14. Austen
FOURTEEN
AUSTEN
“Good morning.” Clint grinned from where he lay sprawled beneath me.
“Good morning to you, too.” With one more quick kiss, I slid off him, boneless and sated from a stupendous round of morning sex.
He’d stayed the night, and I’d gotten next to no sleep, but I was hardly going to complain about that. I’d be riding the high of multiple orgasms for hours yet.
Curling against him, I nuzzled beneath his jaw, enjoying the intimacy of knowing the scent of his sleep-warmed skin. “I’m glad you stayed.”
“Me, too.” He brushed his lips over my temple. “But I really need a shower.”
I groaned a little in protest as he eased out of bed. I’d been hoping for a lazy morning right here.
Clint waggled his eyebrows and smirked. “Want to join me?”
“As appealing as that is, it would likely lead to bodily injury for one or both of us. My shower is basically a closet. So go ahead. I’ll clean up when you’re through.”
“Fair enough.”
I watched as he strode naked into the bathroom. Much as it had been awful worrying about him during his deployment, I couldn’t argue with the end results of all the training he’d been put through. The man was built.
The door closed behind him, and I indulged myself in a long, luxurious stretch. I was sore in places I hadn’t felt in a very, very long time, and that just made me grin wider. For a few moments, I considered rolling over to doze until he was through, but an irritated yowl on the other side of the door disabused me of that idea.
Cliff was awake, and he wanted breakfast.
Resigned, I rolled out of bed, snagging a hair tie off my nightstand and bundling my hair into a messy bun before grabbing Clint’s shirt from the floor and pulling it on. I opened the door to a monstrous glare from Cliffhanger, who was mortally offended he’d been locked out of the bedroom last night. I glanced around, a little worried about what he might’ve done in retaliation. But I didn’t spot anything out of place, and it didn’t appear he’d yakked on anything. Perhaps we were safe.
“Come on, grumpy cat. Let’s get your breakfast.”
Cliff padded after me, his tail swishing in agitation as I opened a can of soft food—salmon, his favorite—and put it into his bowl.
“Your reparations, sir.” I placed the bowl on the floor.
For half a second, I thought he might use his paw to flip the bowl and make a mess. I could tell by the twitch of his tail that he was considering it. But hunger won out, and he hunched over the food.
Now that I was up and moving, my own belly growled. Clint and I had certainly earned a hearty breakfast. I’d start some coffee and see what I could come up with. Maybe I had the fixin’s for pancakes.
The coffeemaker was just beginning to bubble and hiss when someone knocked on my door. I certainly wasn’t expecting anyone, but maybe one of my girlfriends had popped by to find out how the wedding went. I’d just scoot them along with promises of an update later, so I could get back to the very sexy man in my shower. Given how I was dressed—or not dressed, as it were—they’d get the point quick enough.
But it wasn’t Felicity or Pepper or Tate on the other side.
It was my brother.
My belly swooped in alarm. “Rhett? What are you doing here?”
Before I could get over my utter shock, he’d pushed past me into my apartment.
Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. He couldn’t be here. Not with Clint in my shower. How could I get him gone fast?
“—wanted to check in with you before I headed over to see Mom and Dad.”
“Oh?” My voice came out too high with strain, and my brain frantically spun, searching for the right answer. “When did you even get back? And what’s up with you not notifying anybody?”
He jerked his shoulders. “I’ve been going through some shit. Didn’t want y’all to worry.”
Even as he made his explanation, I took the time to scan him from head to toe, looking for the injury that had sidelined him. I didn’t see anything straight off, except a bit of a stiffness in his posture. But my brother was stubborn, and he’d have worked his ass off to recover from whatever surgeries they’d had to do.
“If you think you pulled that off, you’re sorely mistaken. We’ve all been worried. But it is good to see you.” I moved in to hug him.
He squeezed me tight. “It’s good to see you, sis.”
I wished I could give him the warm welcome home he was probably looking for, but any minute now, Clint would finish with his shower and probably come out here looking for me. Rhett absolutely couldn’t be here when that happened.
Even as I thought it, my brother angled his head, listening. His brows drew down in a scowl as he finally looked at me in my state of undress. “Who’s here?”
“No one.” Oh hell, that hadn’t sounded convincing, even to me. I struggled to keep my voice normal. “I turned on the shower to warm up, and Cliff had a hissy fit for his breakfast, so I came out here to fix that and start coffee before I hopped in.”
Disaster hovered over me like an axe on the back of my neck.
“I’d love to catch up. Why don’t you go grab us a table at the diner or Pie Hard, and I’ll meet you for breakfast after I get dressed?”
“Why can’t I just wait here until you’re ready?”
“Because it’s Sunday morning, and you know how crowded everywhere will be. Might as well get in line already. Just text me where you land.”
Suspicion still lingered in his eyes, but he finally turned toward the door. “All right. But I’m heading to Pie Hard.”
Not a surprise. He probably didn’t want to face Pepper.
“Great. I’ll see you there!”
As soon as he was out my door, I locked it, slumping against the wood in momentary relief. Then I raced for the bedroom and ripped open the closet to dig for clothes.
Clint stepped out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel slung low on his hips, water still beading on his chest. Any other time, that sight would’ve had me dragging him right back to bed. But panic had my hands shaking as I stripped off his shirt and yanked on my underwear.
“Austen? Something wrong?”
Everything was wrong.
“Thank you for last night,” I babbled, staggering as I dragged on jeans. “It was wonderful. Really wonderful. But I’ve got to go deal with my brother.”
“Rhett’s here?” Clint’s voice sharpened with concern.
Where the hell was my other boot? “Yeah. He just came by and?—”
“We should talk about this.” He took a step toward me, but I backed away.
“No time.” The words tumbled out in a rush as I dove toward the missing boot on the floor. “He doesn’t need to know, anyway.”
I couldn’t meet Clint’s eyes. My brain was spinning with all the things we should’ve discussed first. What were we going to say? What were we going to do? How would Rhett react to finding out his best friend had slept with his little sister?
I had to get to Rhett first, had to gauge the situation and figure out a plan for damage control before he found out. Maybe I could salvage this, protect Clint and Rhett’s friendship somehow.
“Just… lock up when you leave, okay?” I snatched my purse from the dresser and bolted for the door, leaving Clint standing there, still damp from his shower, confusion written all over his face.