Chapter Twenty-Five
Brian
I woke to light peeking through the gap in the blackout curtains, and I glanced at the Garmin on my wrist: six-thirty. I still had thirty minutes before my alarm was set to go off.
The events of the middle of the night replayed in my head, and I knew there was no chance I was going to fall back asleep, so I carefully pulled the covers back and slipped out of bed, grabbed my duffle, and headed toward the bathroom. I didn’t turn the light on until I closed the door.
I opted to hold off on showering until she got up because I didn’t want the noise to wake her, but I quickly brushed my teeth and got dressed so I could go in search of coffee.
I was pleasantly surprised to find a continental breakfast in the lobby. I hadn’t expected that with the rate I’d paid.
A few feet from the coffee pot, a woman with a hairnet was changing out an empty silver chafing dish with a full one of scrambled eggs, so I asked her, “How long do you serve breakfast?”
“Until nine.”
“Great, thanks.”
I wasn’t going to eat without Jade, so I sat down with a cup of coffee and opened my DMs.
There were over a hundred, which didn’t surprise me.
Most people didn’t have my personal phone number, but my social media was public, at Angus’s insistence that his officers be transparent.
Although most of the staff had two accounts—one with their real names where they posted about adopting kittens and puppies, and their interactions with the community, and the other with a fake name for their close family and friends so they could post photos of their kids and whatever other nonsense people shared online about their personal lives.
I only had one account, and I posted the minimum amount I could without having my dad on my ass about it.
I smiled as I scrolled through a few messages. There were kind notes from people in town, letting me know they were praying for a swift recovery for me and wishing me well.
I appreciated them.
There was a lot that could be said about small towns—everyone knew everyone’s business, or thought they did. But Haven Springs residents took care of their own. It was nice knowing they cared.
One sender’s name made me pause: Sylvia Concannon Day.
I didn’t have the energy for that potential rabbit hole and scrolled on without clicking it.
In addition to the community members’ messages, there were a shit ton of media requests. I batched those together and hit delete without opening them.
The morning sun shone through the lobby windows, and I decided it was too beautiful of a day to be going through that stuff.
Besides, I was on vacation. My first one since being promoted. What better way to enjoy that than sipping my coffee while reading last night’s baseball scores as I waited for my alarm to go off.
The remaining seventy-five messages could wait.
~~~~
I noticed the curtains were open and the bathroom door was closed when I went back to the room.
“Jade?” I called out as I stepped inside.
“I’ll be out in a second!”
“Take your time, I just wanted you to know I’m back.”
Steam poured out the door when she opened it.
She didn’t have a drop of makeup on, and she looked gorgeous dressed in a pair of black yoga pants and a bright yellow t-shirt showcasing her perky tits nicely that read, “Save the Honeybees,” in bold black letters with a picture of a smiling bee underneath it.
Her blonde hair was wet and hanging loose around her shoulders, like it’d been yesterday morning.
Then after it’d dried, she’d pulled it back in a ponytail.
Except she’d worn it down last night when she’d gone to bed, and I’d buried my face in it as I felt her up in her sleep.
I still couldn’t believe I’d done that.
I was having a hard time looking her in the eye.
“Hey, they have free breakfast in the lobby. We can get something on our way out if you want.”
“Is that where you were?”
“I just grabbed a coffee. I didn’t want to eat without you.”
She paused zipping her backpack to look up at me.
“Really? That was thoughtful of you. Thanks.”
“Of course. We’re a team for the next ten days.”
A team. I liked the sound of that.
My conscious chimed in, You’re not supposed to feel up your teammates, dickhead.
The room suddenly felt a lot smaller; my guilty conscience was taking up a lot of room. I gestured with my thumb toward the bathroom. “Do you think I can shower with my leg?”
“Yeah, you should be fine. Just don’t scrub the area around your incision and pat it dry; don’t rub it.”
I knew she was talking about my leg, still, I couldn’t help but wonder if she was insinuating rubbing other things in the shower, so I rambled, “Oh, yeah. Yeah. Of course. No scrubbing. No rubbing. Pat dry only. I can do that.”
Oh my god! Shut up already!
Without another word, I made a hasty retreat into the bathroom, locking the door behind me.
“Well, at least that wasn’t awkward,” I sarcastically mumbled to myself as I turned the shower on.
****
Jade
I was packed and ready, sitting on the bed and texting Lainey about how Penny was behaving when Brian came out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a freaking towel.
Wasn’t there a law about cruel and unusual punishment? First the rejection last night, now he was just rubbing salt in the wound looking downright edible with his wet hair and drops of water running down his chest.
He grabbed his duffle bag off the dresser with a sheepish grin. “Forgot my clothes.”
“I see that.”
“I’ll hurry,” he headed back toward the bathroom, but stopped when I called out, “Hang on…”
His hand gripped the ends of the towel when he turned around. I tried not to stare at the lines on his hip bones. Or at his six pack. Or the smattering of hair on his broad chest.
Fuck! Where can I look?
I settled for the freckle on his left shoulder.
“I need to rebandage your leg.”
“Really? I still need to have that thing?”
“You’ll probably only need to wear one for another day or two.”
“That will make hanging out at the beach more enjoyable.”
Shit, I forgot about that.
I wrinkled my nose and winced. “Actually, I take that back. I think you should keep it wrapped if you’re going to be in the sand or ocean.”
“Really? How am I supposed to go in the water with a bandage?”
“There are all kinds of waterproof bandages available at any drugstore.” He made a face, and I continued, “Trust me, the last thing you want is an infection. Wearing a bandage is a minor inconvenience compared to having an infected thigh.”
With a sigh, he ambled toward the bed and teased, “I’ll assume the position.”
My mind immediately wandered back to the position we’d been in last night, with his cock grinding against my ass and his hands on my boobs.
And how I’d arched my back and shamelessly pressed against him, thinking he was into me. Only to realize he wasn’t.
I felt my cheeks burn, and I turned away to fish through my doctor’s bag for the necessary supplies.
“You know, you probably can bandage it yourself. It’s not that hard.”
I glanced over to where he’d stuck his leg out from under the blanket to find him frowning.
“I’d rather you do it. It stayed in place until I took it off before my shower. I’d hate to have it slip off while we’re driving; that would be a pain in the ass to try and fix then.”
Well, when he put it that way…
****
Brian
With my hands in my lap over the blanket, I looked at the wall instead of the back of Jade’s head as she hovered over my leg.
Her warm hands felt so good on my skin I’d had to bite back moaning, “Mmm.” I caught a whiff of her flowery shampoo—the same scent I’d woken up to when I had my face buried in her neck.
Don’t go there, Brian.
“I don’t get to see you very often with your hair down,” I commented. “Or in street clothes.”
Or skimpy pajamas. Or a bra and underwear.
Fuck.
Now I was picturing her in said garments.
Between that and her soft touch and the smell of her hair, my dick jumped.
I immediately tried to recall last night’s baseball scores I’d read about in the lobby over coffee. When that didn’t work, I thought about the time I walked in on my grandparents having sex when I was twelve.
That did the trick.
“I know,” she said as she inspected my incision. “It’s weird not seeing you in uniform.”
“I’m looking forward to ten whole days without having to wear my Kevlar vest.”
She glanced up with a slight smile. “I imagine that can get pretty uncomfortable, especially when it’s hot out.”
“I soak through plenty of t-shirts and use a lot of diaper rash cream in the summer. Although the cream hasn’t been working very well lately.”
“You should use Monistat 7.”
My brows shot up. “Isn’t that for ladies and their… private parts?”
She laughed as she placed a bandage on my leg.
“It’s for vaginal yeast infections, yes.
But it’s an antifungal medication, which would probably help you.
All that moisture getting trapped against your skin is a breeding ground for yeast and fungus.
It would be much more effective than diaper rash cream. ”
Ick, yeast and fungus.
All signs of my erection were now gone.
“Thanks. I’ll look into getting some.”
With a laugh, she replied, “No, you won’t. There’s no way you’ll go to the store and buy that.”
“You’re absolutely right. There’s not a chance in hell I’d risk someone seeing me buying vagina cream, but that’s what online shopping is for.”
The corner of her mouth lifted, and she teased, “Is that how you get your condoms?”
I huffed out a laugh. “I can’t remember the last time I bought condoms.”
“You get ’em in bulk, huh?”
“No. Just a regular ol’ six pack. And I’m pretty sure the last one I bought is still unopened and probably expired.”
She scoffed, “I find that hard to believe.”
I felt my brows knit.
“You do? Why?”
“You’re what, twenty-nine?”
“I’ve got a few months before my birthday, but almost.”
“Fine, twenty-eight. Even more to my point. You’re young, single, and probably one of Haven Springs most eligible bachelors. You mean to tell me that you aren’t having sex on a regular basis?”
“No. It’s not something I’m thrilled about, mind you. But you know how much I work, so I don’t have time to go out of town. And I’m sure as hell not hooking up with anyone in Haven Springs. That shit would be all over the gossip hotline before I even put my pants back on.”
“After our little PDA stunt at the bank yesterday, I thought you didn’t care about the rumor mill.”
The memory of how soft her lips felt against mine came flooding back to me.
“If I recall correctly, you didn’t mind playing along.”
Her hand went to her hip.
“Like I had a choice.”
“Sure, you did. You could’ve slapped me on the spot and told me off right there for everyone to see.”
A slow grin crept across her face. “And miss an opportunity to piss Rachel Goodman off? Pffft. Not a chance.”