My mother’s eyes turned to Carmichael.
“Carmichael, dear.” She smiled. “How are you?”
“I’m okay, Mrs. Crusie,” Carmichael replied. “How was your trip?”
“Overall,” my father said as he came up to join the circle at the same time that Ezra did, “it was a good trip. Could’ve done without finding out my boy had been shot on the four-hour ride home.”
Carmichael snickered.
“That could’ve been done a little better, I’m sure,” Carmichael agreed. “How’d little J do on the trip?”
Ezra hiked his kid up higher on his hip.
“Did you know that my kid pukes like his mother?” Ezra groaned.
At that, the tension released and I gestured for them to all follow me over to Carmichael’s house.
“We have to let Lion and her new rescue dog out,” I said to the group at large. “Follow me over there.”
“New rescue dog?” Raleigh asked. “I thought you were taking a few weeks off of that for a while?”
“It wasn’t a new rescue dog as much as an old one,” Carmichael admitted. “Danger.”
Raleigh sighed. “That sucks.”
“Danger?” my mother said. “That’s kind of a scary name.”
“Danger’s anything but scary,” Raleigh admitted. “Wait until you meet her. You’ll find out why.”
Five minutes later, my mother was literally crying.
She had such a soft heart when it came to animals.
“Oh, that poor baby.” She sniffled. “Babe, we can take Danger home.”
My father opened his mouth to protest, but then he saw the look on my mother’s face.
“Umm,” Carmichael hesitated. “Are you sure? She’s a handful.”
“I’m sure.” She looked at me then. “Are you up for pizza?”
I wasn’t.
I was up for lying on that couch and not getting back up, but obviously that wasn’t going to happen.
In fact, I stood up, slowly, and started to shuffle toward Carmichael’s room.
Without a word to anyone, I headed toward where I’d left my sweatpants from being over here a few days ago.
Except, when I got down onto the bed, I could do nothing more than to carefully lie backward. Seconds after that, my eyes were closed, and I was asleep on the bed fully clothed.
CHAPTER 13
This girl absolutely loves cock.
-Chicken t-shirt
CARMICHAEL
“Should I go check on him?” Raleigh asked me with an evil grin.
I rolled my eyes and went to do it myself, walking into the room to find him completely out.
He hadn’t even taken his tie off.
Carefully walking into the room, I moved toward where he was lying and lifted his feet, slipping off his shoes.
Next to go was his belt.
When I had those two things off, I started on his pants.
Slowly, I stripped him, knowing that there was a chance I’d wake him, but also knowing that as we’d left the courthouse, he’d taken a dose of pain meds, ibuprofen, and Tylenol.
There was also a good chance he’d be sleeping for a while. Especially after the long day that he’d had.
I couldn’t let him fall asleep like he was. His legs were hanging off the bed, he was at an awkward angle, and I was fairly sure that it wasn’t comfortable at all.
But first, I needed to get his tie and his shirt off.
I tried to do it by leaning over him, except that didn’t work because Croft was a big motherfucker. He was large, muscular, and the bed made it awkward to reach him.
So I climbed up on the bed and reached for his tie, easily unlooping it from around his neck.
As I did, I kept my eyes on his face. He was sleeping hard. At least, that was what it looked like.
When I got to his shirt, I found this to be false.
Once the shirt was untucked and unbuttoned fully, I hesitated on removing it. It’s not that I couldn’t do it. I just wasn’t sure I could do it without hurting him. And hurting him sounded purely awful.
I just decided to leave him exactly how he was when his big hands came up to cup my hips.
His sleepy eyes opened, and he smiled at me.
“Hey.” His rough voice sent shivers down my spine.
“Hey,” I said. “I was trying to undress you, but short of cutting the shirt off of you, you’re stuck unless you help me.”
He tugged me by my shirt until I was inches from his face, then he moved the rest of the way to place his mouth on mine.
After a short, sweet, wet kiss, he let me go, and then patted my thigh. “Get up and we’ll get it off.”
I did as he asked, coming to stand next to the bed and offering him my hand.
He took it, used it almost zero, and came to a rest on the side of the bed.
His face held a pain-filled grimace.
Quickly, before he changed his mind, I stripped him of both his dress shirt and undershirt, and then gestured to the sweats.
I helped him get them on, and it wasn’t lost on me how intimate this was. Nor was the erection he was sporting when I helped him slide them up his legs.
“Can’t help it,” he muttered darkly.
I smirked at him and stood up, leaving him sitting on the bed. Checking his wound, I grimaced at the angry red hole in his shoulder.
“I don’t know if it looks better or worse,” I admitted as I stared.
“Better, I would say,” he answered. “It’s healing.”
When I went to apply another bandage, he shook his head. “Let it get some air. We can put another one on it when we go to bed later.”
When we go to bed later.
I nodded, trying not to let my giddiness show.
“Your mom wants to order pizza,” I said. “Are you up for that?”
He painfully got up to his feet and then pulled me into the curve of his arm before gesturing for me to walk with him out of the room.
“Yes.” He paused. “Though, just sayin’, I’m allowing myself until Sunday to eat like shit, and then I’m back on the wagon. I’ve worked too hard to allow myself to
