He felt her hot, sweaty skin slide against his as she leaned forward, panting into his neck. He felt a drop of sweat on the back of her neck and used his middle finger to trail it as far down her back as he could before it dried out. He swept his fingertips up and down her skin as lightly as he could, smiling at the way her flesh twitched under his touch. He closed his eyes and kept up the motion of his hands as he waited for himself to completely drain and soften inside her.
Later, when she was cleaned up and snuggled up against him again, naked this time, he kissed her forehead and pulled her in close.
"You were really, really good tonight," he murmured sleepily.
Her low giggle carried through the darkness. "Uh, thanks," she said. "I guess you could say that you woke the beast in me."
He popped open his eyes in confusion and thought about what she was saying, then had to laugh. "That's not what I meant. Just now, yes, you were really, really good. But I was talking about your dance."
"Oh," Drew replied and hugged his chest briefly. "Thank you. I'm glad that you got to see it."
"Me too," he said. "And I'm sorry about this week, for making you think I was just blowing you off. That was not the case at all. I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Drew said, and he could hear her voice getting thick with sleep. "I'm sure you were doing something really important. And, hey, you never did tell me what you were doing…"
"Tell you tomorrow," he murmured back.
"Better…not forget…I won't…"
Her voice trailed off as repose finally claimed her. She could fall asleep faster than anyone he'd ever met. As her words echoed in his mind, he allowed himself a little grin before shutting his eyes and relaxing into her embrace.
Soon enough, he thought tiredly, feeling all of his muscles relax. Find out soon enough.
Chapter Thirty-Six
The next morning, the smell of coffee woke Heath up from a deep sleep. He discovered the space that had been previously occupied by Drew was empty now. He glanced over at the clock and groaned, seeing that it wasn't quite six-thirty yet. He knew she wasn't kidding about heading back to the vet hospital to get Rocky first thing in the morning.
He perked up when she reentered the room, holding a steaming mug and wearing the tank top again. He tilted his head, admiring the way it just barely covered her bottom but left all of her long, leanly muscled legs on display. He accepted the mug from her followed by a quick kiss.
"Drink up," she commanded. "I want my cat. Ora."
"Yes, ma'am," he grumbled, sipping the hot liquid before hauling himself out of bed. They each washed up and dressed quickly, and Drew practically dragged Heath out of the apartment downstairs. Once they were seated in his car, he glanced at her, frowning at the little gash on her forehead that she'd covered up with a small butterfly bandage.
"How's the head?" he asked, fresh anger filling him at the thought of Carter attempting to put his hands—and worse—on Drew.
"My head is actually fine," she said with a shrug, then rubbed her cheeks ruefully. "The insides of my mouth, from where he grabbed my face, hurt like a bitch, though. Nothing I can do about that." She saw the anger on his face and reached over to squeeze his thigh. "Don't worry. All's well that ends well. He got and will get what he deserves." She sipped from her own mug of coffee. "Hey, he was going on about you stealing his business out from underneath him..?" Her voice raised in question. "What does that mean?"
"Oh," Heath said, feeling a new realization hit him. Things had moved so fast yesterday and he hadn't spoken to her all week to tell her about the new developments in his life. "Long story short, turns out Carter bribed the judges at Smackdown to throw the fight to the other guy. I was fine just leaving it alone. I mean I really didn't care that much in the first place, but Connor went on a warpath to right that wrong, and eventually the creator of Smackdown decided that I was the winner." He shrugged, trying to ignore the giant grin spreading on Drew's face. "So then Carter got blacklisted as a result, and I sort of got him to sign over ownership of the gym to me. Well, my lawyer did."
"How did you do that?" Drew asked, mystified.
Heath smirked at her. "I made him an offer he couldn't refuse," he said in his best hushed Don Corleone impression.
Drew groaned and clapped a hand to her face, laughing. She peeked through her fingers at him. "Did you assure him that either his brains or signature would be on the contract?"
Heath laughed out loud at that. "I wish I could say 'something like that', but no. Nothin' like that. Carter just knows he lost, fair and square. If you're goin' down regardless of what's happening…you can only fight gravity for so long." He shrugged negligently. "He just gave up before he got ahead of himself. Smart man."