“I can’t move,” I panted. “Oh my God.”
Elliot chuckled and tugged me up the bed, then covered us with a blanket. I was embarrassed because I was tired, and Elliot knew it.
“I need to join a gym,” I told him. “My stamina is awful.”
He kissed my shoulder and settled in behind me.
“Sleep,” he told me with a chuckle. “Ye’ll need your strength for when we wake up, because I intend to love ye good and proper.”
“You already do love me good and proper,” I hummed. “Elliot, I’m so happy with you. I truly am.”
“Me too, Noah.” He kissed the back of my head. “My person.”
I snuggled back into him, closed my eyes and sighed in delight. This was where I was meant to be, cocooned in Elliot’s arms. This was my space with my person, and it always would be.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
ELLIOT
“How many times?” AJ continued to ask. “Two whole days is a long time to be holed up with a woman, so don’t be acting dumber than usual. How. Many. Times?”
I put down the weights in my hands, wiped the sweat from my forehead and looked at my oldest friend, momentarily wondering why I didn’t punch him in the face more often.
“If I give ye a number,” I said, blinking, “will ye shut up?”
“Yes. Once it’s an honest number.”
“Nine,” I answered. “And a half.”
“And a half?” Pretty shouted from the treadmill. “Did he say nine and a half?”
“He sure did, Pretty.” Texas grinned from the bench press. “What does the ‘and a half’ mean? Is it a language barrier? Because I feel like it is.”
“Come on, lads,” Tank snorted as he spotted for Texas. “‘And a half’ means oral without sex to follow it up . . . right?”
I winked. “Right ye are, big man.”
Tank grinned and focused on the task at hand . . . making sure Texas didn’t get choked if he couldn’t lift the barbell.
“I haven’t gone nine rounds in two days since . . . no, since never.” Pretty shook his head as he ran. “I was never with the same girl long enough, until I met Louise and married her. Even then, I think the most was on my honeymoon. Four times in the one day, and she walked funny for most of the trip. I’m still proud of that, three years later.”
I grinned. “Ye should be proud, you’re an old man now.”
“I’m thirty-seven.” He flipped me off. “Watch your mouth.”
“I’m thirty-six,” Tank chimed in. “I don’t feel old.”
He didn’t look it, and neither did Pretty – or Stitch, who was the same age. Pretty still looked in his mid-twenties, for God’s sake. I looked my age, and Texas looked his. AJ too.
“All I can say is if I was still at home with her, that number would be much higher.” I placed my hands on my hips. “She’s like Viagra to me. I look at her and boom, instant wood.”
I had spent two full days of sex-induced bliss with Noah. I had intended to spend the entirety of my four days off with her, but Frenchie, a co-worker, shot me a text at six this morning and asked if I could cover his watch at nine, because his twins had been up puking all night and so had his wife. He needed to take care of them. I’d wanted to say no – I desperately wanted him to text someone else – but when Noah rolled over and saw the text, she encouraged me to help him, so I swapped a watch with him for later in the week and here I was.
God, but I missed my woman. And she was my woman again.
Not Anderson’s, mine.
“I feel like I’m eighteen all over again.” I pounded my fist against my chest. “I was showin’ no signs of slowin’ down, and bless her, she was tryin’ her hardest to keep up with me. The last round I could have sworn she rolled her eyes when me hands went to her arse.”
“Maybe that’s why she told you to cover Frenchie’s watch,” Texas shouted with laughter. “To get a break from you and your cock for a few hours.”
I tipped my head back and guffawed, and so did everyone else.
“She knows what to expect when I get home tonight, so she’d better enjoy the next few hours of peace.”
My friends shouted their encouragement as AJ and I left the gym so we could shower. I finished before him, dressed and headed into the kitchen. He followed not long after, complaining about being hungry.
“There’s pasta or somethin’ in the fridge,” I said, eating the portion I’d scooped out for myself. “I think Stitch’s wife made it, it’s fuckin’ amazin’.”
“Yes!” AJ all but danced on the spot. “That woman knows how to cook. If she wasn’t Stitch’s wife, she’d at least be my baby’s mum by now.”
I snorted. “If Stitch heard ye talkin’ like that, he’d kill ye.”
“What’d he say about my wife?”
AJ froze and looked at me when Stitch’s voice filled the room. He was like a ghost – he appeared and disappeared at will. I looked from AJ to him and grinned. “He said if your missus wasn’t your wife she’d be his baby’s mum because he loves her cookin’ so much.”
“Rat!” AJ hissed. “You’re a fuckin’ rat.”
I sniggered as he turned and smiled at Stitch. “He’s a barefaced liar, and I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him, Stitch. You shouldn’t pay him any attention.”
I continued to eat my pasta as Stitch advanced on AJ, who actually began to scream as he dodged to the left and fled the room. For someone who hated fighting, he always let his mouth get him into trouble.
“Fuck
