Page 19 of Dirty Mind
“I’m glad.” I rolled forward on my toes, kissing his cheek. “Good night, Dade. Sweet dreams.”
He kissed my hand. “I have a feeling they will be, thanks to you.”
Chapter 6
Dade
It was bright and early on Monday morning, and my housekeeper was due to arrive in a few hours, but I texted and told her to enjoy a paid day off.
Charli was sleeping just down the hall and I wanted to spend some time with my new… assistant. Bring her up to speed on the things I needed her help with and get her settled in the guest house. If it wouldn’t have seemed weird, I would have offered her one of the guest rooms. It was nice, having company. And Charli brought life to my house. The sound of her voice, her laughter… it felt right having her share my space. But I refused to read too much into that. I was just lonely, missing my crew and life on the road.
She tapped on my bedroom door and poked her head in, smiling when she spotted me. “Hey, hope you don’t mind?”
I grinned. “Uh, you’ve seen me naked. And I think we passed the awkward phase when we broke the bed.”
Dropping her head, she bit her lip. “God, I still can’t believe that happened. I guess I should see about replacing that today, huh? Or at least getting it fixed.”
“If you can find a replacement,” I said, rolling on my side and propping my head in my hand. “I’d be happy to pay for it. It’s the least I can do.”
Covering her face with her hands, she said, “Okay, I can’t have this conversation before I have my first cup of coffee. I just came in to ask if it was alright with you if I made us some breakfast. I wasn’t sure if your housekeeper was working today and I don’t wanna step on anyone’s toes.”
I held my phone up. “Just texted and told her to take the day off. Thought we might need some time alone to, uh, get some work done.”
She nodded. “Sounds good. So, breakfast…?”
“Just let me throw some sweats on and I’ll come down and help you.”
She gave me the cutest suggestive look, all raised eyebrows, and teeth trapped lip. “Huh, so you sleep in the buff all the time. I thought that was just with me.”
I laughed, falling back on the mattress when she slipped out of the room. I had a feeling she was bold and flirty by nature, but not in the way I was used to. Most women I knew were forward and left nothing to the imagination. Charli always left me wanting more.
My phone buzzed and I groaned when I saw Knox’s phone number. I connected the call and prepared for a tongue-lashing, knowing he’d only be calling for one reason. The fact that I’d dragged his sister-in-law into my mess.
“Hey Knox, what’re you doin’ calling me on your honeymoon. Don’t tell me Cece’s sick of you already.”
“Aren’t you funny?” He sighed. “I wouldn’t have to call you on my honeymoon if I wasn’t getting growly phone calls from my father-in-law about how one of my best friends is trying to defile his baby girl.”
“Ugh.” I shouldn’t have been surprised the old man was pissed. I could tell he had it in for me when it looked like he wanted to spit in my face rather than shake my hand at the wedding. “Are you serious? I’m sorry, man. I don’t wanna drag you and Cece into this shit. Especially not on your honeymoon.”
“It’s okay.” Knox chuckled. “I’m sure it’s just Chee goin’ all papa bear. Imagining things, right?”
I hated lying, especially to my friends. And I suspected Cece would be hearing about our one-night stand now that her mama knew, so I said, “Uh, so after the wedding we may have…” I winced, knowing there was no way to break it to him gently. “Slept together.”
“You what?” Knox roared. “You’re shittin’ me, dude.”
“Afraid not.” I made it sound like I regretted what happened with Charli and I didn’t. It hadn’t been a mistake. Hell, it might have been one of the smartest decisions I’d made in a long time. “But listen, we’re good. Charli’s here, in fact. We’re figuring this thing out, so you don’t have to worry. And you can pass that message on to her old man too. She’s a grown woman, she can take care of herself.”
Knox laughed. “You have met Chee, right? I’m not tellin’ him that. You tell him. Just be warned. The man’s always packin.”
“Great.” Like I didn’t have enough to worry about, now I had an old biker gunnin’ for me.
“Hold up, you said Charli’s there. Does that mean you two are—”
“Working together.” I sighed, knowing there was no way I could avoid telling him the whole story. “So, you probably know that pic of us kissing at your wedding went viral?”
“Yeah, and the paps were crawlin’ all over the folks place. Aidy told me.”
“Right, so obviously I couldn’t bring that shitstorm down on them. That didn’t seem right. When I found Charli she was hiding out at some dude’s house, ‘cause she couldn’t go home without being bombarded by those assholes. You know how they are. I couldn’t put her through that.”
