23. Easing Into It

Nadia

The first slap I endured was the cold hitting my body when the covers were pulled off me.

This woke me.

It was followed immediately by the second slap, which was a sharp, delicious smack to my butt cheek.

This made me groan.

Then I felt the bed depress at my hip as well as on my opposite side before Riggs said in my ear, "Wake up, honey, you got shit to do today."

I forced my eyes open only to experience full-on daylight, and I turned my head to look up at him from where I lay in his bed, naked and on my stomach.

He was leaned into me wearing a faded red, long-sleeved thermal that he'd either purchased when he was fifteen, or it was designed to mold to his upper body like I'd often molded myself to it last night.

His hair was wet and slicked back with a comb.

And every inch I could see was yummy, and I now knew in reality, that was an indisputable fact.

"You've…showered?" I mumbled.

"Got my kid up, fed, to school, came back and took a run, and now I'm hauling your lazy ass out of bed."

This was impossible.

I didn't know when I finally passed out last night, seeing as I lost track of time due to his body being a wonderland (I know it was cliché, but the description was apropos), his entire bed an amusement park, and his giving me an extravagant amount of the best orgasms I'd had in my life.

But I was pretty sure when I'd passed out, first, it was very late (or very early in the morning), and second, I'd done it while I was mid-kissing Riggs.

How was he up and…

Moving?

I was faintly sore all over (in a nice way) and one part of me was gently throbbing (in a fabulous way), and I wasn't sure I could move.

I tested this and reached for the covers, pulled them around my body and up over my chest as I expended the supreme effort of pushing up to a forearm in bed.

"Are you for real?" I asked.

His expression went guarded. "What's that mean?"

"You've done all that and showered after last night. It's like you're a machine."

His face cleared, and he smiled at me.

"Did I pass out mid-kissing you?" I queried.

The smile he was aiming at me turned wolfish, and he answered, "Yeah. But you can make up for that shit tonight."

I had to wait until tonight?

Whoops.

I was wrong. His smile had turned a touch roguish.

At him reading my mind, now his wide grin was absolutely wolfish.

I witnessed that and had woefully too short a period of time to process it, much less memorize it, before I let out a muted scream when he dragged me out of bed, with me still clutching the sheet to my chest, and he planted me in his lap.

Once there, he circled me with his arms and asked, "You sore?"

Oh God, was this embarrassing?

Why was this embarrassing? He'd been there the whole time. In fact, the sore part was all his fault.

I didn't know why it was, but the answer was, yes. It was embarrassing.

I shoved my face in the side of his neck.

He tangled his fingers in my hair and slid them through, going back and doing the same as he said, "Not a surprise, honey. You can take a seriously solid fucking."

I shivered in his arms at the memory.

"And a lot of it," he went on.

I shivered again.

Those arms got tight, and a rumble rolled up his chest and through his lips.

He had memories too, and he liked them.

I shivered more.

"Look at me," he ordered.

I tipped my head back and caught his eyes.

"That means we wait for tonight," he decreed.

"Okay," I whispered.

He came in for a lip touch, then moved back. "I gotta get to your house and get on that door. We boarded it up, but it's far from secure. You need to get your ass in gear because you're meeting Brenda out at Mix's. It's two towns over and an hour away. She wants your input in picking storm doors. Then you gotta head up to Hutch's for training with Gia."

"Mix's?"

"It's a posh home supply store. We got nothing like what they stock around MP, and Brenda isn't one to cut corners or have anything fuck with her ‘vision.'"

I'd already figured this out about Brenda.

"Ah."

"So you need to get moving."

My eyes fell to his mouth, and I mumbled, "Right."

I lost sight of his mouth when he was using it to plunder mine.

So I didn't have to wait until tonight.

Awesome.

The kiss started hot and heavy, so it just got hotter and heavier, until he broke it by standing and putting me on my feet.

For a second, I was dazed.

And unhappy.

Then I wrapped the sheet I'd somehow managed to keep with me more firmly around me.

"Get to it, princess," he commanded.

I rolled my eyes, sighed and took off toward the guest room. I could bring the sheet back when I was done.

"Nadia?" he called when I was halfway to the stairwell, juggling the sheet while gathering my clothes.

I looked back to him.

"Honey, I've seen, touched, tasted and fucked every inch of you," he said gently. "And Ledger's not here, you can lose the sheet."

I thought about Angelica's slim hips even after birthing two babies, her flat stomach (same about the babies), and all-around slender frame (except her breasts, which, it might be mean, but it could be true, kinda looked fake).

I did not have slim hips or a flat belly.

Again, he was in my head when, still gentle, he shared, "She had more weight on her back then. I'm not that guy. I like soft, and I think you know by now, I get off when I got something to hold onto."

Was this man for real?

He was, because I tried not to see (but I saw…so much), though it couldn't be missed, Courtney was curvy.

Even so.

"I'm not a dude, Riggs. I can't traipse around nude after one time."

The wolfish grin came back. "I was pretty into what we were doing, so my counting might be inaccurate. Still, think it was more than one time."

Good Lord.

He was such a man.

I did another eye roll, grabbed my sweater, and strutted out of his room.

I took the sheet.

Early that afternoon,I rolled to a stop in my Range Rover in front of the cabin, doing this next to Riggs's truck.

I really loved Riggs's house.

But being there right then with the sun shining and another warm spell hitting the area (I'd learned at dinner last night that things didn't really warm up until June, and the weather we were getting when I arrived was what they called a "heat wave," even if it was only in the mid-seventies), I realized I missed my cabin.

I got out, noting I needed to water the plants, and the front door was open. From there I could see through the screen all the way to the back and beyond, where Riggs was working on the back door that was resting on two sawhorses.

I went in, dropped my purse on the kitchen island, and walked along the back porch under Riggs's watchful eye.

I came to a stop at the top of the steps.

"The storm doors will be delivered tomorrow, delivery window ten to noon. And I think Hutch is mad at me because Gia was more interested in playing with me, I was more interested in playing with Gia, so we got distracted a lot."

I got another smile from Riggs.

He wasn't a man to dole them out frugally. Still, I hadn't seen much of him that day, but that was all he seemed capable of doing.

I felt that.

After last night, and this morning, I was in the same place.

I just loved seeing that he was too.

But I had to be careful in hoping too much.

I'd done a lot of driving that day, and since I trained my thoughts while doing it, it occurred to me that maybe Riggs did want to put us in the Friend Zone because we were neighbors, but things blossomed from there. Or maybe he wanted to take it slow, due to what had happened to me, then, to what was happening to me in MP.

He'd certainly made it clear last night, us being in the Non-Friend Zone was what he wanted, and it was my choice if we were going to take it there.

But the truth was, since his peace offering, he'd shared thoroughly and often he was into me. I'd just thought he was an affectionate guy.

I sensed he was.

Though, he was also very obviously into me.

That said, I hadn't known him long, but what I did know was that I had to keep in mind this was probably firmly casual…and ride it out.

I knew that because that was what he told me.

And I was in to ride it out.

But I sure was going to enjoy him seeming so happy while we did it.

"Don't worry about it," he replied. "Hutch told me she'll be a great pet, and if the need arises, her training will kick in. Your training will be being able to call her down before she tears a man's leg off."

Yikes!

"I should probably focus," I allowed.

He was still smiling. "Probably."

"You want a drink?"

"Could use some water."

"Perrier?"

He stared at me.

That had me smiling.

"I'll do filtered," I said, and moved back into the cabin.

I was starting to handle that when he came in, and then I was scrambling back into the counter when he was on me.

Slightly sweaty, dirty from work and smelling of the outdoors, he was all over me, and I didn't mind, because he was Riggs, and he was good at being all over me.

It also meant I got to be all over him.

Eventually, we came up for air, but he didn't move away.

"Called Stormy this morning," he announced.

"Oh boy," I breathed (what could I say? again, he was all over me).

"Asked if I could have some time to talk privately about something heavy. Seeing as I asked that, he made time right away. He owns the tire shop on the east side of town. Asked me to his office. I went. Gave him the news about Angelica and Bubbles, and we can just say, it rocked my world, but it was worse telling him. Not only giving a man that information, but also seeing my reaction through him. Though, when I learned, I wasn't holding a coffee cup I threw so hard it shattered against the wall and drenched everything around it because it was full."

I winced. "Were you around it?"

"No."

"So I can deduce he's ticked."

"You can deduce that, yeah."

"Is this going to come back on you with Angelica?"

"Gave her the heads up it would happen, if she was smart, she would have done it before me."

"I sense Angelica's intelligence is more the devious sort," I remarked.

"You'd sense right," he agreed. "Still, thought about it before I did it, including that. Wondered if it was better if I didn't know, and I could give him that. Then I thought, I'm glad I know. I gotta understand what I've got on my hands with her. What she's capable of. Also, if the tables were turned, how I'd feel if he found out, and didn't tell me. Bottom line, he shares a kid with her too. So he had to know."

"This is true."

"And don't worry. She doesn't have a leg to stand on to make any trouble for him or me. What she does have is a history. A history of jacking both of us around. And it isn't illegal to trick a man into getting you pregnant, we had a hand in that, we made choices, and condoms do actually break. But that shit is shady. Fortunately, she's not a woman who takes her shit out on her kids. Not sure what she could do to us, since the only thing either of us got with her that matters is our kids."

"Well, silver lining for you both, it's clear your swimmers are powerful if one go gets a woman pregnant."

"Her campaign with Storm was more persistent. Not sure which time it happened, but he told me he was with her three times. And yeah, the first night, his wallet had gone missing. And yeah, it did this at The Hole. The other two, she had the chance to see to things herself."

"So it's just your swimmers that are super powerful."

He shot me another smile and squeezed my behind besides.

Totally riding this out.

"Have you heard from her?" I asked.

"No," he answered.

"Good," I muttered. Then I shared something with him that had also occurred to me in all my driving. "So, I had occasion to casually chat with Brenda about the Whitaker family situation, and she shared with me that Roosevelt had an assistant. And she still lives in town."

"Honey," he said in a tone I wasn't sure about.

"What?"

He hooked an arm around my waist, shifted us down the counter, then I tensed as he reached out and touched my digital photo screen.

He scrolled forward until he hit the photo of me and Trevor on a cliff in Cornwall, a pirate's cove and the stormy sea behind us, wind ruffling our hair, smiles on our faces.

"Now," he said quietly, "we can scheme a way to go interrogate Roosevelt's assistant without letting her know we're interrogating her, when neither of us know the woman, or you can tell me about your husband."

"Riggs," I whispered.

"You're not ready, okay. Your call. But you bury shit, it always finds a way to bite you in the ass."

"He died a long time ago."

"So I'm starting with the history stuff so we can lead into the more recent shit."

Fun times ahead, I saw.

Ugh.

"He had cancer when we met," I blurted.

He blinked rapidly several times before he asked, "I'm sorry?"

"He had cancer when we met," I repeated. "But he didn't tell me. He'd tried some holistic stuff, which didn't work. And when he started Western medicine, he hid it from me."

"Jesus," he bit out.

"He genuinely believed he could beat it when he asked me to marry him. The doctors weren't so sure, but they were trying to be optimistic. He was young. Healthy. If there was a candidate who could, he could. But it spread, fast and aggressively, and eventually he couldn't hide it anymore."

"He should have told you," he gritted.

"I know," I replied running my hands up and down his arms because he was visibly angry. "And I get your reaction. I had that too. In waves, when I found out he was sick, when he admitted to me how long he'd been sick. I even felt that after he was gone. But for the life of me, I can't fault a twenty-eight-year-old man for being determined to live his life, and survive, and maybe going into denial about the possibility, that turned into a probability, that ended in a definite that he wasn't going to."

He seemed to be looking at me, though he really wasn't, when he asked, "Did you love him?"

I knew my smile was sad. "Yes. I loved him a whole lot."

"And you wanted kids."

"We both did."

"So he took that from you. The you wanting kids part."

"No, my sperm donor father did."

"Honey—"

I lifted my hands to his neck and held tight. "Riggs, I loved Trevor, and I lost him. It was not all good times, but we knew those times would be short, so we packed a lot into them. I'm glad I met him. I'm glad I married him. I'm blessed to have the time I had with him. I love that I got to be the woman who he loved who would be by his side through all of that. He had great parents, and we're still in touch, but I'm the promise of the life he should have had, so we're no longer close. But I also got them through him. And maybe I wallowed in all of that after he was gone. I don't think anyone would blame me. He might not have played it all perfectly, but what he did was understandable. He's not baggage, even though I will admit, I carried him like that for a long time. Now I see he's a part of my life, memories of loving someone and being loved by someone, and a lot of laughter. That's what I carry with me from Trevor now, and it isn't heavy."

"All right," he muttered.

"Okay," I whispered.

He touched his mouth to mine.

When he moved away, I got up on my toes and touched mine to his.

"Now, can we talk about Roosevelt's assistant?" I requested.

He burst out laughing, gave me a squeeze, then said, "No. I'm gonna fix your door. And if I have time, install a couple of cameras. You're gonna get me some water then make me some lunch. I haven't had any yet, and I'm fucking starving."

"You forget to eat a lot."

"I live. I eat when it fits in. I work when I have to. I fuck when I'm lucky enough to coax a gorgeous blonde into my bed."

"It took a lot of coaxing," I joked. "I'm still not sure how you tricked me into it."

"I'll remind you tonight."

As delightful as that promise was, I frowned as another thought I'd chewed on during my driving hit me. "We need to consider Ledger."

"Yeah. And your shit stays in the closet in the guest room, but you bring your toothbrush and shower stuff up to mine. He won't know."

I didn't know about that.

"Is it smart, hiding it from him?"

"I walked around a long time last night, and Bubbles and Angelica weren't the only ones on my mind. I think you get it, but so you got it clear, this, where we're at right now, isn't about ending a good time by giving to, and getting from a fine piece of ass. I don't know what it is, but it's not that. Not even close."

God, that was good to know.

He kept going.

"But while we ease into whatever it's gonna be, we gotta ease Ledger into it with us. He and I had a chat this morning, and he made some good points. His mother was being a bitch, and he's getting older. He felt he had call to have a say about her being a bitch to a woman who's coming to mean something to him. I embarrassed him in front of Lucille, but mostly you, and he was understandably pissed at me about it. I still think he's too young to be talking back to his mom, especially if that blends with talking back to his gramme, me, or now, you. But I gotta say, shit he said struck, and I need to get into a zone that he's now starting to pick up some threads of the man he's going to weave himself into, and I gotta be careful not to stand in the way of that."

"I will, at this juncture, remind you of my assertion that you're a really good dad, Riggs."

That got me yet another smile, before he kept talking.

"But he's not old enough to get how things have changed with us in that way. He already told me he approved of you, thinking that's where we were that first night you had dinner with us."

"Wow, that's sweet," I said happily.

"Yeah," he replied, again smiling. "I told him we weren't that. I'm not gonna sit too long on telling him we actually are that, but right now, my sense is, it's too soon. Having you suddenly waking up in my bed in a way he knows that's happening, especially when you'll be back at the cabin when Gia comes to you. It might get confusing."

I cut in. "I thought I was coming back tomorrow."

He gave me another squeeze and stated firmly, "When Gia comes to you."

Oh well.

Whatever.

"Okay, when Gia comes to me."

"He's not grown up enough to understand all the intricacies. Sometimes, Nadia in his dad's bed, up and eating breakfast with him, sometimes Nadia is not. Where he stands with that. Him having me only part time, and suddenly having to share me. And in case I'm wrong, Angelica being under fire, and she acts on that shit with her kids, I gotta keep my finger on his pulse."

"I don't disagree with any of this."

"Even so, I got you close, you sure as fuck aren't sleeping in the guest room."

"I don't disagree with that either."

"So we're good."

"We are very good."

"Right," he murmured, then he was all over me again.

We didn't come up for air until he heard my stomach grumble.

I hadn't had lunch either.

"I gotta get back to work," he said.

"Turkey and Swiss sandwich?" I asked.

"Works for me."

He dove in and kissed my neck, then rubbed his stubble on me.

Gooseflesh covered my skin.

Riggs got back to work.

I brought him a glass of water.

Then I got to work on lunch.

After we ate, I went to work on watering the flowers.

And we continued easing into it.