Buttons and Pain (Buttons 3)

I kissed her, giving her a soft embrace to make up for the harsh way I did it before. Now that the passion was gone and it was just the two of us, I wanted to give her a caress that showed more than lust. I didn’t just miss her because the sex was great between us. I missed her for a lot of reasons, reasons I couldn’t explain.

I pulled out of her, feeling my cock ache in pain from being separated from the heaven between her legs. When I lay beside her I spooned her from behind, the usual arrangement we took when we slept together. I didn’t know what time it was and she didn’t set an alarm for the following morning. She didn’t ask for her buttons and I didn’t offer them.

And we fell asleep.

Chapter Eleven

Pearl

When I woke up the following morning I instantly smelled coffee. The scent was unmistakable. It was rich in smell, and the distant sound of the brewer landed on my ears. The light from the window hit my eyelids and I knew the sun was rising.

And that meant I had to go to work.

I got out of bed and snatched the first shirt I found on the floor. It was Crow’s and it reached past my knees because it was a zillion sizes too big. I felt the fabric in my fingertips and immediately remembered doing the exact same thing every morning when I lived with him a lifetime ago.

I walked into the kitchen and saw Crow sitting at the table. Shirtless and gorgeous, he read the morning paper. Only his boxers were on, and his muscled and toned thighs reached out beneath the table. “Breakfast is on the stove. Lars didn’t make it but it’s edible.”

I scooped the eggs onto my plate and poured a cup of coffee. The cream and sugar were already sitting out because Crow knew exactly how I took it. I sat down in the seat across from him and glanced at the clock. I still had an hour before work so I could take my time.

Crow read his paper and didn’t look at me once. If the window behind him didn’t show the Manhattan landscape I would assume we were back at the estate in Tuscany. His five o’ clock shadow was coming in strong and his lips looked slightly chapped from all hot kisses we shared last night.

God, last night was so good.

Jason never satisfied me like that. It wasn’t dark but it was certainly intense. Crow treated me like a piece of meat but he did it right. I never felt more wanted and desirable. Jason always treated me like glass, like I would break at any moment. It must have been the best orgasm I ever had because it knocked me out immediately.

“How did you sleep, Button?” He put down the paper and turned his mocha brown eyes on me. His hair was messy from rolling around the night before, and there were scratches on his chest from the way I sunk my claws into him. Somehow, all those things made him sexier.

“Good.” Fucking fantastic, actually. I hadn’t gotten a night of sleep like that since I shared a bed with him. I tossed and turned in the middle of the night, the old nightmares of Bones haunting me. Sometimes I would lay absolutely still but feel the rocking of the ship from my journey across the Atlantic. Sleeping with Jason didn’t make anything better. Everything was exactly the same. But with Crow, it was nothing but calm serenity. When his arms were locked around me nothing could hurt me. I would never admit it out loud, but he was the first man who made me feel safe. “You?”

“Like a rock.” He drank his coffee then rubbed his fingers against the scruff coming in along his chin. It was thicker than usual because he hadn’t shaved the day before. I’d never seen him with a full grown beard and I wondered how it would look on him. Would he look even more beautiful? Or just deadly.

Now that we were sitting across from each other civilly and our appetites had been satiated, I needed to get down to business. “Five.” I laid my open palm on the table so he could deposit my payment inside.

He never took his eyes off mine.

I kept my hand there and waited for my debt to be paid. I wasn’t here because I wanted to get sucked into this nightmare again. I wanted to sever our ties forever so we could move on and never see each other again. The sex was amazing and it felt incredible when he held me, but my heart had been smashed once before and I wouldn’t let it happen again. I kept it hidden deep inside my chest where he couldn’t reach it. I could keep it safe for thirty buttons—but no longer than that.