Page 50 of Hushed

She shrugged. “Work calms me. I enjoy it. Does it help that I’m not working on major deadline projects? These are things I’ve been excited about for a while but haven’t made the time for.”

He smiled and tucked a hand under her chin. “Yeah. That actually does help. Did you sleep at all?”

She lowered her gaze, and he clucked his tongue. “Kenz, you have to sleep. Come on, back to bed with you.”

Reluctantly, she followed him to the bedroom and climbed under the blankets. He kissed her forehead. “I’ll leave you alone and see if that helps. I understand that you’re not used to having me in your bed.”

“That doesn’t offend you?”

He frowned. “Why would that offend me?”

“I’m not sure. You always read in romance novels where someone who has trouble sleeping suddenly sleeps so much better when the hero comes along and dicks her down.”

Gage raised an eyebrow. “Dicks her down?”

She giggled at his expression. “You get what I mean.”

“I suppose. Are you saying I’m your hero?”

She shoved at his chest, laughter shaking her. “Go away. I’m supposed to be sleeping.”

He kissed her again. “It doesn’t offend me. The human brain doesn’t just change overnight because you have a new person in your life—hero or not.”

“Logically, I understand that you’re right. But I still don’t want my quirks and idiosyncrasies to hurt your feelings.”

“I’ll tell you if something does, otherwise, assume I’m fine.”

He kissed her a third time and stood. “I’ll wake you in a few hours and we’ll go have breakfast with some of the others.”

She sank deeper into the bed and let herself drift. When she woke several hours later, Gage was sitting next to her fully dressed. “There you are sleepy head. Hungry?”

She rubbed her eyes and sat up. “Probably. Not awake enough to be sure.”

“Get dressed. We’ll go eat and you can get to know some of my friends.”

She tried to imagine a scenario where Gage would get to hang out with her friends and couldn’t picture it. Of course, she didn’t have many. Her chaotic life made it hard to keep friends. Not to mention, a lot of the people in her industries were less than reliable for making plans or doing anything. She suspected all of them were some kind of neurodivergent.

“Where did your head go?” he asked.

She blinked at him and realized she’d zoned out. “Sorry. I was just wondering if Maggie has ADHD.”

He frowned. “You… what?”

She laughed. “No, it makes sense, I promise. You said I could get to know your friends. Then I was trying to picture the two of us hanging out with my friends, which made me think about how unreliable most of them are. That made me think about the fact that it’s probably because half of them are undiagnosed with some sort of neurodivergence, and I settled on Maggie because she’s the worst of us, and you’ve actually met her.”

Gage laughed. “Your brain is an amazing place, sweetheart. Now get dressed or I’m going to tie you to the bed and do wicked things to you.”

“That sounds better than breakfast to be honest.”

He laughed. “Be a good girl and we can experiment when we get back. Up. Now.”

He pulled the blankets back, and she crawled off the bed, bending to kiss him before she made her way to the shower.

Gage followed and leaned against the counter, watching as she turned the water on the hottest setting.

“Do I have to call you Sir at breakfast?” she asked, stepping under the spray.

“Everyone here knows what we are and are all in similar dynamics, but it’s up to you.”

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