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Chapter 25

Robin

I wake up to Hayden, half-naked, curled around me. I’m not ready to open my eyes yet, but I can feel his steady, warm breath on my neck, his big arm slung over my body.

Last night was incredible. I can’t believe that the evening started with that horrible gala and ended with the best sex of my life.

I’m surprised my body doesn’t feel sore, because we kept each other up all night. Sex, cuddling, talking, repeat. We talked about anything and everything until we finally drifted off to sleep. All night, Hayden looked at me as if I was the most precious thing he’d ever seen, telling me over and over again how beautiful and perfect I was while worshiping my body.

The memory of his tongue between my legs sends an ache through me. Yes, I’ll never get enough of that.

A quiet meow brings me back to reality, and I slowly blink, trying to gather my bearings.

Rays of sunshine pour into the bedroom, the melodic chirping of birds drifting through the half-open window.

When I notice Mort sitting in front of me, looking at me expectantly, I snort. Of course he’s waiting for his breakfast, and in typical cat fashion, he can’t wait any longer. I try to untangle myself from Hayden’s arms, but the movement wakes him.

“What are you doing?” His voice is thick with sleep.

I let out a quiet laugh. “I was trying to get up.”

“Don’t get up yet,” he murmurs, hugging me tightly to his chest.

My heart swells. I learned last night that Hayden loves to cuddle. He loves to be all over me in general. His love language is definitely physical touch.

Mort meows again, and Hayden lifts his head at the sound.

“Oh, wassup, buddy,” he slurs.

“He wants his breakfast. That’s why I was trying to get out of bed.”

“Oh shit. My bad, Mort,” he says, pushing himself up to sit and leaning over me to pet my cat, who immediately starts purring loudly.

I prop myself up to sit too and look at Hayden for the first time this morning. He smiles at me with heavy-lidded eyes, still blinking away his sleep, his hair messier than usual. It feels strangely intimate to see him this way.

“Have I told you lately that you’re so pretty?” he mumbles.

“I’m sure I look like a mess right now.”

He shakes his head and rubs his eyes with one hand. “No, you actually look annoyingly pretty in the morning.”

“Annoyingly?”

“Yes, like, please, let my dick chill for a bit.”

“Hayden!” I laugh and whack him with my pillow.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” he yelps. “Not about the pretty part, obviously. But you know what I mean.” He wrangles the pillow from me.

Mort meows again. This time louder.

“Okay, okay,” I say, getting up.

I look around the bedroom and spot our pile of clothes from last night on top of the dresser. We brought them in from the bathroom at some point, along with Hayden’s gym bag from the car. He ran out of the house fully naked to grab it since it had his toothbrush in it.

I shuffle over, mindlessly throw on Hayden’s grey shirt, and pull out a random pair of underwear.

When I turn around, I see Hayden happily rubbing Mort’s belly, his eyes full of affection.