“Hello? Yeah, he’s right here, hang on.”

I hear Addie’s voice through a fog, I grumble and pull her body back to me. I can’t sleep if she’s not snuggled against me. I may have only been living here a couple of weeks but it’s time enough to know that I love her—even if I’ve been an idiot and not told her yet—and I can’t live without her. Shit, I’m addicted to her. There’s nothing else I can say about it. I’m addicted and I don’t even care. I may have had fear before I caved and let Addie in, but there’s no fear now. There’s only need and an excitement to see what each day brings.

“Black, it’s for you,” she mutters, settling back against me. I open my eyes only to find hers are still closed. I duck, but don’t quite make it as she slaps the phone next to my ear.

“Ow, damn it, Addie,” I grumble.

“Sorry,” she mumbles, kissing my chest. I doubt she has any idea what she’s sorry about. Her breathing instantly evens out and I know that she’s asleep. I’m not sure she was ever awake in the first place.

“Hello,” I say into the phone, taking the time to bend down and kiss the top of Addie’s head.

“Black, can you meet me out at your mom’s?”

“Mom’s? Why?” I ask, looking over at the bedside clock. “Jesus, Luka it’s only five in the morning and this is my day off.”

“We had a break in last night,” Luka says and now he has all of my attention.

“At the farm? Was mom hurt?” I ask, worrying about her. Green is still staying there and Jansen got back a couple of weeks ago, but still…

“Not at the farm. This is just where I brought Petal and the kids for the day so I could investigate. I don’t want her to be alone.”

“Petal? Was she—”

“It was her new shop. It was broken into and ransacked.”

“Fuck,” I growl. Petal worked hard to open up her own shop and she was so proud of it.

“Yeah, I was hoping you could meet me over here and we could go check out the shop together. I could use another set of eyes.”

“Sounds good, give me ten to get dressed and I’ll head on out that way.”

“That works, I’ll leave my Jeep here for Petal and the kids and get you to drive me back for my squad car afterwards.”

“On my way. You just take care of Petal.”

“I am, but when I find out who did this, I’m going to kill them.”

“You’re the sheriff, you can’t. I’ll do it for you,” I tell him, but he’s already hanging up.

“Christ,” I growl. So much for wanting to wake Addie up slow and easy this morning.

“What’s wrong?” Addie asks, wide awake now.

“Petal’s shop was broken into last night. Sounds like they fucked the place up pretty bad. Luka is pissed.”

“Oh my God. Is Petal okay?”

“Yeah, just upset. She’s at Mom’s. I’m going to head over there and pick Luka up and go look at the place.”

“I’m coming with you,” Addie says, jumping out of bed.

For a second, I can’t think because all I see is tits and ass—more specifically, Addie’s tits and ass and my brain turns to mush. Then, I shake it off and walk over to the closet to find some clothes.

“Princess, I love you but this is police work,” I tell her buttoning up my jeans.

“Not to the shop, idiot. I meant to the farm. I’ll stay with Petal there. She’s my friend. I don’t want her to be alone.”

“Have you seen the farm? There’s no way she’ll be alone.”

“Still, I want to be there,” she says pulling a long pink sleeveless dress on. She looks beautiful and she hasn’t even brushed her hair. “Unless,” she says stopping abruptly and there’s something on her face that I don’t like and haven’t seen there in the weeks that we’ve really been together. A look I do not like.

“Unless,” I prompt her, wanting her to get out whatever is bothering her so I can squash it before I leave. I don’t want anything coming between me and Addie.

“Unless you would rather I not go out to the farm. I mean it is your family and I—”

“And you’re my girlfriend,” I tell her walking over and taking hold of her arms to hold her still. “You’re mine, Addie. What we have is not temporary. You’re a part of my life. I don’t want you to ever doubt that.”

“Oh, but you—”

“It’s just that you were up late last night emailing your resume out and making a list of restaurants to take your resume to today. I thought you might want to sleep in,” I tell her and then another thought occurs to me. “Shit, sweetheart. I’m sorry. I won’t be able to go into Houston with you today.”

“That’s okay. I’d rather be with your family. You and I can do Houston tomorrow or even the next day. It’s not like I haven’t been out of work this long. A little longer won’t hurt me, besides since you’ve moved in you keep insisting on paying all the bills.”

“It’s my job as the man,” I grumble, knowing if I’m not careful this will be another argument and I don’t want to fight with Addie. Though to be fair, we fuss a lot, but mostly because I love how we make up.

“Whatever. One day you need to become acquainted with the present century,” she laughs. “Let me go brush my teeth and throw on some makeup and I’ll be ready to go.”

“If you’re sure,” I tell her, making sure.

“I’m sure, but if you want to run into the kitchen and make us some coffee to go, I’ll love you forever,” she says carelessly, having no idea what affect her words just had on me.

“Hey, Addie?” I yell, as she starts to leave the room.

She stops at the bathroom door, still kind of rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

“Yeah?”

“I love you, sweetheart.”

Surprise comes over her face. My heart rattles in my chest wondering if I did the right thing. I’m not much on making myself vulnerable with a woman. I’d like to say it’s because of my past with Linda and maybe part of it is, but really, I think it’s because I’m a man and it’s engrained in our DNA.

She takes off running and hits my body in seconds. I catch her immediately, lifting her up, causing her dress to rise up to her thighs. Happiness is alive on her face, warming me in places I didn’t know were cold.

“I love you, Black Horn Lucas—with all of my heart,” she cries, kissing my face. I say my face because she’s kissing me everywhere, peppering me with them. Lips, nose, jaw, eyelids, eyebrows, forehead… I’m not sure she misses kissing me anywhere. “I love you,” she says again.

I pull away to look at her, using my hand to brush her hair and stare into her eyes, which have tears spilling out of them.

“Hey, no crying.”

“I’m just… happy,” she says.

“I am too, sweetheart. You make me happy.”

“You make me happy too,” she says, crying harder.

“I love you, Addie Harrington.”

“I love you, too!” she cries and for some reason the way she just repeats what I say makes me laugh.

“You going to be okay?” I ask her.

“Are you going to stop loving me?”

“Never,” I vow.

“Then, I’m going to be okay,” she says and I kiss her… simply because I have to.

“We better get going,” I tell her after the kiss, sliding her down my body and enjoying every second of it.

“Yeah,” she breathes.

“You need to go finish getting ready.”

“Yeah,” she breathes again, just looking at me.

“I’ll go make coffee,” I murmur, leaning down to kiss her on the forehead. She’s just too damn cute.

“Yes, coffee,” she says and the mere mention of the word seems to bring her out of her trance. “Hey Black,” she calls just as I’m about to leave the room.

“Yeah, baby?”

“I’m not going to stop either, you know. Loving you, I mean.”

“I’m counting on it, Princess. I’m counting on it,” I tell her and despite the shit start to the day and worrying over Petal, I go make coffee feeling more content and happy than I thought was possible.