Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
“ D amn, woman. Your shoulders are tight.”
Bean sighed into her mattress as Gavin pressed an especially tight spot near her neck. “It’s your fault.”
“And how is it my fault?”
“You promised me dinner but then mauled me the second we stepped into my house.”
“Don’t think I heard any complaints from you,” he muttered with a low chuckle.
“Oh, no complaints. Just stating a fact. My shoulders are tight from food depravation.” His hands moved down the sides of her spine, and she bit back a groan.
“Not quite sure that’s how it works, baby, but okay.”
She heard the smile in his voice and it warmed her heart.
For the next twenty minutes, Gavin worked her back and legs until she was a limp noodle. Her legs were especially tight from hiking. Not that she’d done anything strenuous, but she’d gone from basically zero activity to three days in a row of hiking. It was embarrassing she was this out of shape, but it was what it was .
“You still with me, B?” he asked as his thumbs dug into her lower back.
“Uh-huh,” she groaned, blinking her eyes open. Then her stomach chose that exact moment to let out a loud grumble.
He snickered. “Well, lucky for you, I put the food I brought over into the fridge before you mauled me for round two.” His hands fell away, and she rolled onto her back. His gaze heated as he took in her naked breasts.
“Don’t think I heard any complaints from you,” she teased, throwing his earlier words back at him.
“Damn straight you didn’t.” He leaned down, sucked her right nipple into his mouth, and released it with an audible pop. Then he did the same to her left before he straightened and hauled her up with him. “Dinner. Actual food this time. I gotta keep your energy up.”
Dinner consisted of giant chicken Caesar salads with extra croutons.
“Things are not looking good for Constance,” she said while they ate. “How do you think Edward’s going to react about his sister?—”
“Nope.” Gavin pointed his fork at her. “No work talk.”
She rolled her eyes. “To be fair, it’s more than just work talk. It’s a there’s-a-high-probability-that-Constance-Whitcomb-is-somehow-involved-with-you-getting-shot talk. Kind of important, if you ask me.”
A soft smile graced his lips. “I want to know what’s going on as much as you do, but right now, it’s me and you. It’s time to shut off everything else.”
She pushed her empty plate away from her. Now that she could get behind. Or rather, have him get behind her. “What exactly do you have in mind?” she asked with a devious grin.
He chuckled. “While I like what’s going on in that dirty mind of yours, I was thinking of something else.”
Her eyebrows hit her hairline. “Oh, really? ”
“Oh, we’ll get to what you were thinking later, but first, what do you say you show me one of the games you play?”
She didn’t think her eyebrows could get any higher, but she was pretty sure they were on the top of her head. Had she heard him right? “You want to game with me?”
“Sure. I don’t know if I’ll be any good at it. I’ve never really been a computer game player.”
She snickered. “Yeah, the fact you call it ‘computer game player’ says a lot.”
“Be nice.” He pointed a finger at her and winked. “I introduced you to hiking, and you like it.”
She wrinkled her nose and then huffed out a sigh. “I do. It’s relaxing.”
His grin could only be described as victorious. “Well, maybe I’ll like computer game playing.”
“Okay. But we’ll ease you into it. You’ve heard of Fortnight , right?”
“I’ve heard of it, but that’s it.” His embarrassed grin was adorable.
“Well, we’ll play Battle Royale . It’s pretty straightforward. You pick a character and shoot shit until you’re—hopefully—the last one standing. I figure that may be right up your alley. If the middle school crowd can figure it out, I’m betting you can too.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” he muttered as he followed her to her workstation.
She wheeled over a second chair and quickly set him up at her computer. Sitting beside him, she powered up her extra laptop. Excitement had her fingers tingling. Knowing Gavin, he’d be a natural—the guy was annoyingly good at everything he tried. But if he actually liked it, holy crap, she couldn’t help but think of how much fun they could have.
As the opening notes to the game rang out from her speakers, she quickly showed him how to maneuver in the game. Of course, it was no problem for him, and she chuckled at the determination on his face. You’d think he was about to perform a tracheotomy.
“We’ll work as a duo,” she said with a grin. “That way, you’ll at least have a shot of not getting killed in the first twenty seconds.”
He gave her a cocky grin, leaned in, and kissed her. “Let’s do this, baby.”