Inked Obsession (Montgomery Ink Fort Collins #2) - Carrie Ann Ryan Page 0,9

have enough to worry about. Fuck, Annabelle’s pregnant. I don’t want to hurt the baby by stressing her out.”

Lee pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine, I’ll keep your secret. Like I always do. Jesus Christ, you need to talk to your family about it.”

“And I just need you to go. I need to get some sleep.”

Not that I would actually get much sleep because of the nightmares, but I let that go.

He scowled at me and then leaned forward, giving me a hard hug. I tapped his shoulder, hugging him back, and he leaned away.

“See? Not awkward with you all half-naked and sweaty.”

I barked out a laugh. “Well, thanks for that image. Not that you aren’t sweet, but I don’t see you that way.”

“I am a catch,” Lee said. I knew he was trying to lower the tension. “All are welcome and in need of exactly what I can give them.”

I rolled my eyes. “Get out of here. Maybe go find yourself a woman.”

“That would require actually talking to someone, and all I want to do is go to sleep.”

“Same here. So, why don’t you let me do that?”

“Fine, but don’t fuck things up, okay? Your family loves you. Brenna loves you. I love you, but not that way. Okay, I’m out. Honestly, you can talk to anyone. No one’s going to judge you.”

That was the problem; they wouldn’t. I would judge myself. I walked Lee out and then locked the door, double and triple-checked the lock like every night these days, and went to bed.

The nightmares came as hard as they usually did, shocking me awake. I heard the screams, the shouts, that final piercing pop that had nothing to do with someone’s voice. I shook my head and glared down at my sweat-covered body.

“Well, fuck,” I whispered. I had the day off, it was Sunday, after all, but I still needed to work on a few things. I wanted to work out, do some stuff around the house and get some paperwork done.

I was a construction project manager, the lead of Montgomery Builders. All of my siblings and I worked together, Annabelle was the architect, Benjamin our landscape architect, Paige our office manager, and Archer our lead plumber. We had a rotating set of electricians and others to help us since our company was getting larger by the day, but we did well for ourselves. I was in charge most days, so I had a lot of fucking paperwork to do. And I didn’t want to bother Clay, my assistant project manager, on the weekend. He was raising three kids on his own, which meant he had more than enough on his plate. I’d work out, get some paperwork done, and maybe work on my yard—anything to keep my hands busy.

I quickly showered, rinsing off the sweat and doing my best not to think about anything too serious. I thought briefly about jerking off, just to do something, but I wasn’t in the mood. It was probably a good thing I hadn’t brought Sally home last night, considering the only person I thought about doing anything with was the one person I shouldn’t.

Except there was no probably about it. The sexy, dark-haired woman who haunted my dreams didn’t need to haunt my waking hours. I snorted, turned off the shower, and dried off. I wrapped a towel around my waist and then went to find something to wear.

I would exercise, but it wouldn’t be anything big. Maybe I’d eat breakfast first. Hell. I had no idea what I wanted to do. I slid on another pair of gray sweatpants, not bothering with underwear since I would just change in a minute anyway and headed towards the kitchen for coffee. The doorbell rang, and I cursed. It’d better not be fucking Lee again. I left the coffee brewing and headed to the entryway. I looked through the peephole and smiled.

I opened the door and grinned. “Hey, there,” I said as Brenna walked in. She had a box in her hand from our favorite donut place and a smile on her face.

Her eyes caught mine, and they widened. “Oh. So… Are you trying to seduce the poor delivery people who show up at your house?”

“What?” I asked, then looked down at my naked torso. “Shit, I can go put on a shirt.”

She blushed and then waved her hand. “Don’t on my account. I brought breakfast.”

“Did we plan on meeting this morning?” I asked, rubbing my face. I should have