Chapter NINETEEN-PENELOPE

Sleep had eluded me for months after the divorce. But I never really slept well.

At least, not since I was a child with an innocent’s experience of the world. No worries or cares to keep me awake.

And yet, for the first time in ages, I blinked myself awake, feeling more rested than I had in years. There was something different.

And no, it wasn’t the large man spread out next to me with acres of tanned, heavily muscled skin on display.

Whoa.

Then again, maybe it was him.

Mine. Bite. Claim.

“What?” I squeaked.

“Hmm, Sugar?” Max sat up and asked in a voice that was entirely too sexy for the freak out I was having.

Did good sex make you hallucinate?

“Um, what, that is, when did we move in here?” I asked, looking around at his bedroom.

All the furniture looked antique, like maybe it came with the place. It had been refinished and glowed with what smelled like a week old coating of lemon furniture oil.

Wait. How the hell did I know that?