Chapter 21
Nikki
Ew.
“Pipe.”
What the hell was I going to do? It was half past six, and what I planned on doing was going to the bathroom and then falling back into bed with Pipe. But his bathroom was hindering me from even stepping foot near the toilet.
“Sugar?” he called sleepily.
“Um, I can’t do this.”
“Oh hell,” he mumbled. I turned, saw the light turn on in the bedroom, and he walked toward me naked. Beautifully naked. “Don’t go in there.”
I ripped my eyes off his dick that was at half-mast. “Yeah, I’m totally fine with that, except I really need to go to the bathroom.
“Can you make it next door?”
I looked down at my naked body. “Yeah, except I really don’t want to do that naked.”
“Grab one of my shirts, and we can go over there.”
“We?” I asked.
Pipe turned around and headed back into his bedroom. “Not letting you go over there by yourself. You forget there was some creeper looking in your window eight hours ago?”
I had. “Thanks for the reminder,” I mumbled. He tossed a shirt at me when I walked into the room, and I pulled it over my head. “Are we coming back over here?”
Pipe grabbed his boxers off the floor and tugged them on. “It’s up to you, sugar. Your place is a hell of a lot nicer.”
Thank God he had said it. “We can stay at my place. I can make breakfast when we wake up.”
Pipe pulled out another shirt, a pair of pants, and socks. He grabbed my hand and pulled me down the hallway. “You mean when you wake up again. I’m ready to start the day.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Are you insane?”
He laughed and slid open the patio door. “No, just don’t sleep a lot.”
I hummed under my breath and slipped out the door. “We’re gonna have to change that.”
“I think you already have. I just slept six hours. That’s pretty damn good for me.”
“Oh, well, you’re welcome. Although I can tell you right now, as soon as I hit the bathroom, I’m falling back into bed.” Any time before eight o’clock was not for me.
He opened the door to my house and motioned for me to go in. “Whatever you want, sugar.”
Everything looked normal in my place, but it felt off. It felt like someone was watching me. “Um, where are you going to be while I try to sleep?”
“Here.”
I licked my lips and looked down the hallway. “Here, as in bed next to me?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “No, I planned on making a pot of coffee and watching TV until you woke up.”
I looked up at him and grimaced. “Um, I’ll try to sleep on the couch.”
He reached up and cupped my cheek. “Talk to me, sugar. Not even a minute ago, you were ready to pass out, and now you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
I glanced out the front window and shivered. “It feels like he’s still there.”
Pipe looked over his shoulder at the window and shook his head. He grumbled under his breath about perverts and skinning them alive. He stalked to the window and pulled the curtain closed. “He’s not here, sugar, and I am. You have nothing to worry about.”
“See, I know that in theory, but I’m still terrified.”
He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the bathroom. He pushed me in and closed the door. “I’ll be right here.”
In any other circumstance, that would have been super weird, but right now, it made me feel safe. I did my business, washed my hands, and looked in the mirror where I promptly let out a scream.
“Nikki,” Pipe called as he pulled open the door.
“How are you even looking at me right now without cringing?” I demanded. I grabbed my brush from the sink and pulled it through my hair. “Turn around.”
Pipe chuckled and leaned against the doorframe. “I just looked at you for the past fifteen minutes.”
I wrinkled my nose and turned back to the mirror. “Don’t blame me if you have nightmares tonight.”
“Not likely.” He grabbed the brush from my hand and tossed it on the counter. “You look beautiful, Nikki. Knock it off.” He pulled me from the bathroom and into the bedroom. “Shirt on or off?”
I looked up at him. “Huh?”
“You sleep naked or in the shirt? Although, I have to tell you, if you take that shirt off, we’re fucking before you sleep.”
I put my hands on my hips. “That is about the only thing that could ever compete with sex.”
“So what’s it gonna be, sugar?”
A smile spread across my lips, and I pulled the shirt over my head. “How’s that for an answer, handsome?”
*
Pipe
“You’re a liar.”
I cracked one eye open. Nikki was leaning over me, her hair cascading down around us, and she had a huge smile on her face.
Now, this is how I could wake up every day. “You’re like a fucking angel.”
A blush crept up her cheeks. “We’re talking about you, not me. You were sleeping.”
I reached up and pulled her down for a kiss. “Yeah, I was,” I mumbled against her lips.
“You said you don’t sleep much.” She threw a leg over my waist, straddling me. “You wanna tell me why that is? I know you said before you have a lot on your mind, but I think there’s more to it than that.”
“Trying to get in my head, sugar?”
She shrugged and sat back on my thighs. “Only if you want me there, handsome.”
“You keep calling me that.”
She stuck out her tongue. “That’s ‘cause I can’t call you pretty.”
“You’re a goofball.”
She shook her finger at me. “You’re changing the subject. Tell me why you don’t sleep much.”
I sighed and fluffed the pillow under my head. “It’s nothing big, sugar.”
“I think the fact you can only sleep for a couple hours at a time is a rather big deal.”
“I mean the reason why I don’t sleep much isn’t a big one.”
“Then spill.”
I rested my hands on her bare thighs and looked up at her. “I just was afraid people wouldn’t be there when I woke up. I had this foster home when I was about eleven that I really liked. I went to sleep without a care in the world and woke up with my bag packed and I was out the door in my pajamas.”
“But that wasn’t your fault, Pipe. Staying awake all night wouldn’t have changed anything.”
“I know that now, but I still can’t sleep much.”
She sighed and rested her hands on top of mine. “But you did just sleep for six hours and then again for three.”
“I think that might have to do a bit with the workout you put me through.”
She ran her fingers up my arms and planted her hands on my chest. “Then I guess I need to work you out every night so you can get a good night's sleep.”
“Is that a threat?”
A smile spread across her lips. “More like a promise. A promise I’m going to fulfill right now.”
*