Mick spun his coffee mug slowly, clearly working through something.

“You still haven’t told me what you meant that day we went out on the ride. About loving someone. Or two someones.”

“Like I said, it’s complicated. Way too complicated to go into here. The very short version is that I ran away from something. I hurt people to do it. I fucked up.”

“Can it be fixed? Do you want to?”

Mick tipped his chair back. “We’d need hours, lots of liquor, and privacy for me to get into this whole thing. For now I have to ride herd on about two dozen people.”

“All right. I do want to hear, though. So let’s get together with Asa and pick a time. We’ll go camping or you can all come to my place. I want to know,” Duke told him.

Mick nodded and left the room.

CHAPTER Twenty-five

The rain kept Carmella in bed that next Saturday morning. Duke had worked late the night before—as the whole shop had been doing to finish a project—so she’d been on her own.

She’d gone to her aunt and uncle’s for dinner and then out to a movie with PJ and Craig and had turned off her kitchen light at one, so he hadn’t been home by that point.

She stretched and grabbed her phone to text Duke. Ten minutes later she and Ginger opened the front door to find him standing there in sleep pants and a T-shirt.

He took her hand, twirling her into a circle and then into his arms for a hug. He smelled good and was so warm she dragged him to her bed.

“You really did just wake up. And you texted me first thing?”

“Did I wake you?” Carmella asked, nuzzling his throat.

“No. I had to be up anyway. I need to get to the shop in a bit. But you contacted me right when you woke up.”

Carmella nodded, not sure why he was repeating it. And then he smiled, pulling her up his body to kiss her and then hug her tight.

“Keep it up, Bradshaw. This is why I text you first thing.”

“I love that you reached out for me without hesitation. I miss it when you’re not next to me when I sleep. I got used to that really fast. I don’t miss your dog’s farts, though, and I stepped on one of her gooey chew things on my way over. Gross.”

Carmella started to laugh. “Don’t. She’ll hear you. She has a complex about it.”

“I guess I’m just glad it’s her and not you who makes that smell on a regular basis.”

“Me too.”

“Now. As I have limited time and I did not have the pleasure of you next to me last night, I think we need to rectify my absence.”

He said this as he pulled her shirt off.

Then Ginger made a racket barking in the kitchen, startling them both. Duke was up and moving to the door before she could even manage to free herself of the bedding.

“You stay here,” he ordered and moved down her short hallway.

“So help me god, if anyone I know is here trying to rip me off, I am going outside, topless, to rip their fucking heads off,” she muttered as she slowly looked around the corner he’d told her to stay behind.

He prowled—oh yes, prowled—through her house, looking out windows, and then turned to her with an amused face. “She went out the doggie door. I think she’s chasing squirrels.”

Carmella joined him in the kitchen to peer out the window. Ginger trotted between two trees, giving her conversational bark.

“She just wants to play with them.”

“Some guard dog.” Duke started and then his gaze went hooded when he noticed she stood there topless and in her underpants. “Well now. Hello.”

“I was wondering when you’d notice I made a booty call. Booty text. Whatever. I requested your sexual services. Maintenance, you see. I’m used to a certain level of satisfaction now. It’s all your fault.”

“I’ll have you know, I give excellent customer satisfaction.” He picked her up and carried her to the table, depositing her ass on top.

“I’m very aware. Five stars of five.”

He sat, scooting his chair close, resting his chin on her knee.

Duke rendered her shaky, breathless, and wanton. She watched, rapt, as he turned his head, kissing one of the dimples at the inside of her knee.

She drew in a ragged breath at the rasp of his beard against that sensitive skin. Then the flick of his tongue made her shiver.

“It’s a good thing I know this table is clean enough to eat off, hm?”

“Extra clean now because I know you watched me cleaning up in here night before last.” Carmella lifted her butt so he could pull her panties off.

“You’re so good to me.” He moved his chair closer as he pulled her to the edge of the table.

He spread her labia and looked his fill. It might have been embarrassing or odd but he always had this expression of wonder and delight when he took her in. Made her feel beautiful and sexy.

He took a lick. Just a quick one.

And then another.

She went back to her elbows, watching down the line of her body as he feasted on her.

He ate her hungrily at first and then he’d ease back, letting her go return to simmer. Closer and closer to climax each time.

Duke rendered her incoherent as she made sounds she thought were words begging him to make her come.

He hummed against her pussy and then sucked her clit into his mouth hard and fast. He did that over and over again, filling her with so much pleasure she nearly hurt when climax seemed to explode from her belly and into her legs.