his back, holding his phone above his face as he scrolled through it. “Bad news?”
“No, just the usual,” he grumbled. “An update on who my enforcement detail is tomorrow.” He sighed and tossed his phone carelessly aside onto the mattress. “Getting pretty sick of being followed around like this, I gotta say.”
I blew a raspberry onto his shoulder. “Sucks being president, doesn’t it?”
“Feel like I’m being babysat,” Mal grumbled.
I laughed. He wasn’t used to the enforcement detail the way I was—the Elkin Lake chapter had dealt with a lot more violence, both historically and recently, and I was pretty used to being followed around by enforcers. Even though Mal lived in the motel, he was used to being able to get a few hours alone by taking his bike somewhere. And that simply hadn’t been safe over the past few weeks. He was starting to feel a little antsy—and trapped.
“You’re cute when you’re whiny,” I said, circling my hand on his ribs.
“What?” Mal squawked. “You can’t call a fifty-four-year-old man cute.”
“Sure, I can,” I teased. “When it’s true. Look at you pouting about being babysat.”
“I’ll show you cute,” Mal grumbled, and before I could react, he wrestled out from under my arm and bodily shoved me off the bed.
Now it was my turn to squawk, flailing as I slid off the mattress, taking half the comforter with me. “Hey!” I said through my laughter, flat on my ass between the mattress and the wall. “Surprise attack! Not fair!”
“Well-deserved,” Mal said as he climbed out of bed himself. Of course, he didn’t come over to check and help me up, he just cackled and descended the stairs—for coffee, I assumed, as that was always his top priority in the morning. I should’ve known better than to tease a pre-coffee Mal.
I climbed to my feet, still shaking my head and chuckling to myself, even as my butt ached where I’d landed on it. Things were so good with Mal. Moments like this were especially good. The simple domesticity of it, and the playfulness, were quickly becoming the parts of my day I looked forward to most.
Of course, part of me still itched a little about the boundaries we’d set. We claimed to just be friends with benefits, but in moments like this, when I woke up with Mal in my arms, it didn’t feel like friendship. It felt like so much more. I wasn’t ready to delve into that too deeply, though. And I didn’t want to scare Mal away by asking what exactly he thought was going on.
He’d made it clear he wasn’t keen on commitment, and I’d agreed—I wasn’t ready. Just because moments like this felt intimate in a way that I was beginning to crave didn’t mean either of us wanted to define this as something more. This was simply what happened when you added sex to thirty years of friendship.
Sometimes it felt like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. But I chalked that up to my own fears, and my own grief—it wasn’t rooted in reality. If Mal was happy taking things one day at a time, I was too. That was better for us both, and it was working. No use trying to fix what wasn’t broken.
I tugged on my boxers, discarded carelessly last night, and then descended the stairs to the intoxicating smell of fresh-brewed coffee—and the more intoxicating sight of Mal standing at the coffeemaker, naked, with a mug in his hand and a blissed-out expression on his face.
I wolf-whistled, low, and Mal didn’t open his eyes. “Don’t say a word,” he said.
“But you look so—”
“Don’t,” Mal interrupted warningly, but he couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across his face.
“Don’t what?” I teased. I stepped close and slid my hand across his lower back, barely brushing my fingers over the swell of his ass. “Talk about how cute your ass is?”
“That’s exactly what,” Mal said. “You better watch it before I don’t let you touch this ass ever again.”
“Hm, don’t think you’d be able to resist me,” I said, then dropped a kiss on his neck. I reached overhead and pulled a mug from the cabinet then poured myself a cup of coffee, too.
Mal took a sip and peered at me over the top of his mug. “Yeah? Want to test that theory?”
“You should be nice to me,” I teased. “I’m starting to feel like I shouldn’t give you your surprise at all.”
Mal raised his eyebrows. He leaned his hip against the