Page 50 of Lure

Chapter

Nineteen

GRACE

The next time I opened my eyes, it was dark save for a single light burning in the corner. Or maybe in the bathroom? Squinting, I turned my head. I hadn’t gone back to bed, had I? Awareness trickled back in and the thump of a tail pulled my attention to the floor where Goblin wiggled across the carpet toward me, toward the bed.

“Hey,” I whispered a greeting. Wherever I’d woken up, it wasn’t my room. Goblin’s wiggling seemed to intensify and he went from sliding on the carpet to standing up. “How you doing boy?”

Then he had his paws on the side of the bed and I ran a hand over his head.

“Want to come up here with me?” He hadn’t slept in my room once since I’d been here, but that didn’t mean I didn’t get to play with him and hang out. I loved dogs. Always wanted to have one, but my job took me everywhere and that wasn’t fair to a puppy.

Goblin swiped his tongue over my face repeatedly, giving me kisses even as he did a full body wiggle of happiness. A soft laugh escaped me because he was determined to give me lotsofkisses.

“Come on,” I invited him, patting the bed as I scooted backward to give him room. I froze when I pressed against a warm back. I wasn’t in the bed alone. Before I could even process that information, Goblin was on the bed and wiggling against me in between slurpy kisses and me petting him.

It was wild, how swiftly he would slide onto his side, but kept drowning me in kisses and I couldn’t go anywhere. Even when I tried to pet him, it barely slowed him down. Goblin was just so damn happy. Laughter spilled out of me as I tried to avoid getting his tongue in my eye or my mouth. Though I swore he was gonna go up my nose with his enthusiasm.

Masculine grumbles rising in volume behind just added to my amusement as I half-wrestled, half-just played with Goblin. We were definitelynotin my room. I guess I fell asleep in his office while he worked. That meant he’d have to have been the one put me in his bed? Not that I could focus on that very much. Not when I had a wiggling pile of canine joy just demanding everything from me.

Laughter bubbled out of me as I alternated between petting Goblin and defending myself from them. When the bed shifted behind me, Goblin’s whole body just seemed to vibrate at a higher frequency. Then he was climbing on me to wiggle and slurp at Alphabet.

This time, I didn’t try to smother the sound as I cracked up under Goblin’s full frontal assault. He was acting more like a puppy than he had at any other time since I’d met him and it was just…

Wonderful.

“Goddamn, Goblin,” Alphabet said, the faint raspiness from sleep adding a deeper dimension to his voice and a subtle sensuality to the way he enunciated the syllables. “You’re soaking Gracie down and I didn’t sign up for a bath.”

Despite the denial, he didn’t sound all that upset. Though he threaded an arm between me and Goblin to help create some room. The drape of him against my back sent a wave of warmth over me that would probably suggest I was blushing if I hadn’t been laughing so damn hard.

The wet kisses really were drenching me, but I wasn’t remotely upset about it. “He’s in a good mood,” I managed to say from behind the shield of my hand to keep Goblin’s tongue at bay.

“Clearly, he likes waking up with you, Gracie-girl.” The relaxed confidence resonated in his sleep-husky voice. I could listen to him all day. Probably why I’d drifted off when he was talking to the guys.

“Maybe,” I said, still smiling so hard it made my cheeks hurt. “Or maybe he’s just happy that I’m not blocking him from you.”

His snort was deliciously derisive. “He wouldn’t even be on the bed without you, Gracie-girl. He makes me get my ass up when he wants me up.”

“Oh.” I frowned. “Should I have not…”

“Shh,” Alphabet shushed me, and shifted to push himself up on one arm. “You’re fine, Gracie. Goblin and I have a deal, he makes sure I don’t hang out in bed when I’m down and I get up when he asks me for it.”

I turned that revelation over. It was kind of sweet that he and Goblin worked together, but it also made sense. Goblin kept depression at bay? Or maybe his trauma? I didn’t know enough about it, but I loved that Alphabet had him. Goblin’s happy squirming settled as he rolled onto his back, legs spread wide, with a look of ecstasy on his face as we both rubbed his belly.

“This is kind of nice,” I said, aware that while he was present, he wasn’t grinding on me or anything else. It was just “comfortable.” Probably not a word I should share with him.Most guys I’d ever met didn’t like being told they were comfy or even friendly. A sigh escaped me.

“If it’s so nice, what’s making you sad, Gracie-girl?” The soft question hinted at intimacy and asked me to trust him. The damn thing about it was I wanted to trust him. I wanted…

“It’s—” Before I could just sort of shrug off the concern, he shifted his hand from Goblin to press a finger to my lips.

“Don’t lie. If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine. But let’s just make it a rule to not lie to each other.”

That had me blinking and I twisted, laying against the pillow to look up at him. He met my studying gaze with a kind of quiet patience.

“Yes, I know what I’m saying. You don’t have to tell me everything. Do I want to know? Yes. I wouldn’t ask otherwise. But…” He shifted his attention to Goblin for a moment and blew out a breath before glancing to me again. “But,” he repeated. “I want to trust what you say to me. I want you to trust what I say to you. I want there to benoquestions about that. So, if you don’t want to answer something, just say you don’t want to and I’ll do the same.”

“So if I ask you what the guys were doing last night?”

---