Chapter 8 #3
The sky had been gray all day, which meant no elaborate sunset, and the bite from the wind was getting colder as the day was coming to an end.
Dylan parked near the entrance and hurried inside, then took the elevator up to his room.
It wasn’t home, but it was warm and clean and quiet.
He shed his coat, washed up, then sat down in front of the TV with his food and called Angie, talking as he ate, while she updated him on all the projects.
Then he began filling her in on everything they’d learned.
“Are you three in any danger?” she asked.
“I don’t see how or why we would be, but we’re definitely on alert, and I have two hard-nosed cops for brothers. Don’t worry about us. I’m just sorry I’ve dumped all the work on you, but so grateful to you. You are my world. I know you know that, but I don’t say it enough. I love you, lady.”
“Love you more,” Angie said, and hung up.
Dylan finished his food, then cleaned up the refuse and put it in the trash. He was stripping down to shower and shave when Gunner called. He smiled. They were already checking on him.
“Hey, Gunner. Yes, I’m fine. Dad was awake and talking. He’s getting stronger and they’re considering moving him out of ICU into a regular room. I’ll find out more tomorrow.”
“Oh, good news,” Gunner said.
“How’s Nora?” Dylan asked.
“She’s okay. Hurting some, but she is a continuing revelation,” and then he proceeded to tell Dylan about Nora’s stalker incident.
“I’m going out on a limb and say it’s also the reason she chose a job that she could work from home.
That workplace stalker did a number on her, even if she won’t admit it. ”
Dylan was stunned. “Good lord. Poor kid.”
“I know. Take care. Call if you need us,” Gunner said.
“Same to you,” Dylan said, and then headed for the shower.
* * *
Gunner fell asleep on the sofa watching TV, and Asher covered him over with a blanket and left him there. He was a big boy. If he woke up later, he’d take himself to bed.
Nora was already in bed, but Asher needed to make one last sweep through the bar before he joined her. He felt the warmth as he opened the door between and started up the hall.
The security light lit up the parking lot, and the lights beside the door were on.
The door was locked, and there was no sight of an unattended vehicle anywhere.
But as an added deterrent, he jammed the back of a chair beneath the doorknob, then put a bowl of balls from one of the pool tables on the chair seat.
It wouldn’t stop someone from coming inside, but it would make a hell of a noise when they did it, and that’s all the warning he would need.
Satisfied that all was well in the front, he went back into the house and locked the door between, then made one last sweep through the house, making sure the back door was locked, and the porch lights were on.
As he walked through the kitchen, he glanced at the door leading down into the basement and on impulse, turned the lock on it, too, but when he walked into the bedroom and saw Nora lying in the bed, curled up on her side with her bandaged hand resting on a pillow, it turned on every protective instinct he had.
He was never going to get over what she’d gone through alone.
He stripped, left his clothes on a chair, and headed for the shower.
Minutes later, he came out freshly shaved, with a towel wrapped around his waist. The covers had slipped from her shoulder, revealing the T-shirt she was sleeping in.
He frowned, and moved closer for a better look, then froze.
It was his old high school football jersey.
She’d kept it all these years! Sleeping in it.
Shaken by the revelation, he removed the towel from around his waist and hung it back up in the bathroom, and ever so quietly, eased himself into bed behind her, pulled the covers up over both of them, and laid there listening to the sound of her breathing, and fell asleep.
* * *
It was just before 5:00 a.m. when Nora woke.
She rolled over on her back, saw Asher sleeping in the bed beside her.
Her hand was throbbing, and she needed to pee.
She eased out of bed, tiptoed into the bathroom, and closed the door.
When she was through, she took a pain pill from the bottle on the counter, ran a little water in the glass, and downed it.
She combed her fingers through her hair, then turned out the light before opening the door so she wouldn’t wake Ash, but he was already awake.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Potty break and a pain pill,” she said, and slipped back into bed.
He pulled up the covers, then leaned over and brushed a kiss across her lips. “You still have my old football jersey.”
“I sleep in it. It was as close as I could get to being in your arms,” she said.
He groaned. “I regret being the coward. For not being man enough to call and ask your mom how to contact you. Here you are still sleeping in my old jersey and every year on your birthday, I stick a candle in a piece of carrot cake, then light it and make a wish for you.”
Nora’s eyes welled with sudden tears. “Why did we let this happen?”
“I don’t know, but having been given a second chance, there’s no way in hell I’m losing you again. If you weren’t hurt, you’d be naked right now. Keep that in mind, okay?”
“Okay.”
He slid his arm beneath her neck and pulled her close. “It’s too early to get up, darlin’. We can sleep, or we can talk. I don’t care which, but I don’t want to give up this bed with you in it.”
“I’m hurting too much to sleep. Maybe we could talk until the pill kicks in?”
“Then I have something I wanted to ask you the entire length of our senior year. Nora Borden, will you marry me?”
“Yes. Anywhere. Anytime. In a heartbeat.”
“Thank you for the second chance,” he said, then kissed her again, and again, until kisses weren’t enough.
Nora reached for him then, holding on to him with one hand and every ounce of her will. “Make love to me, Ash. You aren’t going to hurt me. Just help me out of this shirt.”
The covers flew back.
Nora sat up as Asher rose from the bed, lifted the shirt over her head, and carefully hung it on the bedpost.
In the dawning light, his silhouette momentarily blocked the window. Nora’s heart was pounding as he came back to her, then he was above her. The moment he slid inside the wet heat of her, she sighed and then closed her eyes. It was just like always. One slow stroke, and she was his.
Asher’s concentration was off the chart, trying not to give in to the ecstasy of her too soon, but it was good, so good, and it felt so right. He was watching every nuance of her face—every flutter of her eyelashes as the minutes passed, until he could feel her tightening from the blood rush.
At that point, he knew within moments that she was going to wrap her legs around his waist and pull him deeper, wanting it harder, wanting more.
So, he gave her what she wanted. Heard the moan, and then the catch in her breath as the climax rolled right through her, then pleased himself by letting go.
He was still inside her, even though the last ripples of their lovemaking were beginning to fade, when he propped himself up on both elbows and brushed a kiss across her lips. “We’re still the perfect fit.”
Nora cupped the side of his face with her good hand.
“Love always fills the awkward corners of a life. Love you most. And today, because I love you, you are going to take me home. I’ll be fine.
Belker’s delivers from the pharmacy and from the grocery.
I can still do my job with one hand, while you are going to devote every waking hour to the investigation with Gunner.
We have the rest of our lives. You need to get those people out of circulation before Jacob is well enough to come home. Okay?”
He knew she was right, but didn’t like it. “Yes, okay.”
“If you’ll put a plastic bag over my hand, I would love a shower.”
He looked up, saw the expectation in her eyes, and grinned. “I suppose you’re going to want someone to scrub your back, too?”
Nora smiled. “You have the most beautiful blue eyes.”
“Is that a yes?” he asked.
She nodded.
“You still know how to tie me in knots,” he said.
He got up, wrapped a towel around his waist, and headed for the kitchen to get a plastic bag and a roll of masking tape from the junk drawer, then hurried back down the hall.
Moments later, he had the bag taped around her wrist and the water running in the shower. She’d gathered all her long hair into one thick twist and pulled it up to the top of her head, then handed Ash a big banana clip.
“I remember how this works,” he said, and deftly clipped her hair up off her neck. “The tub is slippery. Let me get in first, and then I’ll steady you, darlin’.”
With the two of them in the shower, it was like trying to bathe a big wiggly dog in a very small tub. They managed to sling soap and water on everything but the bathroom floor. The mirror was fogged. There was steam hovering on the ceiling above their heads like a rain cloud trying to form.
He’d washed every inch of her body twice, which led her to laughingly accuse him of feeling her up for the fun of it. And to his credit, he did not deny a thing. It was just the first of many good memories to come.
When they finally got out, he dried her off first, then removed the plastic bag from her hand.
“Clean and shiny,” he said.
She grinned. “Unlike the bathroom we just demolished.”
He gave her backside a little swat as she walked past, and while she got dressed, he stayed behind to dry himself.
A short while later, they were in the kitchen making coffee to go with their bowls of dry cereal, when they heard Gunner shout out in the hall.
“What the hell? There’s no hot water!”
They looked at each other, and then burst out laughing.