Page 80 of Joey

Joey walks out of the bathroom and heads toward me. She pulls back the covers to climb into bed, but there’s something very wrong with this picture. “Um, clothes off, baby girl.”

She looks down at her tiny shorts and tank top that don’t cover a lot of her body, but they still cover way too much. “These are hardly anything, and you need to rest,” she says as she looks at me with a devious grin on her face.

“I can still rest while you’re naked. Now take off the fucking clothes.”

“You are so bossy.” She rolls her eyes, but then my good girl peels her shirt off over her head and throws it onto the floor. She cocks one eyebrow at me. “The shorts too?”

“Most definitely the shorts too.”

“Fine.” She slowly rolls them down her legs, and I enjoy the show she’s giving me.

Gloriously naked, she slips beneath the covers, and I lift my arm so she can nestle into the crook of my shoulder. Her hard nipples brush over my skin as she presses her warm, soft body against mine, and my cock twitches in response. But my eyes are heavy with sleep, and my abdomen is so fucking sore, I don’t think I could do anything more than talk right now. I run my hand over her back, and she shivers against me.

“I know it must have been a shock finding out about Fiona. You want to talk about it?” she asks softly.

I can’t pretend I’m not a little bothered by the fact that Joey knew what her father had really done all along and could have saved me from years of torture. Not that I blame her at all—it was one incident in a long line of awful shit her father did. The fact he asked his ten-year-old daughter to keep a secret like that is all kinds of fucked up. Even more fucked up because it wasn’t an unusual enough event for her to feel the need to talk to anyone about it. I should be grateful that it didn’t traumatize her, but that would mean feeling grateful that she experienced such a shitty childhood. “Not especially. Do you?”

“No. Is that why you changed the subject when I asked you about staying the night with me earlier? You were worried you might hurt me?”

“Yeah.” I run my hand over her back absent-mindedly, lost in thoughts of missed opportunities.

“Is that why you fucked me all night when I stayed at the cabin with you?” she says, chuckling, and I can’t help but smile.

“No.” I kiss her forehead. “I fucked you all night long because I couldn’t stop myself from fucking you, baby girl. But when you fell asleep for a few hours, I made sure to stay awake.”

“So did you never spend the night with anyone before?”

“No.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispers.

I cup her jaw, tilting her head so I can stare into her beautiful dark eyes. “I never really cared that much about spending the night with anyone before you.”

“Never?” she blinks at me.

I can honestly say that’s true. I mean, I’d have spent the night with women out of convenience more than anything else, but not out of any burning desire to be close to anyone. “Not until you. And if you apologize one more time for what your father did, I’ll put you over my knee and spank your ass.”

Her breath catches in her throat. “You wouldn’t.”

“Try me, baby girl.”

“You’re such a bossy asshole sometimes,” she whispers, snuggling closer.

I sigh in contentment as sleep threatens to overwhelm me.

“Are you okay? I’m not hurting you, am I?”

“I’m good,” I assure her. “But I’ll be better when you drape that leg over me.”

“Max,” she admonishes me. “You need to sleep.”

“I am going to sleep,” I say, stifling a yawn. “But I want to feel that sweet pussy on me. When you get wet just from holding onto me, I want to feel it.”

“You think I’m going to get wet just from lying next to you?” she breathes, her warm breath dusting over my bruised skin. “You’re pretty sure of yourself.”

I drop a kiss on the top of her head. “I know you will, baby. If I slipped my fingers inside you right now, I know you’d already be a little wet for me. Isn’t that right?”

She hums. “Well, you don’t have to be an ass about it.”