I could hear his heart beating, steady, strong. I’d never heard that before or never noticed it and its strength weirdly defined him. Strong, vital and alive.

And he’d also yanked the sheet over us, to our waists. This was something I did with him in between times, unconsciously doing it, completely comfortable with our nudity while we were in the act but feeling vulnerable when we weren’t. I’d pull the sheet up to our waists, not higher just there. Even after years with Tim, I’d done the same.

Tim had never pulled the sheet up. Joe noticed and he did.

And he remembered me, how I felt, even smelled. Like me, he remembered at night when we were apart.

I sucked in breath.

His fingers slid into my hair.

“It’ll take two months to renovate the house,” he said suddenly and I blinked then realized he was starting the conversation in the middle again and my stomach got warm and soft at the memory of something Joe, something I thought I’d never have back and I steeled myself against it but I knew this was a futile effort. “Took ‘em a day to gut it but it’ll take two months to renovate it,” he finished.

I stayed silent because I didn’t have anything to say but also because my mind was not frozen and blank anymore. Now there was so much in my brain, I couldn’t catch a thought.

“Girls’re gonna pick carpet, paint, cupboards, shit like that. That’s our deal,” Joe went on.

God, Keira would freaking love that. Kate too.

I was screwed.

“In return, I’m in town, I stay with you.”

My head came up with that and I looked at him and said, “Joe –”

I said no more because his hand was still in my hair. It slid to my neck and he yanked me up his body, lifting his thigh to assist him in this endeavor, its hardness pressed between my legs, an area still sensitive which meant this felt good. When my face was close to his, his hand went back into my hair and pulled my mouth down to his to give me a bruising but short open-mouthed kiss.

“Love it when you say my name, baby,” he muttered against my mouth when he was done. I felt my body soften, my jumbled head going blank again as I stared in his eyes and he went on. “Feel it in my dick every time.”

My head gave a small jerk and I blurted, “You do?”

He grinned. “Yeah.”

I liked it when he grinned. He didn’t do it much so each time it felt like a gift.

But still, I said, “That’s weird.”

His grin became soft laughter and he rolled me to my back, mostly covering me with his body, his cocked thigh still pressed high between my legs.

“You don’t hear it when you say it,” he told me.

“I do hear it.”

“No, you’re not a guy so you hear it but you don’t. The way you say ‘Joe’, every man would wish that was their name.”

“Okay,” I replied because I really didn’t have anything else to say to that statement and because I was busy trying to ignore the lovely squishy feeling that statement made me feel.

He bent his head and kissed my neck then his hands started roaming and his thigh moved an inch higher.

I bit my lip.

“Joe?”

“Yeah?” he asked my neck.

“You, um… can’t stay here.” His head came out of my neck, his hands stilled and he looked at me so I forged ahead. “’Cause, um… Dane called and said the girls were fakin’ it, havin’ a good time. He and I made our own deal yesterday. I need to call them like, right now, and ask them to come home. They’ll be back Saturday and I promised Dane and his parents he could sleep on the couch.”

“So?” Joe asked.

“So, Dane’ll be sleeping on the couch so you can’t.” This was one of the two reasons he couldn’t, Mike being the other one but I thought I’d start with Dane because mentioning Mike might make Joe mad and Joe na**d and mad meant me acting again like a slut (or more like one, whatever that would be).

“Wasn’t gonna sleep on your couch, buddy,” he told me and I blinked then I finally came to myself.

“You can’t sleep with me.”

“In your bed right now,” he pointed out.

“Yes, but you carried me to it and threw me in it.”

“You didn’t struggle much then, Vi, and pointin’ out the obvious, you aren’t doin’ it now.”

He was right so I pushed off and tried to slide away but he gave me more of his weight which meant resistance was futile.

So I glared up at him and demanded, “Get off.”

He looked like he was trying not to laugh, a new look, a good one on him. “Too late.”

“Off.”

“You like me here.”

“Off!” I shouted.

“You missed me, told me so yourself, buddy.”

God, I did do that, just blurted it right out.

I closed my eyes and turned my head away but, even doing this, I could hear his soft laughter and feel it against my body.

I didn’t want to like it but I did.

Then something occurred to me and my body got tight and my head righted with a snap, my eyes opening.

“Shit,” I whispered.

“What?” Joe asked.

“Do you hear that?”

Joe’s face instantly got serious, his head cocked to listen then he looked at me and his voice was serious too when he asked, “What, buddy?”

“Nothing,” I told him.

“Come again?”

“Nothing!” I cried. “Shit, hearing nothing means Mooch is getting into trouble.”

If Keira wasn’t around (and she was good with taking care of her dog) then it was me who had to deal with Mooch and Mooch, being a very active puppy, was a lot to deal with.

I couldn’t do that with a big, na**d man on me.

Then suddenly that big, na**d man wasn’t on me. He was at the side of the bed and pulling on his jeans.

I stared as he walked out of the room.

Then I pulled the sheet up to my chest, sat up in the bed, bending my knees and watching the door, curious despite myself at what he was going to do. So curious, I didn’t get out of bed, get my clothes on and run far, far away. Instead, I waited.

Not minutes later, Joe came back with a squirming dog under one arm and my purse in his other hand.

He dumped Mooch in the bed and my purse on the nightstand.

Mooch ran to me and jumped up, licking me with his puppy tongue and dousing me with his puppy breath.

“Need a new dog bed, Vi,” Joe declared as I gave an active Mooch a rubdown and my eyes went to Joe.