Page 49 of Adoring Delaney

The early morning sun was peeking through my curtains and I wasn’t ready to face the day. I was emotionally wrecked. Sometime during the night, I’d woken, Carter had been awake then, too, but neither of us had spoken. I stayed cuddled to his side staring into the dark and he held on tight.

I’d been grateful he hadn’t tried to talk but this morning I knew I wouldn’t be as lucky.

“Morning, babe.”

“Too early,” I grumbled.

I was a teacher. For nine months out of the year I had to be up at the ass crack of dawn to get ready and get to school. During the summer months and school vacations, I slept in. So much so, if I could get away with it, I’d stay in bed until lunch time.

“Time to get up to take me to work.”

“Don’t wanna.”

“Come on, Laney. I skipped my workout but I need to go grab some clothes before work.”

I glanced at my clock and it was nearing eight.

“You’re gonna be late.”

“I think considering the reason why, I’ll get a pass. And I already texted Bernice and told her.”

“Bernice?”

“She’s the office manager.”

“Never met her.”

“Well, you will today. Time to get your sweet ass up. Come on.”

Carter patted my ass and I rolled away from him. He rolled the other way and got out of bed. I watched him tag his pants off the floor and head to the bathroom.

I didn’t move. Part of the reason was, I was mesmerized by Carter’s backside. It was hot and I hadn’t tried it, but I was fairly certain you could bounce quarters off the firm muscle. The other reason was, I was taken aback by the normalcy of our conversation.

Not that we’d never had normal conversations but I’d never been woken up by Carter asking me to take him to work.

“You’re not up,” Carter noted, coming back into the bedroom.

Damn, how long had I been daydreaming?

“Just go. It’ll take me an hour to get ready. If I need to go somewhere, I’ll call my mom.”

“You don’t need to get ready. You’re just driving me to work. And besides, you’re the only woman I know who wakes up lookin’ better than after they get themselves made up.”

“You wake up next to lots of women?”

My stomach pitched and my heart squeezed. He’d told me there’d been no one else, but I didn’t like what his comment implied.

“Never woken up next to a woman other than you. But I have seen your sisters first thing in the morning. And I’ve seen plenty of women doing the walk of shame out of my house after one of my roommates fucked ‘em. None of them looked as beautiful as you as they walked out.”

“Not sure that’s a compliment,” I told him, feeling better knowing the women he’d seen in the morning weren’t women he’d spent the night with.

“That’s because you’re not a man. Baby, you look beautiful when you do your hair and put on makeup. But first thing in the morning? Stunning.”

My stomach tightened again, but this time it filled with something warm. Something so sweet I couldn’t deny it. Carter had never held back his praise. He’d told me often I was pretty, or he’d look at me and his face would change. But this was different. Couldn’t explain why, but it was. More open maybe, adding the part about his roommates. People I hadn’t even known existed.

“Laney.”

“Fine.”

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