Early mornings

Roth’s body jerked, jolting her out of a sound sleep. He was flat on his back while she lay against his side with an arm draped over his waist and leg tossed over his massive thighs.  

“Roth?” she rasped. 

“Go back to sleep,” he rumbled. 

“Bad dream?”

He didn’t answer, but began to slip away from her. 

“Your alarm didn’t go off yet,” she protested. 

When he started dragging her across the bed, she gave up and released him. She squinted as he paused beside the nightstand. His cell phone briefly illuminated his face before he set it down and walked into the bathroom, closing the door so the light wouldn’t disturb her. Seconds later, she heard the shower and knew the cold water  would send his system into overdrive. She peered at the clock on the nightstand. Two-thirty in the morning. He woke up an hour before his alarm and it wasn’t the first time. 

***

She roused when her hair was smoothed back from her face. She tried to open her eyes, but they felt like they were glued shut. It was too bloody early. 

She heard the rustling of clothes and then a quiet, “Grayson.” Pause. “What happened?” 

She heard a buzzing noise as Grayson spoke. This got a grunt from Roth. She couldn’t tell whether that meant what Gray was saying was a good or bad thing. 

“I’ll deal with it once I’m at the office.” A beat of silence and then, “No, I’m not at the office. Do you know what time it is here?” 

She heard the faint sound of a man shouting something and then hysterical laughter. 

“Go fuck yourself.”   

That was so out of character that her eyes opened in time to see Roth pocketing the phone in his sweats. 

“Is everything okay?” she asked, struggling to sit up.  

“Yes. Sorry I woke you. Go back to sleep.”

“But why—“

He clasped her face in his hands and kissed her forehead. “Sleep, princess. You don’t need to be up now.”

“You are.”

“I’m not a princess.”

“Neither am I,” she retorted and he chuckled. 

“You’re my princess who needs her beauty sleep.”

When he lay her down, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I can’t convince you to get more sleep?”

As if he couldn’t help himself, his hand cupped her breast, thumb flicking over her nipple. “If I stay, neither of us will be sleeping.”

“I don’t mind.” She tried to sound seductive, but ruined it with a yawn. 

His hand fell away. “Sleep. I’ll see you later.”

She was too tired to hang onto him. “I worry about you.” 

“Don’t. I’m fine.”

**This is a raw draft of Bitter Confessions. Please do not share or distribute.

This was the start of what was supposed to be a mundane chapter. I wanted to show their married life and routine at this time. BTW, he's in sweats because he's heading to the gym, which he does almost every day before work.