He lifted his head and looked down at his unsmiling princess who was again giving him something deep in her eyes.

“Drop the groceries,” he ordered.

“Sebring—”

“Drop the fucking groceries.”

She stared at him but she didn’t have to look deep.

He was giving it to her surface.

He watched her lick her lips as he heard the thumps of bags hitting the floor.

That was when Nick picked her up, took her to bed and fucked her.

Much later, he left her in his bed, naked, sated, dozing, tangled in his sheets. He retrieved the bags. He stopped paying attention to what he was putting away after he unearthed a packet of thick-cut bacon, a bag of seasoned, frozen curly fries, a jug of canola oil and huge bottle of Ranch dressing.

He made bangers and mash with homemade gravy, flash boiled fresh haricot vert and peas.

They ate in front of the TV, Nick in jeans and a tee, Olivia again in his shirt.

This meant after they ate, they didn’t do any talking. They didn’t figure shit out. He found his hand moving up the inside of her thigh and he discovered no underwear.

So they fucked on the couch. Then moved to the bed.

And Nick fell asleep holding Livvie.

Finally, two days in a row, what he’d wanted for weeks he got.

That being falling asleep doing just that.

And waking up the same way.

Chapter Eighteen

Not to Fit

Olivia

9:15 – Friday Night

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

I was chest to Nick’s abs, in his bed, my arms crossed lightly on his pecs, my head tipped back, my eyes to his where he was lounging against his headboard.

He was fiddling with a lock of my hair.

He’d just told me about his mom, his dad and his brother. About how his mother had been a junkie prostitute, Knight born into that, his father a john who fell in love with a hooker.

His father had also been an enforcer, in the life with power behind him both through his fists and the man he worked for. So he could keep her pimp cowed while he pulled her and her boy out and got her clean.

Shortly after he was successful with this, they got married, had Nick and Nick’s dad officially adopted Knight.

“Nothin’ to be sorry for, Liv,” he replied. “I didn’t feel it. I didn’t live that. I was just the asshole kid they made and had to put up with while I figured out they all went through hell to give me safe and normal while all that time I was feelin’ left out they had that bond from the struggle.”

He’d shared that too. How he’d been a jerk to his whole family. To friends. Even to Anya when she and Knight were starting out.