Chasing Daylight

by Carey Heywood

  His arms tighten around me as he rests his chin on my shoulder. “I know.”

  I try to turn to face him, but he holds me tightly.

  I give up and ask, “How?”

  “I’ll never forget. You skidded to a halt the moment you saw me. I could almost hear the wheels turning in your head. I watched your face as you made the decision to open the door to me.”

  “Why do you say you’ll never forget it?”

  He chuckles, but there’s no humor in it. “You were a little bitty thing compared to me. You should have taken one look at me and run right back up your stairs, but you didn’t.”

  “Are you saying I’m dumb for opening the door to you?”

  He shakes his head, his cheek pressing to mine with each shake. “I’m saying I’ll never forget your courage.”

  I gulp. “But, I was so scared.”

  “And you did it anyway.”

  What he says sinks in. This time when I move to turn in his arms, he lets me. I press into him. Relishing the way his big body wraps me up. It’s like the best bear hug ever.

  Before sharing a bed with Mitch, I would get hot while I slept. It’s the main reason I sleep topless most nights. It’s strange, considering the body heat of another person, especially one as big as Mitch hasn’t bothered me at all. His body heat against my naked flesh is a comfort.

  It could be because his place is a basement. I snuggle in closer, not caring why it works, just happy that it does and drift off to sleep.

  Movement, a dip in the mattress, a slide of an arm out from under me, wakes me. I turn and blink to see Mitch wheeling toward the bathroom.

  “You okay?” I rasp.

  He turns at my voice. “Shit. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

  I sit up, yawning, and rub my eyes.

  “Give me a sec,” he says, before turning back to and heading the rest of the way to the bathroom.

  I flop onto my back and pull his sheet around me. It’s a disaster since I untucked it and the blanket is now half hanging off the bed. I tug at it, probably messing it up more but missing the warmth of Mitch.

  After the toilet flushes and I hear running water turn on then off, he’s back in bed.

  “Sorry I woke you.” He tucks me back into his side as I kick away the sheet in favor of his skin.

  “Are you okay?”

  His fingers move up and down my bicep. “I get up a lot.”

  I lift my head and look down at him. “Every night?”

  He nods his head.

  “How often?”

  He shrugs, moving his hand from my arm to push hair away from my face. “Every couple of hours.”

  My mouth drops. “Every couple of hours every night?”

  He nods again.

  “But, how do you function?”

  His face softens into a sad smile. “You get used to it.”

  “Did you wake up every couple of hours last night too?”

  He nods and I argue, “I only noticed the one time.”

  His hand cups my jaw, his thumb sliding across my cheek. “I didn’t want to wake you, so I stayed in bed.”

  My brow furrows. “How long does it take you to fall back asleep?”

  His eyes flick up to the ceiling before moving back to mine. “Usually an hour, sometimes longer.”

  “What’d you do for an hour?”

  He smiles and this time, it isn’t sad. “I watched you sleep.”

  “For an hour?” I laugh.

  I should be creeped out, but instead, I find it funny.

  His lip twitches as he watches me laugh. “Yeah.”

  “God, you had to have been so bored. You should have watched TV or something.”

  He shakes his head. “I was trying not to wake you.”

  I shift until I’m stretched out on top of him. “I don’t mind if you wake me.”

  He frowns, shaking his head. “You need your sleep.”

  I kiss him, soft then hard, and loving the way his arms tighten around me as his tongue slips into my mouth. I’m breathless by the time I pull away. “I’m here now. You don’t have to be alone anymore.”

  In a flash, I’m on my back, his mouth on mine, his hardness between my legs. I curl my arms around his shoulders. His hand slides between us, between my legs, and two fingers thrust inside me.

  He lifts his head and growls, “So fucking wet for me.”

  I nod, squirming against his fingers.

  “God, you’re gorgeous.”

  I whimper, “Please.”

  He leans down to kiss me hard before pulling away to grab a condom. Once it’s on, he wastes no time in filling me. His first thrust is hard, earth shaking, a reminder of the sheer power he commands. He eases out though, slowly, a gentle retreat and then. He fills me again, so smoothly, reverently.

  There were no words between us our first time together. It was a frenzy of hands, fingers, mouths, and tongues. This time, he tucks his face into my neck and whispers to me as his hand moves between us to stroke my clit.

  “So sweet,” he says.

  He kisses me below my ear.

  “So fucking sexy,” he says.

  He nibbles at my collarbone.

  “So tight around my cock,” he says.

  He suckles my neck.

  “You turn me on like crazy,” he says.

  He bites my earlobe.

  “You feel so good,” he says.

  I’m incapable of responding coherently. I hold his face to my neck. I lift my hips to meet each of his strokes into me. The relentless attention of his fingers combined with his beautiful body moving inside of me, and the dirty things he murmurs to me, create a wave of pleasure within me. My body tenses as my release blooms and he senses it.

  “Come all over my cock,” he urges, and moments later, I oblige.

  He lifts his head and watches my face as my body shudders and I cry out. He drives into me harder, my entire body jolting with each of his powerful thrusts. Pressing his forehead to mine, he squeezes his eyes shut as his entire body goes rigid. Flexed and tense at the exact moment before his release, he could be made of stone, a chiseled statue of a god.

  He groans as he spills into me, and his eyes open to look down into mine. That isn’t just sex. Before Mitch, I have never experienced this kind of intimacy; the way he holds me, whispers to me, and gives himself to me. My eyes start to prickle as wetness fills them.

  I reach up to wipe at them and Mitch, whose body is softening onto mine, stills.

  “Did I hurt you?” he murmurs, fear clearly written all over his face.

  I gasp, “No, no, no, no.” I gulp. “I’m going to sound silly.”

  He pushes my hair away from my face and waits for me to explain.

  “It was so beautiful that I got a little bit emotional.”

  His face softens in a way that’s brand new to me, and my eyes fill again. “God, you’re going to think I’m crazy. I swear this is not normal for me.”

  He lowers his face to kiss a triangle around each of my eyes, first kissing right above my brow, and then the spot below my eye, next to my nose and then below the outside corner of my eye. I gulp not wanting to say anything and ruin the moment. I still have to learn so many things about this man. He’s a puzzle, and each piece that falls into place only makes me want him more.

  He keeps me gathered close to him until we absolutely have to get up for work. He does this more for me than him, since he makes his own hours. They hired a local handy man to cover for him when he couldn’t work, so he isn’t dealing with any sort of backlog. I can’t be late since just Rachel and I are covering the front check-in of the Critter Haven and Spa and she grooms.

  While I get ready, he makes coffee and toasts bagels. It sucks, but I have to take mine to-go, pausing long enough to kiss him before taking a bite and dashing out to my car with it. I manage to beat Rachel and Alec in. I have all the lights on and a pot of coffee going by the time they show.

  The calm before the storm lasts twenty mi
nutes before Rachel’s grooming clients start to come in. Word of mouth is already at work for her. Alec keeps me company since he doesn’t have any four-legged patients.

  The flyers Mitch hung for me at Gramercy Square have their first bite. Over the phone, I book an overnight guest for the week after next, the week I’m supposed to be going with Mitch to the beach.

  As soon as I hang up, I move to help Rachel as she shampoos a Maltese. “I booked a boarder.”

  “Yay! That’s great. See, soon we’ll be full up every night.”

  I cringe. I have been stressing over the lack of business my side of the Critter Haven and Spa is bringing in. Sure, I’m not being paid a lot; but I do have a rent-free apartment with utilities, cable, and Wi-Fi included, as well as a kick-ass employer-paid health care. My only expenses right now are food, my student loans, gas, insurance for my car, and random one-off things.

  Even though I don’t make a lot, whatever profits the Critter Haven and Spa manages, if it manages a profit, are going into a pool where I get twenty percent. Alec and Rachel get the remaining eighty percent until the investment they made into the startup costs are paid back. After that, the three of us are going to split them equally. This plan sounds good in theory; but considering the fact, they are currently doing way more work than I am, it sucks.

  I’m no mooch and going away for a week, the first week I would be earning my keep does not sit well with me.

  “It’s the week Mitch and I were going to the beach.”

  She gives me a blank stare. “So?”

  I take a step back to avoid getting wet as she rinses the Maltese.

  “There’s no way I can go now.”

  Wrapping a towel around her furry client, she bobs her head toward her grooming table, motioning for me to follow her.

  Setting the pup down, she gently towel dries her before she looks up at me, the Maltese looking up at me as well.

  “You’re going. Don’t even think about arguing this with me.”

  My shoulders sag and I glance at the Maltese for support. When she doesn’t offer any, I look back at Rachel and open my mouth.

  She cuts me off, lifting her hand and shaking her finger. “No, no, no. Seriously, Z, it is no big deal for me to camp out here for a week.”

  “But—” I try.

  She clips the Maltese’s collar to a line mounted over the table, ignoring me.

  “Rachel, I’ve been the worst partner ever.”

  She continues as though she can’t hear me, reaching for her dryer and turning it on. She then points to her ear and sticks her tongue out at me, letting me know I can talk until I’m blue in the face and it won’t matter. I love her; but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to strangle her from time to time.

  “Ugh,” I grumble, spinning on my heel to go look for Alec.

  He’s in the first clinic room doing a supply inventory.

  “Alec, will you please talk to your stubborn wife for me?”

  His eyebrows pop up, and he sets the list he was working on down to turn and faces me fully. “What’d the love of my life do this time?”

  I fold my arms across my chest. “I booked a boarder for the week Mitch and I are scheduled to go to the beach; and she wants to cover for me here, so I can go.”

  His lip twitches and he leans his hip against the counter. “Let me get this straight. You’re annoyed that she wants you to take a vacation?”

  I nod.

  He shakes his head and laughs.

  I glare at him, but he doesn’t stop.

  After a moment, he clears his throat and replies, “Look, there are two reasons she’s never going to back down on you going. First, she wants you and Mitch to happen, like already picturing your wedding and naming your kids happen. Second, she wants a friend with a beach house. Trust me, there’s no way she’s going to be cool with you missing out.”

  “But Alec, I’m not pulling my weight around here. This isn’t fair to her.”

  He shrugs and I stomp my foot in annoyance.

  I start to turn to leave, and he stops me by saying, “Wait.”

  Only turning my head, I meet his eyes.

  “Would you drop everything and do whatever you could to make anything Rachel wanted happen for her?”

  I nod. Uh oh, I see where he’s going with this.

  “We feel the same way about you. We’re family; and you’re going have to deal with us looking out for you, whether you like it or not.”

  “I’d tell you that you could say no, but you can’t.”

  I nod. I get it. “It’s cool man. We’re going to be gone for a week; but we can do it once, we’re back from the beach.”

  Luke presses the stop button on his treadmill. It’s my first session since the stabbing, and all he’s letting me do is walk.

  He turns so he’s fully facing my machine. “I wasn’t expecting you to agree. I had this whole speech planned out to guilt you into it for Lindsay.”

  Zeus and I both look at him. “You can still do your speech, if you feel like it.”

  He laughs and starts his treadmill back up. “Nah, it was a crap speech.”

  After my session, he walks out with me to my truck. While we’re both standing next to it, he texts me his address. A couple of months back, he bought a new house with his fiancé.

  “Loki is good with other dogs, but we’ll shut Coco in our room when you come over, since she’s kind of an asshole.”

  “I’m pretty sure Zeus can hold his own against her.”

  Luke rubs Zeus’ head. “I’m sure he can, but it will stress Lindsay out less this way. She still gets nervous meeting new people. That’s why it’d be best that we have you guys over for dinner versus meeting you at a restaurant since she’ll be more comfortable in a familiar place.”

  “That’s cool.”

  He pats my shoulder and makes his way back into the gym. I have been training with Luke for over two years now, and this is the most we have ever spoken to each other.

  He visited me in the hospital after the stabbing and met McKenzie. I was still drugged out; but something must have happened, or maybe it was the fact I was stabbed. Either way, from the moment I walked into the gym today, Luke was different.

  At first, I didn’t react, waiting to see if he’d stop talking if I didn’t respond. Nope, halfway through my workout, I gave up shutting him out, and now I’m going to be having dinner with him and his girl.

  Zeus and I head back to my place so I can shower and change before McKenzie gets off work. We’re having dinner with Alec and Rachel tonight. We leave for the beach tomorrow; but, since the drive isn’t bad, I’m going to knock out the weekly mowing of the apartment complex before we go.

  That way they’ll only need to use a backup handyman if something breaks.

  “Knock, knock.”

  I’m pulling on a shirt as she walks in. One perk of a small space is how quickly I can get to her.

  I tug her to me and press my nose into her hair. She relaxes against me, her arms wrapping around my waist.

  “You don’t have to announce yourself when you come in,” I murmur into her hair.

  She tightens her arms around me. “It’s still new.”

  When I was in the hospital, Diane gave Alec a spare key to my place since he was watching Zeus, and so he could get his food and stuff. Alec gave the key to McKenzie when she painted my place. She tried to give it back to me, but I refused. She’s still getting used to the fact that I want her here.

  I lean back and bend down to brush my lips against hers. “I know.”

  I pull away to throw some more things in a bag.

  “Can you swim?”

  I glance over at McKenzie and can see asking about my leg made her nervous.

  “I’ll probably stick to the pool without my prosthetic. I have a waterproof one that I’ll bring if we go to the beach. I probably won’t swim where people can see.”

  She nods.

  “Is that okay with you?” I ask, this time I’m
the nervous one.

  She hurries to me, pressing her hands to my chest. “Yes, all I want is you to be comfortable.”

  I hug her. “You’re incredible, you know that?”

  She shakes her head so I drop it.

  Shifting her head over my arm, she peeks down into my bag. “Is that all you’re bringing?”

  My eyes move to my door and I see her oversized rolling suitcase and laugh. “I travel light compared to you.”

  She smirks but doesn’t argue.

  I add my guitar to my pile and her fingers reach out to stroke it. “I saw this when we painted and have been meaning to ask you about it.”

  “Ask away.”

  “I’ve always wanted to learn how to play. Will you play something for me?”

  I release her and turn to sit on the bed. She stands in front of me while I rest my guitar on my thigh and play the chorus of “Layla.”

  Her mouth drops and she claps. “I love that song.”

  I nod. “I was sitting on the patio of Bellissima’s and saw you pull into the Critter Haven and Spa once. You were blasting this song.”

  She laughs. “That sounds like something I would do.”

  I rest my guitar on the bed behind me and pull her into my lap. “When we get back from the beach, my trainer wants us to come over and have dinner at his place.”

  “Does he live nearby?”

  “I’ve never been to his place; but I have the address in my phone, if you want to look it up while I pack.”

  My phone is on the table next to the bed, I pass it over to her. “My code is 9–3-8–7.”

  “Does that stand for anything?” She asks as her thumb moves over the screen.

  I shrug. “It’s Zeus.”

  “Awww, I love that.”

  Zeus lifts his head at his name. He’s been napping on my bed. I lean over my bag to rub his belly.

  “Good boy.”

  “Where in your phone is the address?”

  I straighten and point to the message icon. “He texted it to me.”

  I grab a t-shirt, roll it up, and shove it into my bag.

  “Who’s Olivia?”

  My body freezes. “What?”

  She holds my phone up and a text from my Aunt Cathy is visible and says,

  ‘It was good to see you. McKenzie seems like a great girl, much better than Olivia.’