Joker (Hell's Ankhor #8) - Aiden Bates Page 0,47

had fallen down to his waist at some point in the night, and the tan skin of his back almost glowed in the morning light. He was so gorgeous in sleep, his expressive face smoothed out and young-looking.

I could hardly believe he was here. I could hardly believe how good the sex was last night. Better than I’d dared to imagine. It was like our bodies just fit together. And it was so electric, addictive, like our attraction had been building up between us and had finally become too big to contain. Explosive.

And this time, he’d agreed to stay the night. He’d agreed to go on a date. I still didn’t want to get my hopes up—there was always a chance he’d panic and bolt—but it was nice. Nice to know he wanted me the same way I wanted him, at least a little bit.

I reached out and gently raked my fingers through his hair, then trailed them down the soft skin of his nape and the divot of his spine.

Joker hummed. He inhaled a big breath and the exhaled it out slowly as he blinked awake.

His eyebrows knit together briefly as he cut his eyes around the room, but then they landed on me, and he relaxed a little. Warmth bloomed in my chest at his reaction. I kept trailing my hand up and down his back.

“Hm,” Joker said in a low, rumbling voice. “That’s gonna put me back to sleep.”

“That’s fine with me,” I said. “I’ve got nothing on my schedule today.”

I scooted a little closer and leaned down to drop a kiss at the top of his spine. Once I’d kissed his soft skin, I didn’t want to stop. I kissed his shoulders, his ribs, his waist, moving down to mouth at the dimples at his lower back.

Joker hummed again, low in his chest, hips shifting against the mattress as I kissed him. Then I made my way back up, kissing up his back to his nape again. Joker suddenly rolled onto his side, dislodging me, and wrapped his arms around me to tug me close so that we were lying facing each other. Joker ran one hand down my side, settling at the dip of my waist, and then kissed me slow and deep.

“Morning,” he murmured into the kiss.

“Hi,” I said, returning the kiss. “Not going back to sleep, then?”

Joker kept me close, kept kissing me—easy, gentle kisses on my lips, cheeks, the curve of my jaw. There wasn’t any urgency in it, and I basked in the attention.

“You’re not working today?” he asked.

“No,” I said. “We’re done with the gym extension, and we’re starting on the demo for the living room tomorrow. But today, no plans.”

This was nice—really nice, just lying in bed with Joker chatting about my day, with his hand still possessively set at my waist.

“Me neither,” Joker said. “Somehow managed to get a day without any bar shifts or Ankhor Works shifts. It’s a miracle.”

“Miracle indeed,” I said. “We should go on that date today, then. If a day off is so rare.”

Joker paused. He pulled away slightly, and indecision flitted across his face: he wrinkled his nose slightly and furrowed his brow. But then, his eyes met mine, and same as had happened when he’d woken up, something in his expression softened.

“Sure,” he said. “Yeah, we could do that.”

“Yeah?” I asked, biting back the grin threatening to spread across my face.

“Yeah,” Joker said seriously, then tugged me forward again for another kiss. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

What started as a good morning kiss quickly became a little deeper. Joker sighed against my lips, opening his mouth against mine. I slipped my tongue into his mouth and he shivered. Even after a night of sex and sleep, he still smelled good—even better than usual, honestly, with that sexy, woodsy cologne mixed with sweat and sex.

Breakfast could wait. I was already addicted to the feeling of Joker’s muscled body against mine, a little softer and more pliant than usual, still shaking off the vestiges of sleep. I kept kissing him, trailing my mouth over his jaw, a little rough with stubble, his neck, his shoulder.

Joker groaned appreciatively and set one hand firmly at my hip, then slid it over to the curve of my ass. He hitched us a little closer, then slotted our legs together. I was wearing a pair of boxers, and Joker had tugged on a pair of my old sweatpants to sleep in. But even with the fabric between us,