The sound of light tapping gradually pulls me out of sleep. I open my eyes and blink up at the living room ceiling a few times, getting my bearings. My eyes feel gritty, my throat’s a little sore, and there’s a faint pounding behind my temples that’s more a warning than actual pain.

Not the best way to wake up; still, it could be worse.

I hold up my wrist and squint at my watch. 5:48. Just a little over half an hour before I need to shake Kelsey awake and help her get ready for school.

I nudge Mal off my legs, eliciting a soft, disgruntled growl from him as he rises and stalks to the opposite side of the mattress and curls up behind my daughter’s knees.

“Careful, mister,” I warn him in a low undertone. “Kelsey might have been the one who found you and begged me to let you stay, but I’m the one who made the final decision and I’m the one who keeps your cat food stocked. The last thing I need right now is an ungrateful cat, so if you get too mouthy with me, I’ll kick you out of here.”

Mal tucks his nose between his forepaws and closes his eyes. He’s not stupid. He knows a bluff when he hears one. A moment later he starts to snore.

“Ungrateful cur,” I mutter as I climb off the bed, grimacing as my body reminds me that it’s really not designed to spend the night on such a cheap mattress. Hard to believe that it’s the same body that managed to remain limber after spending an entire night on the floor of a lifeguard station all those years ago.

I stretch and twist my upper body, trying to force some of the kinks out, before padding towards the kitchen and the strange clicking sounds.

The sight of Jason bent over my battered five-year-old laptop startles me. I blink at him. “I thought you’d left.”

Jason jumps, the movement nearly knocking over the cup of coffee by his elbow. I rush to steady it before it tips onto the computer’s keyboard. Death by coffee to the keyboard is an accident I can ill afford right now.

“I, uh, I wanted to stay,” Jason speaks slowly, like he’s been lost in another world and is struggling to return to the present. “It felt right. I hope you don’t mind.”

I should. His presence should upset me. It’s been just me, Kelsey, and Adele in this place together for the last six years. Having a man around should disrupt the natural order of things, but my gut tells me that this is right, how it should be. Besides, I don’t have the energy to be upset. I’m too stiff, tired, and worried about how the hell I’m going to pay Abe tomorrow.

`Not for the first time, I consider asking Jason for a loan. He’s rich. He can afford to pay off my entire debt if he wants, but I don’t want to. It’s not that I’m not willing to swallow my pride and ask, but rather that I’m afraid of what how Abe and his father will react when they find out where the money came from.

There’s no doubt in my mind that if they find out he exists, then sooner rather than later they'll find a way to use my connection to Jason to put the squeeze on him.

I can’t let that happen. Jason’s my one shot at keeping Kelsey safe if I can’t figure out a way to get myself out from under this debt.

“Nah.” I cross to the coffee pot and pour the fragrant brew into my favorite oversized coffee mug, the sunshine yellow one Kelsey gave me for Mother’s Day two years ago. The word ‘mom’ is painted in bright pink, childish handwriting on the front. The cup never fails to make me feel loved.

I take a generous sip, ignoring how the liquid sears the roof of my mouth before burning a trail down my throat. Feeling marginally more human, I wrap both hands around the mug and prop a hip against the counter top, waiting for the caffeine to kick in.

I direct my attention to Jason. He’s wearing the same clothes he wore yesterday, though they’re considerably more wrinkled and they’ve acquired a ravioli sauce stain. His hair is standing up on end, like he’s been running his hands through it. Shadows have formed beneath his eyes.

“Did you get any sleep?” I ask. Having him here in my kitchen, with so much between us, should feel awkward, but it doesn’t. It feels right. Comforting.

He shrugs but his attention doesn’t waver from the screen. “Some. I laid down with you and Kelsey for a few hours.” His lifts his eyes, meeting mine. “That mattress sucks.”

My throbbing back agrees with him. “It gets the job done,” I say quietly. “If you were uncomfortable, you should have moved to my room. My bed’s better.”

Humor and the first stirrings of desire brighten his expression. The corners of his mouth kick up in a small smile. “I want to put that to a test. Maybe later this morning? After Kelsey leaves for school?”

A blush warms my face as a few different possibilities flit through my mind. “I have to work today,” I quietly tell him.

“Call in sick.”

God, talk about a luxury I can’t afford. “That’s not possible.”

“Pity.” Jason’s attention drops back to the computer screen. “There’s a few moves you and I haven’t tried out yet. They look…interesting.”

Suspicion blossoms and I push myself away from the counter. “Exactly what are you doing with my computer? So help me, Jason, if you’re using it to look at porn… Your daughter uses it for her homework.”

I round the end of the table and skid to a stop beside him. I grab the computer, angling it so I can see exactly what’s on the screen.

“Oh!” My stomach drops and my heart constricts as I check out what he’s been studying. Instead of lewd images or the dirty video I expected to find, I’m looking at a very familiar website. My shoulders slump as a bright and sweet sensation shifts through me. “The hospital that did Kelsey’s surgery.”

“Yeah.” Jason takes my hand in his, lifts it to his mouth and kisses my wrist. “I’m trying to learn as much as I can about what she, what both of you, went through and what options are currently available. I also sent an email to my insurance agent, letting her know that I need to meet with her. I want to get Kelsey booked onto my health insurance plan right away.”

“Jason,” I start to say, awe coloring my voice.

There are so many ways he could have handled this situation. Many of the women with apartments in this building are hardworking single mothers like myself. I’ve seen the men in their lives put them through hell, so I know all about the different ways Jason could have reacted to finding out that he’d fathered my child.

He could have called me every name in the book. He could have threatened to take Kelsey away from me, or accused me of lying. He could have denied her forever. But he hadn’t. Instead he has proven to be the sweetest guy in the world. A prince in a world of paupers.

My heart rolls over and swells.

Please, I silently pray, let me come up with a solution to my money problems. I can’t bear the thought of him finding out just how much trouble I’m in.

Jason cocks his head to the side and raises an amused brow. “Yeah?”

I start, realizing I began to say something only to get lost in my own thoughts.

I swallow, trying to push away the lump that’s suddenly formed in my throat while blinking back the tears collecting in the corners of my eyes. “You don’t have to do that.”

He snorts. “Ella, I know you’ve done your best, but I looked at the health insurance plan Abutilon provides. It sucks.”

He’s not wrong, but I still feel the need to defend it. Some sort of misguided pride, I suppose. “It’s better than no insurance at all.”

Jason snorts and rolls his eyes. “Barely.” He reaches up and takes my half empty coffee mug out of my hand and places it on the table before moving his own beside it, making sure both are well away from the laptop.

He scoots his chair backwards, adding about a foot of space between himself and the table. “What time does Kelsey get up?”

“Six-thirty.”

The microwave clock clicks over. It’s five to six.

“Thirty-five minutes,” Jason muses. His tone sends a thrill of anticipation winding through me. My pulse starts pounding in my throat. His eyes rake up and down my body, pausing at my hips and breasts.

“Not really enough time to finish what we started yesterday morning before you did your runner.”

Memories assault me and my knees weaken. I lick my lips and sway towards him. His eyes darken, the pupils dilating. “No?”

“Nope,” he confirms.

“Too bad.”

“Yeah. Too bad,” he repeats. Still, he scoots the chair back a few more inches.

I sneak another glance at the clock. “Still,” I ponder, “might be just the right amount of time to do something else.”

That’s all the invitation he needs. His hands reach up and grab me, his palms cupping my hips while his fingers dig into my ass’s soft flesh. In one smooth move, he pulls me forward and down, so I’m straddling his lap. My chest is pressed to his.

His big hands cup my face as he captures my mouth in a hot kiss.

Lust, hot, desperate, and damn near combustible, shoots through me and I grind my pussy against him. Despite the combined layers of his jeans and my favorite pair of flannel pajama pants, I feel his erection growing.

His hands slide down my neck, pausing briefly to caress both my breasts. As I arch my back, begging for more, they drop lower, finding the buttons of my matching pajama top and fumbling with them.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” I hiss in his ear even as he parts the fabric and slides his hand along my stomach, leaving a trail of electric sparks in his wake.

“Kelsey,” I gasp, forcing both of us to remember our daughter sleeping just a few feet away. “She might…wake up. And see.” It’s getting harder and harder to concentrate.

“Mmm.” Jason places a biting kiss on my collarbone. “We won’t go much further,” he promises in a lust-thickened voice.

Clearly, he has more self-control than I do. I’m about one good stroke away from not caring if Kelsey walks in and sees us.

Jason lifts his head. His mouth covers mine. I open for him, granting him entrance when something vibrates against my inner thigh, making me jump and scoot back.

“Son of a—" Jason growls. He drops his forehead to my shoulder and digs his cell phone out of his pocket. He barely glances at the screen before he holds it up to his ear. “What the hell do you want?” he demands.

I hear a voice coming through the speaker, but I can’t make out the words. Jason watches me with hot, lust-filled eyes as he listens to the caller.

“Fine,” he finally barks. “I’ll see you soon.”

He disconnects the call and shoves the phone back into his pocket.

I quirk a brow at him. “Bad news?”

“No, well, maybe. I don’t know.”

I slide off his lap and re-button my top. “Sounds cryptic.”

“Not intentionally, I just don’t know much at this point.” Jason leans forward and kisses me. He pulls back before it has time to turn into something more interesting.

“The gist of it is that I have a spur of the moment meeting I need to get to.” He casts a rueful glance at the dark living room. “Pisses me off, since I was looking forward to helping you get Kelsey ready for school.”

“There’s always tomorrow,” I murmur, while trying not to think about the other thing I have to deal with tomorrow.

Jason smile warmly. “You’re right. There’s tomorrow.” He stands up and grabs his car keys. “I have to go.” He starts to move towards the door, only to spin on his heel and come directly toward me.

He grabs me around the waist, pulling me into the cradle of his thighs, and kisses me. We’re both breathless when we finally part.

He steps back and gestures to the kitchen. “At some point tomorrow, between Kelsey going to school and you going to work, we’re going to finish what we started yesterday in my kitchen and what very nearly continued in that chair. Okay?”

I blush and smile. “I’ll make sure Adele is somewhere else during that time frame.”

Jason smiles and kisses my nose before letting himself out of the apartment.