Chapter Eighteen – Love You Tonight
Chapter Eighteen
Maisey
LOVE YOU TONIGHT
Performed by Ella Langley
PRESENT DAY
HIM: Shall I grab lunch for us on my way back from the station?
Minutes passed.
HIM: Maisey?
More time passed.
HIM: Damnit, where are you?
When I dragged myself out of bed the next morning, it was to a text message from Beckett saying he was going to work out at the station before checking in with Ron on the investigation. He’d left Vader behind, telling me to be on alert if his dog started freaking out like he had yesterday.
While Beckett was gone, Dad and I had gone next door and finished the rest of the porch, with Vader bringing up more garbage from the river the entire time. Then, we’d walked through the house with the water damage restoration folks and an insurance adjuster.
We’d both come back to Beckett’s feeling exhausted and fighting our discouragement.
It was going to take a lot more time and money to fix the house than either of us had thought. I’d figure it out…somehow. I just had to think about it. See what else I could shuffle around. We’d been through worse.
What I held back from Dad was my worry the fire would be determined to be gross negligence, or purposeful, and that we’d never see a penny of the insurance. If that happened, we might be out of luck. We might have to sell it as-is for a lot less than it was really worth.
While Dad took the first turn in the shower, I searched the house for the kitten who’d knocked over her crate again. Vader found her first, barking from Beckett’s bedroom.
I hesitated before entering the new suite he’d added on to the house.
It was as much to get the cat as it was a perverse need to see where he slept that had me stepping inside.
The room was full of the same neutrals and dark woods he’d decorated the rest of the house with, but the king-sized bed where the kitten lay curled surprised me.
With its gray padded headboard, the bed felt strangely soft and feminine in a space I’d expected to be purely masculine.
It was sexy and sensual, inspiring images of bodies tangled together on it in the heat of passion.
And just knowing I was actually thinking a bed was sexy nearly sent me running from the room.
The cat sat up, mewling sweetly as Vader nosed her.
She was the cutest little thing, begging for love.
It tugged at my heart. No one but Vader had really given her much attention since Beckett had brought her home.
I certainly hadn’t given her much thought with everything else that had been going on.
“You’re quite the little escape artist,” I said, petting her between the ears while Vader licked my hand.
I’d always wanted a cat, but a lot of apartments didn’t allow them, so I’d resisted the urge up until now.
This little gray-and-white furball had a tiny white, mask-like stripe around her vibrant green eyes and a pink, shiny nose.
While I continued to pet her, she rested a paw on my hand, and I was a goner.
“How about you come stay in my room?” I picked her up, and Vader wagged his tail as if he was happy to see me holding her. “What should we name her, Vader?”
He woofed as we made our way out of Beckett’s room and down the hall.
“I’m not naming her Woof.” I considered her. “Maybe Dorothy, the world-famous escape artist, or Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, because she blew into our lives.”
Vader barked, the cat rubbed its head against my chin, and my heart warmed. “Okay. Dorothy it is.”
The cat explored my room, batting at the cardboard boxes, while Vader watched over her.
When I came back from helping Dad with his bandages, the two animals had curled up together, tails entwined, on the foot of my bed, just as they had the night before.
Since the dog adored Beckett with a heart-eyed fervor, I’d been surprised when he’d stayed with me.
But looking at them now, I realized it was much more about the kitten than me.
It was clear the two animals had bonded. I wouldn’t be able to keep Dorothy because Vader had already claimed her. I took a picture to send to Beckett, determined to convince him to keep her.
I grabbed some clean clothes and headed to the shower, but once I’d scrubbed off the sweat and smell of burned wood, I realized I’d forgotten my bra. I wrapped a towel around my middle, peeked out into the hall, and then scurried across to my room.
Vader thumped his tail on my return and then put his nose back in the kitten’s fur.
I’d just dropped the towel when the door of my room was flung open with so much force it banged against the wall with a loud crack.
I screamed and turned, hands to my breasts, heart leaping into my throat.
Beckett stood in the doorway, face dark and frustrated.
“Where the hell have you been?” he demanded.
“Get out!” I hollered, scrambling for the towel.
When I stood back up and tried, with shaky hands, to wrap it around me again, it was to find Beckett’s gaze locked on my barely covered chest. His Adam’s apple worked overtime, and it took far longer than it should have for his eyes to make their way back up to my face.
The longer our eyes clashed, the more the spark between us flared into something dangerous.
Into the same intense longing that had all but consumed us yesterday.
That had left me achy and him begging to show me what he could do to me.
Instead of leaving the room, as I’d requested, Beckett took a step toward me, and my belly wooshed.
A low, tantalizing thrill danced through me, and I knew if he touched me, I’d be a lost cause.
I’d let down the feeble wall I still had left.
I’d let him do whatever he wanted, and damn the consequences to our lives… our friendship.
I had one chance…one chance to push this back into the right territory. To right the ship before it sailed. I forced my voice to be light, forced a tease into it I felt far from, as I asked, “Are you happy now? You’ve got your tit for tat. I saw you. You saw me. We’re even. Now get out.”
He didn’t. He stepped even closer, and I moved backward only to run into a bookshelf.
“Beckett.” I shook my head and put one hand out as if to ward him off while the other still grasped the towel.
“You didn’t answer my texts, and then I walk in the door, and there’s no Vader, no you, no Lewis. Do you know what that did to me? After yesterday?” he growled.
A tremble coursed through me as he removed the last few inches that separated us, stopping so close his shoes could kiss my toes.
“We were next door, working and meeting with the adjuster, and then we came back and got cleaned up. I left my phone here, charging, because I fell asleep reading last night, and it didn’t get charged.
” I was rambling. I knew I was, but I couldn’t seem to stop it.
“Vader has been with us all day, and then we had to find the kitten because she’d escaped again.
She’s just lonely though. I think Vader is too.
See the way they’re curled up together…”
Beckett’s head swiveled slowly over to the animals, who were still twined but watching us with interest. Then, he turned back to me. “No. I’m not keeping the cat. It wouldn’t be fair when Vader and I are at the station for days at a time.”
“She can stay with me. Once we fix up Dad’s place, I’ll likely stay with him, so I don’t need to worry about an apartment. It’ll be fine.”
He put a finger on my lips, and my voice faded away. The look he gave me was dark and sinful. I wanted to dive in and get lost in it for hours.
“You’re babbling. You only do that when you’re nervous. Why are you nervous, darlin’?”
It seemed almost impossible to breathe. Shifting his hand, he glided a thumb sensually over my jaw. When he hesitated over the almost invisible scar, I was finally able to push him away.
“I think that’s five now. Five romance books you owe me.” My voice was still a bit shaky as I was unable to break away from the simmering look sparking in his brown depths.
How could this ever be wrong? The pulse of want that was so strong it was almost its own entity. How could that ever be anything but right?
“It was a draw at the lake,” he said, voice low and deep. “So, I think this makes four.”
He leaned forward, not quite far enough for our bodies to touch, but his mouth inched closer to mine. My almost nonexistent breath evaporated completely. Every fiber of my being ached for him to kiss me. To have those beautiful lips land firmly on mine.
I’d once told Fallon I’d never had an earth-shattering, life-altering kiss, but I suddenly realized I had now.
When Beckett had dipped me over and planted one on me at the fire station, it had changed everything I’d known and thought about kisses.
My life would forever be a series of befores and afters from here on, and I wanted more of what he’d given me.
It was why I’d subconsciously taunted him at the lake, and in the backyard, and…
His hand fell away from my cheek, and disappointment, hot and furious, welled through me, even as I tried to convince myself it was for the best. My walls were too shaky. Too torn. I’d never survive another kiss from him, only to have to go back to being just friends.
With his eyes still holding mine, he leaned even closer, reaching his arm past me so it grazed my ear and had my nipples hardening and goosebumps bursting out along my skin. As if he saw it or sensed it, Beckett’s lips quirked upward.
And then he was moving back, a book from the shelf behind me in his hand.
“Will this one do to start?” he asked.
My grip on the towel tightened. I fought to recover. Fought to stabilize my senses.
It took far too long for me to focus on the book he held—a steamy, historical romance.
I cleared my throat. “If you want to read about rakes and ladies, sure.”
His smirk grew into a full-on grin. “Forced-proximity trope, right? You like that one.”
My throat seemed to close, and I had to force out my words. “I do.”