“I’ll be back soon,” he promises before standing and leaving. After ten minutes my face is sweating so badly I can’t stand it any longer. I drain the tub and rinse quickly in the shower. I dry and lotion up before pawing through Masen’s shirts so I’ll have something to wear to bed. I’m asleep almost as soon as my head hits the pillow.

CHAPTER 27

I jolt awake suddenly from a dream I can’t remember. My heart is racing, and my cheeks are wet from tears. Masen stirs next to me, rumpling the sheet from his bottom half. He’s sleeping on his stomach with his arms and a pillow folded under his head. I blow out a couple of deep breaths, and Masen’s thick sleep voice fills the silence, “What’s wrong, baby?”

I cringe. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. It was just a bad dream.” I sniffle a little.

His eyes pop open, and he lifts up on his elbows. “Why are you crying?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know. I can’t remember the dream. I just remember being really sad,” I mumble.

He rolls over and sits up beside me, pulling me over to his chest. “Don’t cry, Little One,” he says, sounding pained. I relax into him, accepting his comfort. He lays us back down and rubs his fingers through my hair until I eventually fall back asleep.

I’m still draped across Masen when I wake up hours later to the bright morning sun filtering through the curtains. I roll over, stretch, and enjoy watching Masen sleep. His face is soft and relaxed. With his intense eyes hidden, I take in his rugged features and marvel at his masculine beauty, which seems like such a strange word to use to describe him but I find no other words that convey the truth more than those. Masen’s face is turned toward me. His lips are barely parted, and his dark lashes that are longer than mine fan his high cheekbone. His jaw is shadowed with his overnight stubble. One hand rests on his bare stomach while the other is folded behind his head. The black sheet is covering him from just below his belly button down. My hand itches to inch the fabric lower so my view would be uninterrupted.

I’ve been staring for a while when my bladder demands I get out of bed. Slowly, I move from the bed and leave the room, I’ll use another bathroom. I don’t want to wake Masen. I’m not sure what time he got to bed, but I know he was awake with me for a while through the night. I use the same bathroom we used yesterday. After washing my hands, I head to the kitchen to make some coffee in the new machine Masen bought yesterday. I still don’t have my liquid creamer, but at least the coffee’s good, and there’s some powder crap in the cupboard. I need to go grocery shopping, today.