Chapter 17
seventeen
Lachlan
W e just finished showering and having sex again thanks to Ainsley very seductively washing herself.
I couldn’t resist the temptation.
She grabs one of my T-shirts for her sleepwear and I’m in boxer briefs.
There’s really no reason to get dressed fully because I’m pretty sure I’m going to wake her up with my head between her legs in an hour or two.
We climb into my bed, and I pull her to my chest. I’m not sure what to say, so I opt for nothing.
This has been the most incredible sex I’ve ever had.
She lets out a long sigh, running her finger in a circle along my chest. I take her hand in mine, and she lifts her head. “Hi.”
I grin. “Hi.”
“We had sex—twice.”
“We sure did.”
Ainsley bites her lower lip. “Did you ... enjoy it?”
Is she unglued? “Do you think I didn’t?”
“I don’t know. It seemed like you did.”
“I enjoyed every damn second—twice. ”
She smiles at that. “I did too. I didn’t know it could be so ... intense.”
The way she says it makes me wonder something about her joke before.
“Just how many times have you had sex before this?”
Ainsley clears her throat and looks away. “Once.”
So she wasn’t a virgin, but she sure as hell isn’t exactly experienced. How every man in the world isn’t banging down her door to have a chance to even know her is beyond me. She’s the whole package, and while I thought that prior to having sex with her, now there’s one more reason to hate that we can never be together—she’s amazing in bed.
That said, I’m not sure how I feel about the fact that I’m only her second time.
“How?” I ask her, keeping my voice careful.
She rolls over, staring up at the ceiling. “First, I wasn’t stupid enough to sleep with anyone in high school. The Admiral would’ve killed them, and I would’ve been locked in a nunnery or something. When I got to college, I kind of felt like I’d held out, and I wasn’t in a rush to sleep with any of those guys. Sophomore year went without dating. You know me”—she rolls over to face me, head propped up on her hand—“I’m nerdy. I like books and asking a million questions to get to the heart of an issue. I was the sorority girl who never really drank or went to bars. I was happy watching a movie on a Friday night with popcorn and skin-care masks.”
“So that means you didn’t date anyone?”
“Pretty much. It wasn’t until my junior year that I started getting concerned there was something wrong with me. I mean, I’d never had a boyfriend. My friends were on rotations and sleeping with random guys at the bar. I wanted to just get it over with. So I met a guy, we had sex, and I decided the only thing wrong with me was wanting to sleep with someone just to do it.”
“There was nothing wrong with you,” I reassure her.
Something flashes in her eyes, but she covers it quickly. “ That’s not exactly true. I have a lot wrong with me, but it wasn’t that I was a virgin in college.”
I cup her face. “You can count this as your first time if you want.”
She smiles brightly. “So I can tell the Admiral I was a virgin until you?”
I laugh and shake my head. “You really should never mention this to anyone, you know that, right?”
“So you don’t want me to call Caspian and tell him about the intense sexfest we shared?”
Sometimes I can’t tell if she’s actually serious. She and Caspian are those siblings that actually would tell each other about this kind of thing. At least, he’d tell her. From the sounds of it, Ainsley didn’t have much to spill to him.
“I’d rather we keep this between us. That is, if you want to have another night like this.”
She taps her finger against her chin. “Let me sleep on it.”
I grab her, rolling her to be on top of me. “You can sleep on me.”
“You’re like a rock.”
“Something is definitely hardening,” I tease.
“Already?” Her eyes widen.
“I’m finding it harder to stay unaroused lately.”
“Oh, I bet it’s because of me.”
I grin. “I would say you’re correct.”
“Has it always been this way?” Her voice is tentative.
“Since you were about eighteen, yes.”
“So, wow, before your mom died?”
I brush her hair back, tucking it behind her ear. I’m not sure how much to tell her. “That’s why I was so angry with you. You. Ainsley MacKinley. My friend, my best friend’s sister, was not supposed to be the girl I was lusting after. Then I got drunk, thinking I could numb the pain of my mother and the feelings I had for you. It was supposed to help.”
“But I came out there. ”
“You came out there, smelling like jasmine and vanilla with the purest of intentions.”
She lets out a loud laugh at that. “Umm, I wouldn’t exactly say that. Not that I thought you were going to maul me against the stone wall, but my intentions around you haven’t ever been pure and innocent.”
“And all this time you’ve been mentally undressing me?”
“And you haven’t been doing the same?”
I grin. “I never said I wasn’t.”
Ainsley leans in and kisses me. “Now we have a few weeks to actually undress each other.”
My hand moves up to grip her ass, sliding her closer. “We sure do.”
Just as things are starting to move in the right direction, the fire tones ring out through the radio, and I groan, breaking away from her delicious mouth.
Ainsley rolls off to her side of the bed—great, I’m already thinking of it as her side—and I sit up, waiting to hear the announcement.
“Station 13, Battalion Chief 2, Truck 689, report of a building fire at 188 Main Street. EMS en route.”
I’m pulling my shorts on before it can start the repeat message for those who missed it the first time. “I have to go,” I tell Ainsley.
She sits up, pulling the blanket with her. “Of course, Main Street ... is that Hazel?”
“No, but it’s close. Stay here. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Ainsley nods. “Be careful, Lach.”
I wink as I grab my radio. “Always.” I get halfway out the door and turn back, walking to the bed. She blinks a few times as I lean down. “Don’t leave the bed. I want you here when I get back.” I kiss her and then head out.
“Good job, everyone,” I say as we’re standing outside the fire truck. When we got here the fire was already out thanks to the overhead sprinklers. What sucks about those is that they cause more water damage than anything. The only way to shut the water off is if we do it.
“Thankfully it ended up being nothing,” Davidson says, cracking his neck. “Just sucks they’ll need to replace the whole first floor.”
“Still, the sprinklers did exactly what they were supposed to.”
Lopez nods slowly. “It would’ve been bad if not. The owner said it went up fast, and he didn’t have time to think.”
“Yeah, it was a grease fire and he put water on it,” Davidson says with a huff. “We do training on this with all the restaurants here to avoid this.”
I place my hand on his shoulder. “We do, but we’re trained to stay calm in crisis. Not everyone else can take that second to pause prior.”
“Hey, boys,” Hazel calls, coming out with a tray in her hand.
“Hazel, my favorite woman!” Lopez says when she gets close.
She smiles. “You say that to every woman who has coffee, Edgar. I know you say the same to Margaret from the diner too.”
He clutches his chest. “You’re my favorite—always.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Hazel extends the tray. “Here you go. Coffee for everyone.”
We all take a cup, thanking her as we do. Her coffee is hands down the best I’ve ever had. “I’m assuming we woke you up?”
“Well, being that Main Street is pretty small, yes. But I heard the smoke alarms as well. It ended up being nothing?”
“I wouldn’t say that. The restaurant sustained damage, but nothing that can’t be fixed.”
She nods. “Well, that’s good. I’m sure the community will help. We always do. You guys be good. I’m sure I’ll see some of you in a few hours.”
Hazel heads back to her house, and it’s already ten. We need to get off the street to let people get back to bed.
“All right, guys, let’s get back to the station so you can write your reports.” And I need to return to where a very gorgeous woman is waiting for me .
“Sure thing, Chief.”
I get in my truck and see I have a text from Ainsley and two missed calls from Caspian. He’s usually just getting to work around this time and doesn’t often call.
Normally I would call him back, but now ... I’m not sure what the fuck to say to him. It’s not that I think I did anything wrong, but still—she’s his sister.
It’s not like I haven’t spent years coming up with every possible way I’d handle this, but now that it’s in my face, it feels different.
Now it’s reality.
I check the text first.
Ainsley
Call me before you come home.
As I’m staring at the phone, getting ready to call her, it rings, but it’s Caspian.
Shit. I’m just going to be normal, because it seems he’s not going to stop calling, so I might as well get this out of the way.
“Hey, Cas.”
“Hey, dickhead. You know, I had to tell you something,” he says, his words slurring at the end.
Great, he’s drunk.
“Did you?”
“Yeah, but I think you’re sleeping.”
I’ve never been happier that he’s totally shitfaced and I don’t actually have to have this conversation about Ainsley.
“I could be sleeping right now,” I say, fucking with him.
“Shit. Sorry, bro,” he whispers. “I won’t wake you up.”
I laugh once. “Listen, you should go to bed. You sound pretty fucked up. ”
“I am.” I’m not sure whether he’s agreeing that he’s in bed or fucked up or both. “The Admiral came for an inspection.”
I blink. “What?”
“Yup. He came here, with his endless supply of disapproval.”
No wonder he’s drunk. Caspian is the son that the Admiral tried to break. My dad, for all his endless faults, didn’t try to make me into someone I wasn’t. He let me play sports and be a kid. Caspian didn’t have the same freedoms. I think a lot of it came to optics and goals that his father had.
“You’re not a kid, Cas. You’re a grown-ass man who doesn’t ask your father for a fucking dime. Don’t let anything he says change the way you’re living.”
“I’m not. I just had a few shots when he left and then some beers. Then I told him the truth about Ainsley. So he’s going to fix her next. He’ll tell her all the things she does wrong.”
Fuck. I have a feeling I know what he’s implying. “What do you mean he’s going to fix her?”
“I tried to call you, but you are sleeping. But I might have slipped that Ainsley was staying with you, and he was not happy.”
I pull down my driveway and see a white Mercedes with the plates RADM and ... there goes my night.