“I’m gonna head down to the bar and see what needs to be cleaned up,” Duely said as if he’d read my mind. I knew he wanted to go to bed and get some sleep, but I wasn’t going to tell him to do that. I was getting more selfish by the minute.

Rathe held up a hand in a wave. “Mornin’ and thanks,” he said in Duely’s direction.

“Your morning is gonna be better than mine, I’d say,” Duely returned, then headed for the door.

I didn’t look back at him. Not that I was embarassed. I just couldn’t stop looking at Rathe. I wanted to run to him and leap into his arms. The door closed and Rathe held out his hand toward me. “Please get naked and back in bed with me,” he begged.

I walked to him and put my hand in his. He tugged me to him and pressed a kiss to the side of my head. “How do you feel?” he asked then slipped his hand between my legs. His fingers slid down the front of my shorts and into my panties. “Sore?”

I hadn’t realized I was tender until he touched me. I rubbed against him like a cat wanting to be stroked regardless of the soreness. “Catalina, I don’t want to hurt you but I’m gonna need to get inside you. I woke up craving you.”

The ringing of my phone interrupted anything I could say or do. No one should be calling me this early. No one ever called me this early.

“Ignore it,” Rathe said, taking a bite of my ear and making me not care that my phone was ringing so early. He circled my waist with his hands and walked backwards toward the bed, taking me with him. My phone stopped ringing. Whoever it was could wait a little.

Another phone started ringing somewhere in the apartment and Rathe stilled. I looked up at him. “Is that yours now?”

He nodded.

“Heath or Margo. Something could be wrong.” I pulled away from him and he let me go. I went to get my phone from the dresser and check to see who it was that had called.

Heath.

“Hey, man. Something wrong?” Rathe asked and I turned to see him standing in the middle of the room with his phone to his ear.

I went to him, my concern mounting now.

“Yeah. She’s,” his gaze locked on me and he paused. He was asking if this was okay. I could see the unspoken question in his eyes. I simply nodded.

“She’s with me. We’re at Duely’s,” he finished. His free hand reached out and he threaded his fingers through mine. There was silence on the other end of the line and I hoped Duely and Rathe were both wrong about how Heath felt about me.