Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jasper
I entered the side door of the resort with my haul from Rattler’s. The room Sheridan was using tonight was the same one I’d remodeled after the rain damage.
The weather report about possible storms tonight came through the door. I knocked. The sound went quiet, and her feet shuffled on the other side. I held up the to-go container from the restaurant so she could see through the peephole.
She cracked the door open. “I told you that you didn’t have to.”
“I know.” I had told her earlier I’d bring by a celebratory meal. She’d moved out and cleaned out the house. It was as ready as it would ever be for guests, and tonight there was a family of four renting it out for a whole week.
She stepped out of the way, and I went in.
“Nice pajamas.” They were pink-and-white-striped.
“I was catching up on admin stuff, and I wanted to be comfortable.”
“No complaints.” Not when the shirt molded around her tits the way it did, and her shorts rode higher on her thighs.
The blinds were closed, and her suitcase was open on the little table. Her laptop was open on the nightstand. The rest of her belongings and what she kept of her mom’s stuff was in the shop.
“Let me move that.” She closed her luggage and put it on the desk.
I set our food down, but a sour taste was filling my taste buds as I looked around. “It’s going to be a long week in this room.”
She shot me a smile as she retrieved two bottles of water out of the little fridge. “Are you saying these rooms are stifling and uncomfortable?”
After a week, yes. “They’re nice, but living and working out of them is different than staying for vacation.”
“It won’t be for the whole week.” She handed me a water and sat on the far side of the table. “We’re full tomorrow night, so I’ll sleep in my office.”
“The hell you will.” I pressed my hands on the table to emphasize my point. “You can stay at my place.”
“I can’t,” she said plainly.
“I have a bathtub.”
She opened her mouth and snapped it shut. The rooms had bathtub-shower combos, but it was harder to soak in a tub that needed to be cleaned and dry before guests checked in. “That’s a strong bargaining chip.”
Why did I have to negotiate? Why couldn’t she just fall into my arms? Her independence was biting me in the ass. “Damn right it is. I have more than three condoms at home too.”
“You need a lot there?” she asked lightly, but there was an insecurity in her eyes I didn’t like.
“I can’t exactly carry them all around in my wallet.” I deliberately and slowly dragged my gaze down her bare legs. “No matter how much we could burn through all of them.”
“You sure it’s okay?”
There was the opening, and I could pounce on it. Did I make the offer? Was it too soon? Or way, way too late? “Why don’t you stay there the whole time?”
Her eyes went wide. “Oh. I couldn’t.”
My butt hit the chair. Shit. I was both too late and too early trying to crack the door back open with her. “It makes sense.”
“People talk.”
I cocked my head. Did I hear her right? “You’re afraid that people are going to gossip after they’ve seen us out together? After they’ve probably noticed I’ve stayed at your place?”
“It’s not that.” Guilt filled her eyes. “I mean, it is. I went to the hardware store the other day, and Constance was there. She threw it in my face.”
“Fuck her.”
“I know.” She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. “I know. I’m just trying hard to be taken seriously, and being at least a little self-reliant will do that.”
She didn’t need to sleep in her office to be self-reliant, but I could understand it from her perspective. I pushed her food toward her. “It’s prime rib night.”
“You got us prime rib?”
Enjoying her surprise and the hungry glint in her eyes, I nodded. “So eat and think about how well you’d be able to run this place when you don’t have to sleep on the floor of your office.”
She pursed her lips and mock-glared at me. “You’re playing dirty.”
I might have to. She considered sleeping on a mat in her office over staying with me. She was stubborn enough to do it too. “You have to take care of yourself.”
“And you make sure I do.”
“Yes.” I slid the silverware over. “Now eat.”
When we were done, I cleaned up our containers and put them into the bag. “I can take that out with me when I go.” I stood by the nook to the bathroom. Did she want me to go now? I couldn’t suffocate her. “I should let you work.”
She wrung her hands together. Her tight nipples poked through her pajama top. “I’m really full right now, but maybe you could hang out for a bit?”
A sly smile spread across my lips. “What would we do?”
“I’d hate for that big box of condoms to go unused.”
A small struggle took place in my brain.
She was keeping me in full messing-around territory, but staying at my house was too much.
I was a fling. A friend with benefits. That chafed worse than blue jeans on a humid day.
I didn’t want to turn her down, but how could I use this chance to get closer?
To go beyond sex and see what developed?
“I’m yours as long as you need me.” As long as she wanted me.
“Let me finish some orders.”
She didn’t just want to jump me and kick me out. Maybe this wasn’t the uphill battle I worried it’d be. I swan-dove onto the bed, bounced once, and flipped over. Putting my hands behind my head, I grinned. “Want the weather on?”
Smiling, she got comfortable next to me and put the laptop on her legs. “Watch whatever you want.”
Since she was in work mode, I kept the TV on the weather channel to plan out my work. I relaxed into the bedding, listening to the forecast and the clack of her keys.
What would this be like to go home to? I’d sprawl on the couch. She’d be next to me, or on me, or even in the recliner, working away. Then I’d carry her to bed and strip her down and take my time with her. I’d show her with my body, with hers, everything I couldn’t yet say out loud.
A longing emptiness opened inside me. Yeah. I wanted that.
She smothered a yawn and closed the laptop. Flopping to her back, she sighed. “That’s good until morning.”
“If you’re tired, I can go.” I didn’t make a move. I’d rather stay. “Or I can wait until you fall asleep.”
She rolled to her side and propped her hand on her head. “You’d do that? No sex?”
There was more between us than sex. More than a working relationship. I had to show her. “You don’t know how satisfying hearing you snore is.”
She laughed. “Nothing hotter.” Rolling into me, she tucked herself into my side.
“Want to get under the blankets?”
“No, I just need to mellow for a bit. I can’t believe all the work on Mom’s old place is done. That cabinet hardware took fifteen years off the kitchen.”
“You mean you can’t believe that your impulsive idea to give up your home to earn more of an income for the resort came to fruition?”
“It was impulsive. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
That was something a lot of people would say, but coming from her, she meant it more literally—and she was wrong. “No, I helped you get it done sooner. You had an idea, and we both expedited it.”
She shoved my shirt up and flattened her hand on my stomach. “We did.”
Her hand rose and fell with my breathing. I kept my arm around her, but my body noticed she was snug against me. Arousal pooled in my groin, and my erection grew, but I didn’t make a move on her.
Her fingers twitched against my skin, then she drifted her hand down. Her touch was hot over my jeans, but my dick felt it as if there was no denim or underwear in the way.
She rose to her knees. “I want to explore you.”
I clasped my hands behind my head. Did she need to feel in control? Was she having the same trouble as me in expressing herself? In admitting how perspectives had shifted?
Everything was still so uncertain for her, and while I was used to landing on my feet, she wasn’t. “Go ahead, boss. I’m all yours.”
Sheridan
He was my own buffet, spread before me all strong and relaxed.
His hair was pushed off his forehead, but his dark eyes clocked every move I made.
The power it gave me was unrivaled. I ignored the sense that this was a shift in the dynamic between us.
That I was taking more control and needing less of a hand up from him.
He was letting me do with him what I wanted, but perhaps he was powerless against his need to let me.
I slid his zipper down. His breath hitched, and god, why was that little move so powerful?
Tugging open his jeans, I freed his long, hard shaft.
This was mine to do what I wanted with. The stress and rat race of the last few weeks had left me mentally and physically exhausted.
I should get some sleep. Technically, it was the weekend—but I was covering the front desk for one of our part-timers at a family reunion.
Tonight was mine. I was sort of caught up, and I had Jasper at my disposal.
I pumped my hand up and down his shaft, eliciting a groan from him. My confidence grew even if I didn’t know what to do with all this man. Did I keep stroking him so I could rake my gaze over him? Or did I put my mouth on him? Did I ditch my pajama bottoms and climb on?
I wanted to do it all.
“I’m going to get your wallet out.” I dug into his back pocket.
“Have at it.” His voice was rough. “What’s mine is yours.”
I could read way into that, but he was talking about his body. His condoms. He might even let me take all his cash. He did not mean it in the eternal sense. I wasn’t going to blur the lines we’d marked between us.
I took out a condom and put his wallet on my pillow. Then I wrapped my fingers back around his cock. “I don’t know where to start.”
He twitched in my hold. “You’re doing just fine.”
I smiled and licked my lower lip. Fuck it. I scooted down and straddled his legs.
I wasn’t a girl who liked to go down on a guy. I hated the feeling of obligation. The quid pro quo of it all. But when it came to Jasper, the eagerness was endless. He was a giving man. Generous. He took so much off my shoulders that I just wanted to give him pleasure.