.”
“Night, Beau,” I said and headed to the stairs. I padded up them, put Claire back to bed, and then got under the covers. I laid there for about ten minutes unable to sleep. I sat up. “Are you still awake?” I called softly over the railing of the loft.
“Yeah,” was his simple reply.
“I feel bad leaving you down there on the couch all alone. You can come up here to the bed if you want. It’s pretty comfortable.”
His answer came in the form of his footsteps moving through the first floor, then up the stairs, and finally next to my bed. My heart raced in my chest. My thought truly had been to offer him a more comfortable place to sleep, but now I wondered if he thought it was an invitation of an entirely different kind.
“Scoot your butt over,” he demanded.
I laughed. “No. This is my side, by Cla
ire. You go over there.” I pointed to the other side of the bed.
In reply, he got on the bed, then log-rolled over me to the empty side. He yanked his scrub top over his head, revealing a tight white t-shirt underneath, then pulled the covers up to his chin.
“This is much better,” he told me.
“It’s the least I could do after you’ve taken such good care of us tonight.”
He smiled, and his dimple was hidden in the pillow. “That’s what I’m here for.”
He’d said that to me before, and I wondered if it was a habit, or if he truly felt that his purpose was to care for others. Either way, I felt a part of my heart warm to him. Something about his desire to care for the kitten and me made me want to repay him in kind. The urge to brush his hair away from his forehead became overwhelming, and I reached my fingers to his hairline.
He smiled sleepily and let his eyes drift closed. A moment later, his breathing became deep and steady. I let my hand linger in his soft hair and was struck again by how handsome he was. I pulled in a deep breath and was met with his clean, outdoorsy scent. What I wouldn’t give to bottle that smell and keep it with me always.
Eventually, my eyelids began to droop, and I joined Beau in sleep.
26
Beau
I woke up with a raging ache in my groin. It was beyond what I was used to waking up with, and I groaned. What the hell was going on? I opened my eyes and realized exactly what was going on. I had wrapped myself around Grace, and my arousal was poking her in the butt. She seemed to be sleeping soundly, so I tried my best to unravel myself from her, but when I moved, she rolled over and moved with me. Now she was on her back, perfect chest rising and falling with her sleepy breaths, and my eyes were fixated on her cleavage.
If it was possible, I got even harder for her.
Shit. This was bad. I needed to get out of there. I tried to slowly pull my arm out from under her, and just as I was almost free, her alarm went off.
She moaned and reached blindly for her phone, smacking me in the face several times before waking up and realizing I wasn’t her end table. Her eyes went wide and round, and she sat up.
“Was I just hitting you in the face?”
“A little,” I told her. I expected the usual Grace, the one who would blithely apologize and then move on with her day. Instead, she started laughing. It started as a giggle, and she tried to hold it in, but it grew until she couldn’t contain it, and soon I couldn’t help but join her.
“I’ve never ended a sleepover with face punches before,” she told me when she had caught her breath.
“I wish I could tell you I’d never woken up with a woman who wanted to punch me in the face,” I said, and we both doubled over.
Dammit, I thought. I liked this girl. I wasn’t just attracted to her. I didn’t just enjoy the challenge. I liked her. I hooked an arm around her shoulders and hugged her to me. “What am I going to do with you?” I asked her.
She sighed. “I honestly have no idea.” She propped her chin on my chest and looked at me with her big doe eyes.
I ran my thumb along her cheekbone, then my forefinger against her lips. Her skin was so soft. Her eyes dropped to my mouth, and she leaned in and kissed me. It was a gentle, timid kiss, and I didn’t press for more. She moved her lips to each corner of my mouth, along my cheek, my earlobe. My breathing shallowed when she pressed soft kisses down my throat to the dip in my collarbone where she dabbed her tongue to my skin, taking the smallest of tastes, and the sensation shot straight to my groin. If her tongue felt that good on my neck, I could only imagine how good it would feel on other parts of my body. Still, I held back. The realization that I liked her complicated my attitude about sleeping with her.
“I love the way you smell,” she whispered at my ear.
I reached up to cradle her face and kissed her, breathing her in. “The feeling is entirely mutual.”
Meow…
I felt Grace smile against my mouth. “She’s regretting skipping her last meal.”
MEOW…
“Oh no. Your bossiness is rubbing off on her,” I gasped.
She punched me in the shoulder. “Just for that, I think you should go make us some coffee.”
“See? Bossy.” I told her with a shake of my head. I threw the covers back and made my way downstairs to the sound of her giggles. I found a well-organized kitchen and started a pot of coffee, then I found two mugs in the cupboard and leaned against the counter to wait. I could hear Grace upstairs cooing to the kitten and grinned. It reminded me of how my mom would climb into bed with each of us boys at night just to hear about our days or read us a story.
She’ll make a great mom one day, I thought to myself and then froze. Maybe I shouldn’t be thinking quite that far into the future at this point in our shaky, confusing relationship. I shook my head in an attempt to clear it, then ran my fingers through my hair in the hopes of getting it to lay down. Then I poured two cups of coffee and went back to Grace.
“Look how good she’s doing,” she exclaimed.
Claire was making her way around the bed tripping over every wrinkle she encountered. She got especially mad at one of them and batted at it. Grace chortled. “Get it, girl!”
I handed her the mug of coffee and got back in bed. “It’s five o’clock. I suppose we should get our days started,” I said, even as I scooted down deeper below the covers.
She took a sip and nodded her head. “Definitely.” Then she put her mug on the end table and snuggled her way under my arm. We watched Claire bounce around for a while, but once she had worn herself out, she gave up and curled into a ball and went back to sleep. I ran my hand up and down Grace’s arm until she let out a soft snore. I smiled and checked the calendar on my phone. My first appointment wasn’t until nine o’clock. Maybe we could both stand to sleep in a little. I reset the alarm on my phone and rested my cheek against the top of Grace’s head. Her sweet smell was a balm to my senses, and I closed my eyes.
Two hours later, both our alarms went off. “Fostering kittens has to be more work than raising human babies,” Grace said.
“I know a few parents who might disagree,” I murmured.
“Fight me,” she said.
I stretched. “I don’t think I’d want to take you on… in the ring or anywhere else.”
“Smart man.”
“Your turn to go reheat the coffee,” I told her.
“Fine, but you’re feeding the kitten.”
“Deal.”
She got out of bed, put Claire’s kennel on it, then grabbed our mostly untouched coffee and went downstairs. I heard the whirr of the microwave and the beep that signaled it was ready. I could smell the coffee wafting up the stairs, and my mouth began watering.
“How’s she doing?”
“Seems hungry this morning.”
Grace yawned wide. “Good.”
“Do you have a busy day?”
“I have a couple more appointments with potential donors, then the first Junior Symphony practice tonight. I should probably swing by the office and update my spreadsheets.” She shrugged, her heavy hair bouncing over her shoulders. “How about you?”
“It’s my turn to run the circuit.”
“What does that mean?”
“Most of the vets in town share a calendar and take turns visiting farms and ranches where people might not have the means to bring their animals to Great Falls for treatment, or for those who choose not to because it’s cost prohibitive.”
“So, you do it for free?”
“Yep. When we share the load, that usually means only a day or two a month. It’s worth it to me to lose a little money at the clinic to ensure animals are receiving care.”
“That’s cool.”
“It’s unfortunately really necessary.” I finished feeding Claire and dabbed her mouth, wiping away the formula that had managed to escape. Then I picked up my coffee and drank. “This has been a weird night.”
Claire laughed. “I
was just thinking the same thing.”
“If I’m ever lucky enough to be invited to spend the night again, can you make sure it’s after Claire is off this every-two-hour feeding business?”
“Ugh, how much longer do I have to do it?” she asked.
I considered that. “Let’s try upping her doses and spreading the feedings out. If she can eat more, she’ll stay full longer. That should give you more time to rest.”
“More rest sounds good.”
I drained my coffee. “I’d better get going. Thanks for the coffee and strange night.”
“Anytime.” She smiled.
I wanted to warn her against making such promises but kept my mouth shut. “Tomorrow night?”
“We’ll be there,” she promised.
I knew I needed to go, but I hated to leave her. I brushed her hair away from her face and bent down for a quick kiss. “I’ll see you then.”
I went to my truck and got in. Great Falls was just small enough to gossip, and I didn’t want anything starting about Grace having overnight guests, even if it was me. She didn’t need that kind of reputation with all the good work she was trying to do in the community.
I ran home, fed Chip, showered, and changed into a clean set of scrubs. Then I loaded Chip into the truck and went to the clinic.
“Hey, Nancy,” I said as I entered through the back door.
“Hey,” she replied without interest. “You have seven stops today, and they’re pretty spread out so prepare yourself for some windshield time.”
“Yay,” I said flatly.
“I’ve got your travel bag fully stocked. Here’s your list of appointments, their ailments, and their addresses. Do you need anything else from me?”