Craving Rose (The Aces' Sons 5)

“Come here,” I ordered, reaching out and yanking her onto my lap. “You gonna kiss me good morning?”

“You have hangover breath,” she replied, wrinkling her nose. She kissed me, anyway.

“Everybody up already?” I asked as she pulled away.

“Yeah, you’re the last one.”

“Time is it?”

“Two.”

“Shit,” I grumbled. “I slept late.”

“You needed it,” she said with a shrug. Her fingers played along the edges of my bruised knuckles.

“How you doin’ today?”

“I’m okay. Pissed more than anything. He’s always been a shitty drunk.”

“Why’d you stay so long?” I asked before I could think better of it.

Rose was quiet for a long moment. “Because I told myself the good outweighed the bad, I guess.”

“That’s a tough spot to be in.”

“It was stupid.”

“Nah.” I shook my head. “Wantin’ to believe that things will get better, or that shit isn’t really as bad as it is? Human nature. We all do it.”

“You, too?”

“Me more than anyone,” I said, Mia’s face flashing in my mind. “Come on, this is too heavy for our current digs. We can talk more at home, yeah?”

“Okay,” she said, kissing me again.

I followed her out of the tent and pulled on my jeans.

“You realize you just gave everyone a show, right?” Rose asked, hands on her hips.

“Nobody’s lookin’,” I replied, bending down to snag my shirt.

“Everyone’s looking.”

I glanced around the property and didn’t see a single set of eyes on me.

“I’m jealous,” Rose announced. “You need to get dressed inside the tent from now on.”

I tried to hold back my smile, but it was impossible.

“I’m serious,” she insisted. “No more prancing around in your underwear.”

“You ever seen me prance?” I asked, shoving my feet into my boots. I threw my arm around her shoulders and led her toward the house. We were still at least fifty yards away when I caught a whiff of bacon. Yes.

“You know what I mean,” she said as we reached my bike. “I don’t want other women seeing the goods.”

“Noted,” I said in amusement as I pulled my toothbrush and a tiny tube of toothpaste from my saddlebags. “You wanna use this first?”

“Gross,” she replied. “I’m not using your toothbrush.”

“Grosser than not brushin’ your teeth?”

“Just give me some toothpaste,” she grumbled, sticking out her pointer finger.

“You’ve had your mouth a lot dirtier places than a shared toothbrush,” I joked as I gave her some toothpaste.

If I hadn’t been watching her face, I would’ve missed the flinch.

“Hey,” I said, tipping her chin up with my hand. “I meant on me. You’ve had your tongue so deep in my mouth, I wasn’t sure which was yours and which was mine. Sharin’ a toothbrush is nothin’.”

“I’m still not sharing one,” she said with a shrug, stuffing her finger in her mouth to scrub at her teeth.

“Love you,” I said softly, watching her.

“Love you, too,” she replied, giving me a foamy smile.

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful, but by the time we pulled into my driveway Sunday night, I was beat. Sleeping on the ground was fun when I was young, but now it just meant that I could never get comfortable and slept like shit. It didn’t help that the night before, I’d had no interest in drinking and hadn’t been able to pass out in the tent like I’d planned. Rose had spent the night laughing too loud and pretending that she wasn’t bothered by the shit that had gone down, which drove me nuts. Be upset, be angry, be relieved, be whatever, but don’t fucking hide that crap.

“I’m gonna head home,” Rose said with a groan, stomping her feet to get the blood circulating.

“You sure?” I asked. We’d barely gotten our helmets off and she was already trying to bail, which wasn’t usually her style.

“No,” she said with an uncomfortable laugh. “But I probably should.”

“Stay tonight then,” I said, as I emptied out my saddle bags. “You can head home in the morning.”

“Yeah. Okay.” She nodded.

We headed into the house and went directly upstairs, not even bothering to turn on any lights. Since we hadn’t been sure when we’d be home, my parents agreed to have Kara stay an extra night. I was glad we had the place to ourselves. I dumped my dirty clothes on my bedroom floor and immediately reached for Rose.

“Let’s shower,” I said, tugging her t-shirt off.

“Are you saying I stink?” she asked, giving me a tired smile.

“You’re fresh as a fuckin’ daisy,” I replied, making her chuckle quietly. “But I’m ripe.”

Rose faceplanted against my chest. “Smell good to me,” she mumbled into my shirt.

“Just don’t get too close to my pits,” I joked.

I stripped both of us down and as I walked her to the bathroom, Rose was unusually quiet. She was somewhere in her own head as I got the shower started and pulled her inside with me, closing the curtain behind us.