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And then he started to bellow, “Sutton, get your ass out here and get me some breakfast!”
“That’s Earl,” Knox said into the receiver that Candice still had up to her ear. “He is harmless, but I need you to lock the door and not open it until I arrive.”
Candice looked furtively out into the trailer park. She didn’t see anything suspicious, but this time she obeyed him.
“It’s closed,” she told him.
“And locked?” Knox demanded.
“And locked.”
“I will be there in ten minutes.” And then he hung up before she could protest any further.
“Sutton,get your ass out here and get me some breakfast!”
I blinked, trying to get my bearings. It wasn’t that I hadn’t been awakened by Earl’s bellowing in the past. It is just that it had been a long time. I had something warm and hard in my hands and I squeezed it softly, worried that it would fade away as my world became clearer.
“As much as I love your hands on my ass, I have a feeling that if you ignore the fleabag he will likely come in here next. I draw the line at sharing a bed with Earl.”
Heat flamed my face. I had been groping Mark’s ass! And it was a very naked ass, not a pajama-clad one.
I ripped my hand away and called out shakily, “Keep your shirt on Earl, give me a minute.”
It was Candice who replied to my call. “Sutton, I hate to be a bother!”
Mark groaned. “At home, we don’t have this problem in the mornings.”
I froze.
We usually called the apartment in the city Mark’s place.
Home.
He had called it home, not only for himself but for both of us. There was ‘we’ and ‘home’ in the same sentence, and I was freaking the fuck out.
“What’s wrong?” he asked sharply.
I hopped out of bed and his eyes immediately flew to my naked flesh. I had been a bit hasty and caught my foot in the covers. I went from standing to sitting on my ass in about five seconds flat.
Mark snorted, and I could tell that he was trying not to laugh. “Are you alright?”
“Peachy.” I grabbed my pajamas from the night before and shoved them on.
“Sutton?” Candice called out. She had an anxiousness to her tone that wasn’t like her.
“We don’t have time for morning nookie, Sutton!” Earl yelled.
Mark flopped back on the bed muttering, “More’s the pity.”
I wasn’t sure who to answer first.
I went with the one yelling the loudest saying, “Earl, you say another word and I will not make you a damn thing.”
I could hear him grumble something to Candice, but at least he wasn’t screaming anymore.
I grabbed a ratty robe and belted it tightly.
Yanking the door open, I saw Candice and Earl sitting at the table. Candice had my cell phone in her hand.