Chapter Twenty
Price still had on his baseball shirt and jeans, but the look he was sporting now wasn’t at all what JJ would describe as carefree. She stepped back another step after he closed the door behind him. He locked it too.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, worried that she had somehow missed something and an attack was imminent.
Yet, the only target in his sights was her.
Price closed most of the distance between them in one clean stride. She noticed stubble along his jaw. She could smell some kind of spice from his skin. JJ had to tip her chin back a little just to look up into his eyes.
Why was he this close?
Did he think Winnie would overhear him and was trying for privacy?
She was at the other end of the hall with thick walls between her and them. Surely shutting the door had been enough.
Then again, maybe privacy wasn’t at all on his mind.
When he spoke, his words were loud and clear.
“What about us?”
The volume and delivery might have been decisive, but JJ was as confused as ever.
“What about us?” she repeated.
Price gave one nod and brought his index finger to her shoulder. The small amount of pressure he placed there was brief but it sure did radiate after he pulled it back. He tapped himself next.
“You’ve got all of these plans on what to do to find your brother, what to do with Lawson and his group, and you even said you know what you want after it’s all said and done, right?”
JJ nodded slowly.
“Yes. I don’t want anyone to know my connection to him, to my parents.”
“But you’ll stay here? In Seven Roads, right?”
She nodded again.
“I don’t think I could leave him after everything my parents went through.”
“So, Seven Roads is settled then. You—this house?—is where you’ll stay.”
JJ was following the words, but she couldn’t hang on to the feeling behind them. It felt…angry.
“That’s the plan. Why? What’s wrong?”
Price put his hands on his hips. It might have looked humorous had she understood what had inspired the now-obvious frustration.
“Winnie said something earlier and it got me thinking that…all these heavy things we’ve talked about, we never really hammered out the details of the after.
I mean the brother thing, not wanting to reveal yourself, I get that.
Though, to be honest, I was already trying to think of ways to persuade you to maybe rethink that too.
But, that aside, I started thinking about all of these conversations with you.
Then I started remembering your looks and then things that are there but not really there for you. ”
JJ knew her eyes had widened. He paused and searched her face. Then he ran a hand down his own and dropped the other from his hip. She watched him turn around, take a few steps away, blow out a breath and come right back to the same spot so close to her.
“You smile, you say the words, but there’s this—this space between them all,” he continued.
“You have convinced yourself that you need to keep up the life of the JJ Shaw who first came to Seven Roads to try and find her brother, but then I think you feel the want of actually living a life of this JJ Shaw. Of the woman who can hack into websites, fight close combat in elevators, make my kid laugh and fit right into my everyday life without so much as lifting a finger to try.”
JJ didn’t dare move.
Not even a blush stirred.
Price took another breath in but didn’t walk away this time.
Instead, he shook his head.
“I realized just now that I think I know what you’re going to do once we find your brother, and I’m hoping I’m wrong.
So I’m asking again. What about us? What about me?
What do you feel like you need to do if everything works out with Lawson and your brother?
And, what about if it doesn’t? Because, I’ll be honest. I’m not like you, JJ.
There’s no space between I’m getting lost in.
I know what I want, and I know what I need and it’s one and the same. ”
His gaze dropped to her lips.
He watched her ask the only response she could manage in the moment.
“And what’s that?”
He put his hand against her cheek. His eyes didn’t leave her lips.
“You.”
They hadn’t talked about their first kiss even once after it happened in the department bathroom. A part of JJ had wanted to. A part hadn’t. It had been an intense day and emotions were running high and he had comforted her. That was it, right?
She had needed that answer.
She hadn’t wanted it.
Price was right. There was that space in between the two lives she had been living.
Price was also warm.
His lips connected for another kiss. There was no denying this time everything was different.
Price pressed his body flush against hers. He tilted her head back slightly and paused. JJ realized he was waiting for her to accept him or reject him.
There was no getting lost in between for her anymore.
JJ applied her own pressure against his lips, against his body.
That was all the man needed. His tongue parted her lips, and their kiss went from a solitary instance to an all-consuming constant.
JJ’s hands wound their way up his neck and tangled in his hair.
Price’s hands cradled and roamed until they were no longer standing.
The bed in the main room was firm. It didn’t give as Price laid her down its middle, it didn’t cave as he started to take off their clothes and it didn’t buckle as she arched against his fingers sliding between her underwear and skin.
He maneuvered inside of her with one hand and adjusted her against him with the other.
JJ moved against his mouth.
He held her close, working until she couldn’t take it anymore.
Then he adjusted again.
This time JJ helped.
She returned in kind and stripped him until there was nothing between their bodies but heat and sweat.
Price had already made it clear that he was a fan but feeling him against her was an experience that excited her to no end. When they were done with the appetizers, he devoured the main course. She used the last of her willpower to not call out as he pushed deep inside of her.
There was no space between them at all after that.
* * *
Price woke up feeling good.
Well, not all good. He was sore in spots from his fight the day before and from the party, but who cared about some bruises and pulled muscles? He felt good on good, and he knew exactly why.
He rolled over, ready to cuddle up to a Miss JJ Shaw. Instead, he grabbed at a whole bunch of empty space.
Price popped up like a daisy in spring.
He palmed his phone on the nightstand, hoping there were no security alerts that he had somehow slept through, but heard an explanation for the lack of JJ.
He heard water sloshing from the bedroom’s attached bathroom and let out a breath of relief.
Then he got to smiling again.
Price rolled out of bed and went to knock on the bathroom door.
“Yeah?” JJ called.
“Can I come in?” he asked, hand already on the doorknob. He waited though as she took a beat to respond.
“Um, sure.”
The bathroom was full of steam. The bathtub was full of JJ and bubbles.
Price eyed both with a grin.
JJ’s face was already flushed from the heat, but he thought he might have seen it turn a deeper shade of red. She collected an island of bubbles and pulled them closer to her chest.
“I know we showered last night but, well, I felt like I needed this too.”
Price laughed and put his hands up in defense.
“Hey, I’m not judging your need to soak. In fact, the idea doesn’t sound half bad…”
He nodded to the spot opposite her.
She shook her head but laughed.
“I don’t think so, sir. You’re just going to have to wait your turn.
I’m a one-person bath kind of woman. Especially when this woman is in desperate need of Icy Hot on several places.
” That blush seemed to flare to life again.
She lowered her voice a little. “Plus, I’m not pushing my luck with Winnie being around.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not that eager to scar a teenager like that. ”
Price laughed.
“I guess you’re not wrong there,” he said. “Can I at least chat with you while you soak?”
JJ looked surprised.
“Chat with me?”
“Yeah. Like you said, I like talking. I especially like talking to you. Can I sit?”
That surprise was still there but she nodded.
“Just don’t try any funny business. This is a casual, platonic soak.”
Price pulled his towel off of the rack and folded it into a seat next to her on the tile. It made him a good height to lean his elbow on the lip of the tub. He put his head on his hand and stared across the water at said casual, platonic soaker.
JJ rolled her eyes.
“Maybe saying yes was a bad idea,” she commented.
Price shrugged.
“I’m just admiring the view, is all. Can’t blame a guy for that.”
Where he thought she might complain once more, JJ simply rolled her eyes again. A small smile played at her lips though.
It was nice to see her like this.
Not the naked part, not the vulnerable part.
It was the trusting that had him feeling all types of ways.
JJ Shaw had opened up to him about her past, she had let him into her bed, but neither was a promise to let anything else happen past that. He’d asked her about them, about her future plans, but he hadn’t gotten an answer. Not a verbal one at least.
Her letting him sit there now meant more to him than she knew.
Because the choices she was making now had nothing to do with Lawson Cole, the search for her brother or keeping her secret identity safe.
It was just a woman soaking in a bubble bath, talking to a man who had fallen for her all while sitting on damp tile in his boxers.
Because, while he hadn’t spelled it out to a tee, Price had also realized that he had fallen for JJ Shaw.
Straight to the bottom of the bottom.
Did JJ return his feelings?
He wasn’t sure how much.
He also decided not to push her right now to ask.
Especially after catching sight of something he’d already seen in bed the night before.