Page 105

(SADE)
The next morning, my eyes opened, and I saw gray sheets, beyond which there was Javi’s handsome face, turned my way, asleep on the pillow beside mine.
I didn’t move as I gazed at his extreme male beauty right there, so close.
All mine.
Freaked because I was sleeping too soundly…
His words crashed into me, and I wanted to touch him. I wanted to hold him. I wanted to erase everything he’d had to live through and make it all sunshine. Make it so he felt safe to sleep deeply. Make it so he understood he’d made it to the other side and none of that would ever touch him again.
I also wanted to find his dad and punch him in the throat.
Okay, no, I wasn’t violent.
So I wanted to find his dad and say a few choice words (or more than a few).
But in the now, what I wanted was to let Javi sleep.
I’d noticed that Jessie and Shanti had packed my journal and the purple pen I used to write in it, and even though that was all I had available to me of my morning ritual, I decided to hit it so I could let out some of the emotion I had surrounding all that had happened and all Javi had shared with me.
I could probably do some yoga or Pilates exercises, but I didn’t want Javi to wake up and catch me doing it. I’d been practicing both for years, but I still knew I looked like a dork doing it. It was way too early in our relationship for him to see that.
Therefore, I took pains to slip out of the bed so I wouldn’t wake Javi. I hit the bathroom, did my thing, and when I came out, I moved right to my suitcases opened on the floor.
Jessie and Shanti had also packed some cute nighties, but I was in another of Javi’s tees because it was big and oft washed and cuddly, but mostly because he gave it to me to wear to bed. So I wasn’t about to change.
I grabbed my journal, the pen and was about to head to the door when I heard Javi’s gruff, sexy, drowsy, “Here, lil’ mama.”
I looked to him to see he hadn’t moved since I left him, except his golden eyes were open and on me.
Like they were tied to me and could reel me in, I went to him.
I put a hip to the bed and twisted to him so I was on my elbows and my face was close to his.
“You gonna do your morning thing?” he asked.
I nodded.
“’Kay, baby,” he murmured. “I’m gonna laze for a bit, be down after a while.”
I loved he was going to do that.
I could be the guard at the gate for once.
I nodded again.
“Kiss,” he commanded.
I didn’t hesitate. I pushed in to put my lips to his.
He lifted a hand to cup the back of my head, sifting his fingers through my ponytail as he did, and he took the kiss deeper.
He broke it and I whispered, “See you after a while.”
“Yeah, you will.”
I smiled at him.