They made love all the time, and Ava loved it. He was an expert in making love. In fucking, in being together, but he never went too far. He was always careful with her. The sex was amazing, but she knew deep down he was holding himself back.
Again, just another reason to be a little more annoyed.
Smokey treated her like finechina. She wasn’t going to break so easily if he just had a little fun with her.
Ava rolled out of bed without waking him and made her way down toward Umberto’s room. Her son was fast asleep.He was a good kid. She loved him so much, but she checked the time and saw it was a little after five. She wasn’t going to break her son’s routine or patterns.
Ava walked down toward her kitchenand grabbed the coffee pot, getting it ready with the beans and then putting it to work.
It wouldn’t be long before Smokey woke up. Years of waking up early had gottenher into a routine where she was alert by five most mornings, if not sooner. Only when she was sick did she sleep in late.
With the coffee pot on, Ava checked her fridge. She needed to head to the grocery store soon. She grabbed a pen and started to make her shopping list, which also included a few items that would get her ready for Christmas.
She loved Christmas.
Her previous partner had hated it, and they had often fought over it. He’d always told her that Christmas was an excuse for her to get even fatter than before. That all she did was eat, and he would describe her as a cow in a field of grass.
Shoving those memories to the back of her mind,she reminded herself that he was an asshole, which was why she’d divorced him. Once she had left him, she had promised herself that her Christmases would be filled with joy and friendship. They had never invited friends around because he’d told her how embarrassed he was for anyone to see her.
“Stop it, Ava. Stop it.” She didn’t need to remember that kind of crap. It was all negative and all in the past.
Her Christmas with Smokey was going to be a lot better. Fun. Enjoyable.
Writing out her list, she felt a little better. She madea note to call Abriana and then Raven to see what they had planned for Christmas.
The coffee pot was finished. She grabbed it, poured herself a nice large mug, and then sat down at the counter. She was just blowing over the surface of her drink when Smokey arrived.
“Morning, beautiful.” He kissed her head. “Don’t get up. I’ll grabmy coffee.”
He was half asleep and looked so cute. She had to wonder if the guys at the clubhouse had seen him dressed in his pajamas. Smokey hated the cold, and it had been socute to watch him picking out a pair of fleece pajamas.
No one would guess ofthe heavily inked biker beneath.
“Morning,” Ava said.
“I don’t know how you do it.” He poured himself a large mug. “I feel it needs to be injected into my eyeballs.”
Ava chuckled. “You don’t have to get up so early.”
“You’re up.”
“So, I’m used to getting up.”
“I don’t think you should go into the bakery today.”
She rolled her eyes. “Why not?”
“Another layer of snow. I’ll driveyou.”
“Smokey, you do realize that I’m capable of driving myself?”
“Yeah, I know it, but you don’t have to.” He poured himself another mug, and she was shocked that he’d drunk one mug already. “But you don’t have to. I’ll take Umberto today. The guys have all said the shop is busy.”
“The Christmas selection has been a success. We’ve even been asked if we would do a Christmas selection hamper style, and I’ve got several orders.”
“Will you do it?”
“It sounds like fun, and I’ve already got the details, so I don’t see why not. Harlow is happy to help.”