“Can’t do that now, can I? I have to take care of you, even when you don’t seem to want it.” I gave us both robes, tying hers around the middle tightly. She jumped in my arms, and I carried her to the living room.
“Oooh, back to the kitchen island. I like where this is going,” she teased.
“No, it’s the couch.”
I sat down with Tess in my lap, pushing her damp hair out of her face. She yawned in a cute way.
“You sure you don’t want to sleep?”
“No, sir. Why waste time sleeping when I have you to feast on? Let’s call these exploration hours.”
“Because you’re tired.”
“I’ll go to bed early tomorrow. I’ll have some long weeks ahead with the opening and Christmas approaching.”
They planned to officially open the store on the fifth of December.
“I’ll take good care of you.” I started to massage her feet to prove my point, moving up on her ankles.
“You’re amazing to have around.” She sighed, closing her eyes and enjoying my hands on her. When she opened them again, she looked a little wary.
“You want to talk about what’s got you worried? I told you I’m good at reading clues.”
“And I told you that today is Thanksgiving.”
“Not anymore. It’s past midnight,” Tess said.
“We’re not wasting these exploration hours, as you called them, by talking about anything unpleasant,” I replied.
“Fine, but I’m only giving in because I actually am getting a bit tired, and I want to make the most of our time together.”
In fact, I didn’t plan to waste any time with Tess talking about Albert. He was my mess to clean up, and she had so much on her plate that I didn’t want to add any more. I was going to protect her from that imbecile, and that was that. One thing I learned from my grandfather was that problems were meant to be dealt with without burdening the ones you loved with them.
She was mine, and that didn’t just mean giving her massages or orgasms or making her laugh. She was mine to protect.
“I think I know of a way to keep you up all the way until morning,” I whispered in her ear.
Tess grinned. “That’s your best pickup line?”
“You’re saying I need one?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “I like it when you seduce me.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Liam
The Monday after Thanksgiving, I did something I hadn’t done in years: I went to see Albert.
I didn’t ask him to come to the brownstone, because I didn’t want to see David and Becca out of sorts again.
The detective had dug up Albert’s personal address, as well as the fact that he spent most of his day there.
It was a hellhole outside the city, nothing like the condo he used to afford. The dumbass. If he smartly invested the paycheck we sent him every month, or at least saved a chunk of it, things would be very different.
The building’s elevator wasn’t working, so I took the stairs to the fifth floor. There was a coat of filth on each step. I didn’t look too closely, but it was more than just dust and mud.
I knocked at number 57 a few times. When no one answered, I banged louder until I heard movement on the other side of the door. Albert opened it, finally. He looked like he’d just gone to sleep. Dark circles marked his eyes. His gray T-shirt had multiple holes in it, as did his shorts.