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care—she was still here with him, her body all over his.
    Her scent permeated the air, and her hair was fanned out across him. Her lips were smooshed up against his chest and somehow, sometime in the night, his shirt had disappeared.
    Good Lord—had he done that? And why couldn’t he remember it?
    If he’d done that , what else had he done?
    Did he touch her and make advances on her?
    He exhaled and blinked.
    What was he going to do? Keeping away from her was going to be damn near impossible after sleeping next to her last night. He wanted more— had to have more of her.
    He glanced at the clock and fought off a groan. Four-thirty—the usual time he woke up and headed to the gym before work.
    Well, today he’d skip it.
    Work, too.
    And for as long as she was going to stay, he’d start working out in the small fitness center located at the other end of the office building, during his lunch hour, rather than go to the big fancy one he paid a large monthly fee for. He wasn’t going to waste a minute being without her, including early morning hours.
    He blinked and stared at the clock.
    Hopefully it wouldn’t wake her when he called the office in a few moments.
    He had already debated calling in last night to tell them he wouldn’t be in today, but he wasn’t sure if she’d stay or not.
    Now, with her in his bed? There was absolutely no way he was going in.
    She needed him.
    His fingers walked down her spine, ghosted over the expanse of exposed skin on her lower back, and then tickled at her Venus dimples. She had an amazing ass—so curvy and tempting.
    She was what every woman should be—feminine, soft and round in all the best ways. He didn’t feel like she would break if he unleashed on her.
    Tia was tiny, and he always worried he’d inadvertently hurt her. He was always cautious with his touch when they’d played together.
    His throat constricted as he thought about how Jeanie would react if she knew all the shit he was into and all the dirty things he wanted to do to her beautiful body.
    Her pale skin would probably pink easily under his hands.
    His mind wandered into dangerous places, and his hands seemed to follow. They were under her shirt, stroking across her shoulder blades, drifting over her ribs toward the edge of her tits.
    She sighed and trembled under his touch, and his hands automatically pulled back out.
    He stuck to over-the-shirt for the next few minutes, and then she stirred awake.
    “God, I slept like the dead,” she said, then suddenly cupped her mouth. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
    She muffled her voice as she cursed herself for being so insensitive to her dead husband’s memory.
    “When you’re around me, I don’t want you to worry about or censor anything you say, okay?” He tilted his head down with his chin angled so he could see her reaction.
    “’Kay,” she agreed.
    “Good. I’m gonna go make you breakfast. Go shower if you like, and then we’ll plan the day.”
    No one moved.
    He kept touching her, and she stretched a little.
    He wanted to bark out orders to get her to move since he was clearly incapable of doing anything other than be as close to her as possible.
    “Why are you being so nice to me, Mark?”
    “Why? Are you sick of me already?”
    “No.” She chuckled and patted his arm. “I just don’t like being a burden.”
    “Don’t you ever think you’re a burden to me. I want you here. It can get lonely in this place, so it’s nice to have you here. I want you to stay.” Jesus Christ, he sounded like a desperate woman begging—but, fuck , she really needed to quit worrying about this.
    And if this was what it took to get her to stick around, then he’d do it.
    “Really?”
    “Yeah.” He kissed the top of her head. Shit. He needed to stop doing that when she was awake.
    “You’ll tell me if I start to annoy you?”
    “Never gonna happen,” he said, his voice low and husky.
    “Never gonna tell me, or never gonna get annoyed?”
    “Never