With his family.
“You’re cute with Kinsley,” I said softly, tracing the wing of his phoenix on his back.
He kissed my stomach then shifted so he could turn to look up at me, and now he was resting his head right on my tummy.
“I’m not cute with her. I’m communicating to her I’m the man who will rip the head off anyone who messes with her.”
“Oh, is that what you were doing when you were shoving fruit in her mouth and babytalking her?”
“Yup. That was what I was doing.”
“Not sure how I missed that,” I mumbled.
“Get with the program,” he returned. “And I don’t babytalk. She and I have our own language.”
“That includes you only saying things to her like, ‘Look what a good girl you are,’ and ‘Is there a more beautiful girl in the world? Don’t answer that. No. There isn’t.’”
He lifted his brows. “Did I lie in any of that?”
I shook my head, because no, he didn’t.
“No, I did not,” he muttered, his hand finding mine, then his fingers threading through my own.
I watched his long fingers curl over the back of my hand, my feeling-lazy self starting to feel even lazier, and whispered, “They were worried about you being on your legs all day. Your mom is concerned about pain.”
He stroked the back of my hand with his thumb and asked, “They talked to you about that?”
I didn’t correct him that I talked to them about it.
I said, “Yes.”
“No pain, sweetheart.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
He caught my gaze. “So you can stop worrying about it too.”
I twitched my nose at him.
He brought our hands to his mouth and kissed mine.
I shared, “Your family is great.”
“You have anybody?”
I felt my brows draw together. “Sorry?”
“There was your Grandmother Brooke, but she passed. Did you have anybody else?”
“I wasn’t lonely.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
I pressed my lips together.
Rix watched.
Then he murmured, “Right.”
“I have people now,” I reminded him.
“Yeah you do,” he replied.
Yes, I did.
I lifted his hand to my mouth and kissed his knuckles.
Rix turned his head and kissed my stomach again.
Then he didn’t move. He moved me. Letting my hand go. Grasping my hips. Yanking me around. Tugging my panties off. Tossing my legs over his shoulders.
He dipped in.
My head pressed into the bed, I wrapped a calf around his head, the other heel I dug into the small of his back.
He finished me off fingering me while kissing me.
I finished him off by swallowing.
He pulled his sleep pants up while I put my panties on and tugged down my nightie.
He tucked us together, his thigh between my legs.
I would have no way of knowing that, except with me, he hadn’t spent the night with a single woman since Peri.
But under no circumstances would he even part a woman’s legs with his own.
I was blissfully unaware of this.
I was just blissful.
I would get more blissful with Rix.
This would last for a while.
But it wouldn’t last.
Things like that never did.
Chapter 17
The Shifting
Rix
Two and a half weeks later…
* * *
Rix was packing their gear in the back of his truck.
He and Alex had taken a couple of days off.
They were heading north to a hot springs outside Ouray.
She had single-person gear.
He’d had double-person gear.
But the day before, even if it was a waste of money, since his stuff was in excellent shape, he’d listed it all on Craig’s List and gone to River Rain to buy a new two-person tent and sleeping bag.
He’d bought top of the line.
His old ones, he’d slept in with Peri. Fucked Peri in.
Alex wasn’t getting anywhere near them.
He was shoving a cooler in the back seat of his cab when he heard the car pull up.
It was a red Evoque.
Chloe.
Fuck.
He knew what had her there, catching him at that hour in the morning.
Yesterday, he’d doubled up on what he’d been doing back and forth between the two of them for weeks.
He’d ignored a text from Chloe, and turned down an invite to dinner from Judge.
She pulled right into his drive, blocking him in, and got out.
It wasn’t yet six-thirty in the morning.
She looked like she’d stepped out of a magazine spread.
“I hope you appreciate the effort,” she said instead of hello. “I am never up this early if I can help it.”
“Hey there, Coco. Good to see you too,” he replied.
She halted a few feet away and ordered, “Stop it, Rix, and I mean that in more than one way.”
Well, goddamn.
“Chlo—”
“He’s asked you to lunch three times. Over to the house for dinner four times. And I’ve sent you five texts, and not a single one of them you deigned to respond to.”
“Judge and me need space.”
“He gave you space. Now, he misses his friend.”
Rix clenched his teeth.
“He loves you. And once, just once, he was brutally honest with you. That’s what you want, and you’re punishing him for it?”