Needing Her

“Where have I been, Maci?”

My suddenly heavy eyelids slowly blinked back open. “What do you mean?”

“Why did it take me so long to finally notice you . . . notice this?”

I studied his eyes for a few moments before finally lifting one shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t know; I’m just glad you did.”

With a soft smile and another lingering kiss, he pulled me into his chest and held me there as I drifted to sleep from the exhaustion of the last hour.

Three hours later, my stomach woke me up.

Co

“Mmm, don’t judge me. I didn’t have lunch today, I’m starving.”

“Well then, let’s feed you.” He jumped off the bed, and tried pulling me with him, but I forced my way back down.

“No, the bed is so comfy right now. I don’t wa

One dark brow rose. “Are you about to fall in love with your pillows this time?”

I sat straight up, and didn’t even bother with the towel when it fell to my waist. “Fall in love with my pillows? As opposed to . . . ?”

Grabbing my hands, he pulled again, and this time I let him take me off the bed. “Let’s just say you’re a very affectionate drunk.”

My face fell into a look of what I’m sure was horror. “Oh no. What did I do? You still haven’t told me.”

“I’m not sure I remember. Do you want Chinese food?”

“Co

“Pizza?”

My stomach rumbled again, but I was still glaring at him and wondering what I had done almost a week ago.

“Pizza it is. Come on.”

“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

“Ha. Fuck no. I need to have something to hold over your head.”

“I’m going to punch you.”

He kissed my cheek quickly and pulled me into the hall. “I’m sure you will.”

Pulling on his jeans, he leaned back down to grab his shirt, and I stole it from his hands. When he looked up at me, his blue eyes were dark, and he began biting on his bottom lip as he watched me put it on. He reached for me, and I twisted away from his grasp.

“Hey, you were the one who wanted to get out of bed. This is what you have to deal with now.”

After another few seconds of shameless staring, he shook his head and grabbed my hand and dragged me into the kitchen. “You’re going to kill me, Maci. I have no doubt of that.”

Depositing me on my kitchen counter, he felt around in his pockets until he found his phone and pulled it out. After dialing the number and ordering a medium pepperoni, half with black olives on it, he positioned himself between my legs, and I just sat there shocked.

“How’d you know I wanted olives?”

“I may not have noticed you, sweetheart, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know you.”

I smiled and leaned into his next kiss, slowly putting my arms around his shoulders when his tongue began teasing mine.

“Holy fucking hell, you weren’t shitting!”

I jumped, and Co

Turning my head, I huffed loudly and eyed Amber standing in the doorway. “Jesus, don’t you knock?”

She snorted and rolled her eyes. “Don’t you lock your door?”

“When I leave . . . but, fuck, you scared the hell out of me! What are you even doing here?”

“Considering I just ran into your brothers, and they asked where you were . . . I’m saving your lying ass.”

Both Co

Co

“That you’d gotten a beer thrown on you and went home to change, because that’s kind of what I felt like doing to you when I realized you were using me as a cop out, and I didn’t even know about it.” She sat down on my couch, and I looked at her like she was insane.

“Um . . . I love you for saving me, but you’re kind of interrupting.”

She looked at her phone and then looked up at the ceiling as she counted on her fingers. “We’ve supposedly been together for four hours. I’m sure you’ve had more than enough time for me to interrupt, and I’m still saving you by not leaving your side in case they come to check on you.”

I looked up at Co

“Oh no,” Amber said loudly, “he doesn’t need to put on a shirt. I’m enjoying the view.”

“Amber,” I groaned. “Seriously, go put on a shirt; I’m going to put on pants.”

Co

As soon as he was gone, I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at her. “Pizza is on its way, but, really? Could you not see I was busy?”

Amber was practically bouncing off the couch. “OhmiGod! He adores you! Did you see the way he was looking at you?”

My scowl turned into a smile, and I felt my cheeks heat. “We’ll see.” I shrugged and failed at sounding like I didn’t care.

“Oh, whatever. Go put some clothes on. It’s fun to look at him half naked. You . . . not so much.”

I flipped her off as I turned and began walking toward the hall. “Love you too.”

Grabbing all my clothes off the floor, I took them into my room and found a pair of sweats to put on. I wasn’t exactly thrilled I was spending my night with Co

Chapter Eight

Maci

“TELL ME MORE,” Amber prompted, and I smiled against the lid of my cup of coffee.

“There’s not a lot more to tell.”

“Come on! I just got done with the worst shift other than the time I had some drunk bitch vomit all over her birthday shoes, and that’s all you’re going to tell me?”

Raising an eyebrow, I pointed a finger at her and whispered so the ­people near us couldn’t hear. “That’s not fair. You can’t keep holding that night over my head!”

“Just saying! I want to hear more about your crazy hot sex with cop man.”

The old man at the table next to us turned and eyed us for a second before going back to his paper.

“Detective. And you do realize not everyone is as lucky as you and Aaron are. His schedule is all over the place, there are some times he goes in and is home not long after I am, there are some nights where he doesn’t come home from work at all. So, excuse me for not having enough stories for you because I don’t practically live—­and work—­with my boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend? You just said ‘boyfriend’! That was a detail I missed!”

I sighed and slumped down in my seat. It had been a week since Amber had shown up at my apartment and interrupted Co

She gave me a lazy eye roll, and pushed her empty cup at me. “You aren’t going to do the same thing with Co

“I’m not. I’m not making us stay anything. We just aren’t anything. There’s a big difference here.”

“Yeah, I could tell last week. The way he kept looking at you and always touching you like he was making sure you were still there. I was getting turned on and nothing was even happening.”