Page 32 of Lieutenant

I strip and stand in the shower, scrub the makeup off my face.

Think about the bite marks and bruises inside my thighs.

And I smile.

Yeah, the way Carter’s setting this up…

That’s freaking haaawwt. Being called up to Owen’s office could mean a simple budget confab…

Or me being ordered to lock his office door behind me as he stares at me with that sweetly hungry look in his eyes as he unfastens his belt.

Holy…fuuuuuck.

Note to self, remind Carter to have Owen keep a spare change of clothes at the office, just in case we accidentally spooge whatever he’s wearing.

I love my life and what we have, but leave it to Carter to amp things up after we’vejusttaken office.

As if we didn’t have enough excitement, and he manages to shake things up even more.

After my shower, I dry off and don’t bother putting on clothes as I head for bed. I suspect my panty infraction caning won’t happen tonight after all. Owen will need Carter for a while.

Clean sheets.

It’s the little things, sometimes. Right now, with our lives a whirlwind, sometimes they’re the only pleasures we get.

But this is what we signed up for, so I can’t bitch too much.

Especially since it was what I wanted in the first place.

I finish pulling back the duvet cover, to the end of the bed, until it’s spilling off of it like a blue and white cotton waterfall.

I miss our bed in Tampa, the king-sized mattress we spent weeks shopping for, the three of us raising eyebrows when we’d all climb onto the floor models, giggling and laughing like little kids as we tested them out.

But how else were we to know if someone rolling over would make it dip? Or jostle someone? Sometimes, Carter has nightmares that only Owen can really soothe him through.

And that was before Owen’s first election. On a third-party ticket.

You can bet I playfully rub my father’s face inthat.

Every damn chance I get.

He smiles and takes it, too, because it’s not bragging if you’ve actually done it. As Daddy always taught me, there’s only one winner, and it’s not second place.

I know he’s proud of me, proud of what we’ve done, and what we’re going to do next, even if he does hate Carter’s guts and wishes I’d married Owen.

I saw the pride in his gaze tonight. I did what he couldn’t do.

One last thing before I can really decide to call it quits, and then we can just be people, and that’s run for governor myself.

As exhausted as I am, it still takes me a little while to fall asleep. It’s weird being totally alone in bed, and I realize how much I don’t like that feeling.

But I do finally fall asleep. At some point, the feel of someone climbing under the covers with me awakens me. I don’t need to see him to know it’s Carter from the way he moves.

He spoons his body around mine and I wiggle against him, getting comfy.

“It’s only four,” he says, brushing his lips against my shoulder. “Go back to sleep, pet.”

“Is he okay?”