Code Name: Ghost - Sawyer Bennett Page 0,59

stopping him midsentence. Malik still has so many struggles to overcome, and he has already battled quite a few demons to even take this chance with me. I don’t want him suffering over any other anxieties right now.

So, I agree. “Just between you and me for now.”

“And Kynan,” he adds.

“And Corinne,” I point out.

Malik laughs, pressing his mouth to mine. “And probably my family as well.” My eyebrows shoot upward, and he grins before explaining. “I’m pretty close to my family. I’m going to tell them about you. And well… they’re coming next week because the Cold Fury has a game against the Pittsburgh Titans, so we thought it would be a good time for a family reunion of sorts. They’re dying to see how I’m doing so they can assure themselves I’m not wallowing.”

“Oh,” I murmur in surprise. Frankly, a bit of happiness zings through me that he’s going to tell them about me. For all his hesitations, he’s sure showing some strong faith in us right now.

Or maybe it’s doubt he’s having and he needs their advice, which is why he’ll tell them about me.

“I’d like you to meet them,” he says, his expression solemn.

“Oh,” I exclaim, my eyebrows shooting farther up my forehead.

“You don’t want to?” he asks, unsure of my reaction.

I give a tiny shake of my head, smiling. “No. I mean… yes. I’d love to meet them if you want me to.”

Malik responds by placing another kiss on me, this one deep and claiming. Something stirs deep within me, and I wonder if it’s too soon to have sex again.

This is answered when Malik pulls away with a sigh. “As much as I’d love to get lost inside you again, we probably should be getting down to work, huh?”

I blink, somewhat in surprise. I’d let the outside world just simply melt away, and I had completely forgotten about work. I’m sure Kynan is wondering where in the hell I am.

Grudgingly, I admit, “Yeah… we better get going.”

“Can I come over tonight?” he asks.

“Absolutely,” I say, beaming back.

CHAPTER 19

Malik

I’ve never been a heavy sleeper, and I actually date that back to my days in the Marine Corps where it was a trained skill. Much of my Special Forces training taught me how to fall asleep in the most inhospitable of environments while easily coming awake at the slightest disturbance.

It’s no wonder then that the minute Avery starts crying, I come instantly awake, as does Anna. I can feel her jerk in my arms, her head coming off the pillow where she listens for a minute more.

When Avery cries again, Anna pulls away from me.

“She okay?” I ask.

Anna reaches back, presses a hand on my chest, and whispers. “Just hungry. Go back to sleep.”

She slips away quickly and quietly through the dark without any light to aid her way from the pull-out couch we’re sleeping on into the one bedroom she’d dedicated to her daughter’s nursery.

I roll over on the thin mattress, coming to sit on the edge. The hinges and coils squeak with the movement, and I know my back will probably be sore tomorrow. I don’t know how Anna handles sleeping on this piece of shit, but I have to sincerely admire her desire to be independent. She had told me tonight over the dinner she had cooked for me—meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and corn—that her mom had wanted her to move in with her after Jimmy’s death.

Anna had until Avery’s birth, mainly because she was having some pregnancy-related issues due to the stress of it all. But within a month of Avery’s arrival, Anna got this apartment and made a go of it on her own. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t receive help from her mom, because she does, only that it makes her feel good about herself to be as independent as she can. It is her way of showing Jimmy, wherever his soul may be, that she’s okay.

I push up off the bed, wondering how badly the neighbors hated us after the amazing and quite loud sex we’d had on it after she’d put Avery down to sleep. I smile at the not-too-distant memory, because uncomfortable couch or not, sex with Anna is on an almost divine level for me.

Reaching out blindly, I manage to grab my briefs from inside my previously discarded jeans. I pull them up my legs for the sake of some modesty. Personally, I don’t care about staying naked, but in deference to Anna, I cover up. After we’d