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“I’m sleepy.”

His lips warmed my forehead. “I’ve got you, sweetheart. Sleep.”

“But I have questions.” My words were a little fuzzy and I did have questions, but I couldn’t seem to remember them.

“You can ask them in the morning.”

I snuggled closer, enjoying the sensation of his arms wrapped around me. “Okay.”

Jude stroking his hands down my spine was the last thing I felt.

Chapter 16

Lena

I woke with a start, my brain wondering why it was so light without my alarm going off. “Fuck.” Rolling, I went to leap out of bed, convinced I was late, only to find a large arm around my waist hauling me backward.

“Good morning,” Jude said, kissing just below my ear.

“Morning. I have to go. I don’t even know what time it is, but I’m late.”

He didn’t let me go. “Lena, look at me.”

I did, finding the steadiness in his stare. It shouldn’t have calmed me down the way it did, but I found my heart easing and my breathing evening out.

“I turned off your alarm. You’re not late. You’re not opening Deja Brew today, remember?”

All of yesterday crashed down into my memory all at once. Jude had managed to fuck all of it right out of my head. “Oh.”

That’s right. We were going to pull the place apart today and see if we could find the problem, though that was the most unappealing thing I’d ever heard of at the moment.

“So you can take your time.” He tugged, turning me back toward him so we lay face-to-face. “Morning.”

“Morning,” I mumbled. Sleep still fogged my brain, and the morning-after shock of what we’d done together on top of all the bakery stuff made me want to put the pillow over my head and sleep until noon.

He ran his hand down my arm. “How are you feeling?”

“About Deja Brew? Or about…you know.” I didn’t know how to put voice to it.

“About me taking control last night, and you letting go.”

I let everything play over in my head, and every single moment was just as hot as it had been at the time. My face flushed, and that alone was enough to tell him what I thought. “I liked it. A lot. And I honestly wasn’t sure I would. I know I told you already.”

“I don’t mind hearing it again.”

Biting my lip, I tried to conjure the questions that had seemed so urgent last night. “I’m just not sure where we go from here? Like…” I shook my head. “You just start ordering me around?”

Jude laughed, slipping a hand behind my neck so he could pull me close enough to kiss my forehead. “No. Of course not.”

“Okay.” My stomach did a little flip-flop of nerves and excitement. “So, paint me a picture? What does this look like for you?”

“Hmm.” He brushed a teal strand of hair back off my forehead. “Well, first, I want to talk about what it’s not.”

I nodded once.

“It’s not both of us turning into robots, me giving orders and you taking them. It’s also not a set thing that has to stay the same forever. We’re both human, and we need different things at different times. That’s why talking about it is always the best policy—if there’s ever a problem, or even if there’s not.”

“Makes sense.”