He pulled the covers up to his waist, put his forearm in the pillow and tipped his eyes up to me.

“I’m worried about Malachi,” I announced and his face went soft.

“Knew this was comin’,” he muttered.

He would since I texted him four times that day to give him status reports on the bags that Malachi had not been by to pick up. Not yesterday’s stash. Not today’s.

I twisted my torso to him, letting go of my legs, positioning them in an “S” beside me and leaned into him.

“Two days, Chace, and he hasn’t come to get his stash. This time, I wasn’t hanging out. This time, we were in your truck on the street,” I reminded him.

“Maybe he made us in the truck,” he suggested.

“Or maybe he saw me standing there Monday and he freaked out and he’s not coming back. When I left this evening, all the bags were still there.”

“It’s gonna be okay, Faye,” he assured me quietly.

I shook my head. “Something’s wrong.”

“Maybe but it’s going to be okay.”

I stared at him.

His arm came out, hooked me around the waist and pulled me down and in the bed so we were facing each other.

“I made a call,” he informed me.

I got up on my forearm so we were face to face.

“What call?”

He studied me before he sighed and said, “Deck.”

I felt my brows go up. “Deck?”

“Deck’s between jobs right now so Deck’s got time on his hands. When Malachi didn’t show this mornin’, I gave Deck a call. He’s gonna find him.”

“Oh God,” I breathed.

Chace’s arm got tight around my waist. “Baby, it’ll be okay.”

“Deck sounds kinda crazy,” I whispered.

“He is. He’s also not stupid. He knows this kid’s been abused, dumpster diving and scared outta his mind. He’ll go soft.”

“But –”

His arm got tighter, shifting and tugging me so I had no choice but to come off my forearm since I was back to the bed, Chace looming over me.

“He’ll go soft,” he whispered.

“You’re sure?” I whispered back.

“Yeah.”

I took in a breath, let it out and nodded.

“In the meantime, we keep doin’ what we’re doin’,” Chace went on.

I nodded again.

“Now, you gonna read or sleep?”

This meant, I assumed, Chace was tired. Then again, it was past his bedtime.

“Read,” I told him quietly and he grinned at me.

Then he bent his head and kissed me, one of his sweet, soft ones, open mouth, lazy stroke of the tongue. My toes curled, both my arms went around him and the fingers of both hands went into his hair.

When he ended the kiss, his lips didn’t leave mine and he murmured there, “Read.”

“Okay,” I murmured back.

He lifted up, kissed my nose and moved a hint away.

I rolled to my side of the bed and grabbed my Nook.

Chace’s light went off.

I turned on my Nook and read. An hour later, I turned it off, set it on my nightstand and turned out my light.

I barely settled into bed before I was hauled into and mostly under Chace with his arm at my waist.

“Done?” he mumbled sleepily.

“Yeah.”

“’Night, baby.”

“’Night, Chace.”

His arm gave me a squeeze.

I snuggled into him.

His weight settled into me.

I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

* * *

Ten oh seven at night, three days later

“Chace.”

“Fuck, baby.”

“Chace!”

“Give me that mouth.”

I gave him my mouth. Half a second later I moaned my orgasm into his.

When I was done doing that, his hand cupping my head shoved my face in his neck and he kept powering up.

I was back to his headboard, my legs around him holding tight, my arms around his shoulders doing the same. He was on his knees, his hand was at my behind holding me up and his other hand was in my hair, his arm holding me close.

And he was powering deep, his hips driving up, slamming into me.

Seriously, sex… was… awesome.

One of my arms left his shoulders so my hand could drift down his back to his behind and clench in so I could feel the muscles there working.

Sublime.

“Jesus, fuck,” he growled into the skin of my neck through grunts.

I was learning to recognize the signs. He was getting close.

I held on tighter.

“Jesus, fuck, so fuckin’ tight, tight and sweet,” he was groaning now through his grunts.

I loved that. So much, I ran my tongue up his neck.

He powered up harder, hips bucking, hand clenching my booty, other hand fisting in my hair and I heard as well as felt his deep, guttural groan against my skin.

Yeah. Seriously.

Sex… was… awesome.

His breathing settled and his hand let my hair go to slide down and curl around the back of my neck.

I held on tight and didn’t move a muscle.

“Town’s pretty, cute, sweet librarian wears sexy as all fuck underwear, sexier nighties and gets off on getting banged, back against the headboard.”

I blinked into his skin.

“What?”

Chace didn’t repeat himself.

Instead, he asked, “How long after I planted you against the headboard did it take you to come, baby? A second?”

I pulled my head back to stare at him.

He pulled his back to grin at me.

“Are you teasing me?” I asked, uncertain how I felt about this.

“Yeah,” he answered. “Though, I will point out, I’m teasin’ you but it’s the God’s honest truth. Got you up there, you went wild.”

I felt my eyes narrow and I snapped, “Well, it was hot.”

“Yeah it was. Got hotter when you went wild for that whole second before you came.”

I kept snapping but the only thing I could get out was, “Chace!”

“It’s true.”

“It wasn’t a second.”

“A second and a half,” he amended, slightly.

“It wasn’t a second and a half!” My voice was rising.

“That’s not true. Totally a second and a half, no more.”

“I’m uncertain how I feel about you teasing me when I’m naked,” I shot back.

His smile turned wicked. “Naked, seriously fuckin’ wet with my cock still inside you, you mean.”

I felt my cheeks heat, I looked over his shoulder and muttered, “Whatever.”

“Jesus, wettest I’ve ever had along with the tightest,” he went on and my eyes cut back to him.

“Chace!”

He pressed me into the headboard, his face got close, his smile died and his eyes went intense. “What you got to give, Faye, here,” his hips pressed into mine, “clean, pure, all fuckin’ mine and that’s beautiful right there. But the rest, how wet you get, how tight you are, you goin’ wild for me like you did just now, baby. Fuck. You gotta know, coupled with the other, that’s beauty that’s off the charts.”

Hmm. I liked that.

A frak of a lot.

I bit my lip.

His eyes dropped to my mouth and his grin came back.

Then I was on my back in the bed with him on me, giving orders. “Gonna let you go. You’re gonna go clean up, come back and round two.”

My eyebrows shot up.

Round two?

We’d never gone a second round.

“Seriously?”

“Not on-duty tomorrow,” he reminded me.

“Well I am,” I reminded him. “I have to work.”

His grin stayed fixed and he reminded me right back, “Yeah, but your day starts at nine thirty. You can sleep in.”

This was true.

I held his eyes.

Then I whispered, “Round two?”

His eyes got intense and he whispered back, “Oh yeah.”

Oh.

Yeah.

“Okay,” I breathed, he bent his head to touch his mouth to mine then rolled off.

I skedaddled off the bed and to the bathroom to prepare for round two.

And yeah.

Seriously.

Sex was awesome.

* * *

Twelve fifteen that night

I laid in bed snuggled into Chace’s side, his arm under and around me, hand under my nightie drifting a short path up my spine and down to the top of my undies, my arm around his gut, cheek to his shoulder, top leg tangled with both of his.

We’d had almost a week of us being all the us we could be.

He worked, I worked. He ran or swam or did weight lifting, I went to the gym. We had dinner together. We walked to Bubba’s from my place after dinner once to have drinks. He watched sports, I read.

He did not, however, watch any of my shows and stood firm on this even when I semi-begged him to give Supernatural a go telling him Dean Winchester was most assuredly his type of guy. Although I gave up, I decided next week I’d try again. Dean and Sam could lapse into heartfelt, man conversations and there were demons and ghosts and a variety of apocalyptic storylines. But still, I figured Chace would get into it mostly because they drove a kickass Impala. And all men (or most men and the men who were all man were most of them) liked cars.

Anyway, I had last week’s episode taped. Since I was spending all my time with Chace, if he didn’t watch it with me, when was I going to get my dose of Dean and Sam?

The sex was regular (after the ban, morning and night!) and got better and better (deliriously so). As Chace guided it, I became more confident and we got to know each other better, in bed and out.

It had been another wonderful week.

Brilliant. Fabulous. Amazing.

The only pall was Malachi.

He hadn’t shown all week and daily I asked for reports from Chace about what Deck was uncovering.

Deck, so far, had found nothing.