Page 77 of First Surrender
“Yes, your honor.”
“And, if Mr. Randolph is found to be unfit and something happens to you, have you thought about what happens to him then?”
“Of course, your honor.”
“You don’t have an emergency contact listed on these forms in front of me. What happens in an emergency?”
She hesitates to answer. I am screaming at her in my head to pick me, choose me, but she needs to come to that conclusion on her own. Liv leans in to say something to her and Natalie nods.
She turns to look at me briefly as Liv confirms that the emergency contact sheet withmyinformation has already been added to the folder she brought today.
The folder was created way before this hearing started. My name was already listed. I breathe a sigh of relief.
I don’t know what comes next for us or if there is an us, but she trusts me with her brother. That is the biggest honor she could ever give me.
* * *
Me: Going to be home late, sorry sweetheart
Natalie: I’ll leave a plate of food in the fridge
* * *
After the custody hearing, I went back to work for the afternoon but it turned into a hellish day. When I drag myself through the front door into the dark house, I consider stopping in the kitchen to eat, but there’s only one thing I want.
I head straight into my room but hit the brakes as soon as I see an empty bed. That’s not what I wanted.
My shirt and pants are tossed off to the side and I resume my mission. A few quick steps to an unlocked door, and my arms are lifting the pain-in-the-ass woman who won’t get the hint. I want her in my bed, dammit. Even if I’m not here.
“I wasn’t sure…” she utters softly. There isn’t a hint of sleepiness in her voice, she was lying wide awake because she was too stubborn to go to sleep in my room and give away that she wants to be there too.
“Always my bed, fireball.”
“Don’t call me that.” She yawns.
“Go to sleep.” I situate us on the bed and before I can pull her to me, she’s laying her head on my chest, and draping her leg over my thighs. I needed this desperately after today.
Thomas Jameson was found shanked in his cell.
I spent hours at the jail trying to make sense of what happened and there are still no answers. No guards witnessed it, no cameras picked it up, and as usual, none of the inmates were speaking.
Thomas Jameson was killed, but I don’t know by who. My mess of a county just got messier and I’m doing a terrible job of cleaning it up. Mrs. Porter’s son could probably do just as well, might as well pass off the reins.
Natalie’s sleepy sigh snaps me out of my spiraling thoughts and I hold her closer, kissing the top of her head. She’d tell me to get the fuck over myself if she heard my pity party, so I take her assumed advice and shove my problems aside until morning.
When I wake up, a short six hours later, she’s still in my arms but we’ve maneuvered into a spooning position. Every morning I wake up as hard as steel but this morning my cock is pressed directly against her ass and for the life of me I can’t move. I don’t want to resume my problems, I want to stay right here and soak in the feeling of her body against mine.
So, I do for a while. I cuddle with this sweet woman who has fire in her soul and love in her broken heart, wishing she might spare some for me one day so I can heal it. I memorize the way her curves feel against me and how her hair smells, hoping each day we wake up like this won’t be the last.
A shrill noise sounds from down the hall and she groans awake, stretching haphazardly and grinding her backside into me further making my teeth clench. It’s bliss and agony at the same time.
“That’s my phone alarm,” she grumbles. Her phone is still in her room, not making the journey during my abduction of her last night.
“Do you want me to get it?”
“No, I need to get up. I have to get ready for Dec’s party.”
Shit. “I need to tie up a few things at work this morning, but if you need me I can stay,” I offer.