Page 149 of Dove
As she snuggled into me all I could think was…
Lucky me.
The sun was barely rising when we woke the next morning. My mornings the past few years hadn’t started as early as they did when you grew up on a farm, but somehow my body was still used to rising at the crack of dawn. Dove, too, but it seemed last night had worn her out. I couldn’t stop the satisfaction that gave me as I looked down at her still sleeping. She was so incredibly beautiful, even with her hair a tousled mess from everything we’d done last night. The blanket had fallen off one of her shoulders, exposing her back to me, and I pressed a kiss to her soft, sleep-warm skin.
“Dove,” I said, my voice a gentle whisper, husky from sleep. “Gotta wake up, baby.”
She groaned quietly. I hated waking her, because I knew this was some of the best sleep she’d gotten since Josie’s death. Dove passed right out last night, snuggled in my arms, and stayed there. No night terrors or nightmares that had her waking up in the middle of the night, sweaty and scared. We didn’t talk much about it, because I know it embarrassed her, and she shut down whenever I tried to bring it up, but I made sure to be there for her in any way I could. Even if it was only to hold her as she quietly cried herself back to sleep.
I chuckled. “I agree, but we need to get up and get going. As much as I wish we could stay here all day, we can’t.”
She yawned and then gave a small stretch before she turned over, a sleepy smile on her face.
“Morning.” Her voice was always a touch raspier right when she woke up, and it had me wishing we didn’t have so many damn obligations. The only one I wanted to have was giving her as many orgasms as I could before she begged me to stop, but I guess that would have to be on the agenda for another day. We had too much stuff to do around the farm, and we’d be getting ready to harvest in the next day or so. With just the two of us, that meant we’d be busier than ever. Orgasms were not on top of the priority list, sadly.
It made me even more glad we got to fully enjoy each other last night.
“Good morning.” I greeted, leaning over to kiss her. I frowned as she pulled away, following her to try and grab a kiss.
“I have morning breath,” she complained. “And we didn’t even get to brush our teeth last night. You don’t want to be kissing me right now.”
“I want to be doing way more than just kissing you right now, Dove. But unfortunately, we’ve got too much shit to do. Why’d my family have to be into farming and not something that took a little less work to run?” I joked.
She looked at me, and for a moment, I saw the shadow of disappointment in her eyes before she gave me a tiny smile that looked almost forced. “Maybe they enjoyed it,” she suggested, but the way she said it had me thinking I’d said something wrong. Before I could ask her why she sounded sad about that she pointed toward the lake.
“Joshua James Hex, you better go fish my underwear out of the lake before a fish eats them.”
When Dove told me to jump, I didn’t even ask how high, I just did it. So, when she told me to go find her underwear, that’s exactly what I did. I walked my bare ass over to the dock and pulled on my pants from last night before scouring for a branch long enough to fish her floating panties out of the lake. I handed the soaked, dripping material back to her proudly—barely containing my smug grin.
Dove had used the time I’d spent fishing her undergarments out of the lake to get back into her dress, which was wrinkled and slightly damp from the morning dew, but she still looked just as stunning in it as yesterday. Even better, now that I knew she had nothing underneath.
She snatched them back, but I could see her holding back the smile on her lips. Dove had never been able to stay mad at me long.
Well, except recently, but I can’t say that wasn’t justified.
After I got properly dressed, I took a few minutes to pack and clean up what I could, putting it into the back of my SUV before we drove up to the house. I could come back later to grab the Chevy and whatever else was still laying around. Everything last night had gone perfectly, and it had been worth the hassle of arranging it—the fact I owed Reverie included. I wondered when she’d come calling for a favor, because knowing her, she would.
As I drove the dirt path back up to the house, I couldn’t help going over what needed to get done today. Dove hadn’t been lying about all we had to do. The half day we took yesterday had pushed us back for getting ready for the harvest and we still had the normal daily chores with all the animals. I often wonderedwhy my dad had kept them all, including the horses, when he’d scaled back on everything else through the years.
But when I returned home and saw how much Dove seemed to thrive on the farm, taking charge and caring for the animals, it made sense. I’d never known my mother, but everyone said she’d been a kindhearted woman. I’d never understood how she’d fallen for someone as cold as my father, but then Dove and Josie had come into our lives, and I’d understood. He always had a heart for them, he only seemed got lack one when it came to me.
I cut the engine when we reached the house and cut those thoughts out with it. Never helped to dwell on my father, in life orin death.
“Go ahead and get showered and dressed for the day, Dove. I’ll get started on the animals. I know they’re likely hungry since we fed them early yesterday.”
She started to protest, because of course she would. Dove could never be called a slacker, and for some reason someone taking over a job for her seemed to make her ornery.
“Don’t argue.” I leaned over the console to give her a hard kiss. “Just do as your told for once.” My smirk widened as I pulled back, knowing I’d get some sort of reaction from her out of that.
She rolled her eyes. But I could tell by the way she didn’t fight me on it that she didn’t mind. I got out of the car and rounded to her side, opening the door for her. When she walked past me to go into the house, I closed it with a slam and pulled her back against it, bracketing her in with my body, not quite ready to let her leave.
Her face fit perfectly in my hands as I cradled it, tilting her upward to look at me.
“You were perfect last night, Dove.” I scanned her face, looking for any signs of discomfort. “How do you feel?”
She blinked up at me. “I feel good. I’m just ready for that shower.”
“I meant do you feel sore? Are you in any pain?”Was I too rough?“Because if you are, I can take care of the farm myself today?—”
