45. Chapter 45
Chapter forty-five
Saturday, the day after the wedding: Frankie
B ang. Bang. Bang.
Frankie’s eyes popped open, unsure whether the noise came from the hotel room door or inside her pounding head. Water . Her mouth was so dry, likely because all the drool had fallen out and soaked into her pillow. God, her breath could probably melt plastic. Maybe she should sneak off to the bathroom for a quick brush and rinse before a fourth round—
Her mind flatlined when she peeked over at the other side of her bed only to find it empty.
When the hell had Benjamin left?
She slept like the dead (especially after a sex marathon), but surely she would have felt him get out of the bed. Heard the creaky front door. A chill washed over her even as she pulled the heavy comforter up to her neck.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Nope. That came from the door and echoed in her hungover skull. Who the hell was bugging her at—she squinted at the side table clock—eight-forty-three in the damned morning? An evil son of a bitch, that’s who.
Unless . . .
Maybe Benjamin changed his mind.
Maybe he had snuck out to grab coffee and breakfast for them .
Bounding from bed then pausing momentarily to steady herself against the spins, Frankie snatched a robe off the ground and tugged it around her. “Coming.”
After a quick glance in the mirror that left her cringing at the rat’s nest on her head, she shrugged. It was his fault anyway. Their particular level of enthusiasm would surely leave a mess. She peeked through the peephole and caught a fisheye view of a dark-haired head tipped down as he steadied two travel coffee cups and a paper bag she hoped contained some kind of pastry. Striking her sexiest pose, complete with knee popped out through the slit of her robe, she pulled the door open.
“Are you trying for extra credit—”
A startling pair of brown eyes above a mischievous grin stopped Frankie dead, while the inferno igniting her cheeks reminded her that she was very much alive.
“Someone’s been ridden hard and put away wet.” Todd pushed past Frankie as she instructed herself to close her slack mouth.
“Thanks,” she murmured, peeking out to see if anyone else happened to be in the vicinity. The external hallway was depressingly vacant.
So that was it, then. No see ya . No it’s been fun . No please don’t tell anyone what went down because I could lose my job . He stole away in the night like a coward.
“Jesus. It smells like sex in here.” Todd grinned as he flung the curtains wide, unleashing the bright-as-fuck sun on her room. “How was he?”
“How was who?”
“The sheriff of course.”
“Oh, Clint. Yeah, he was a gentleman.” It wasn’t a lie. It was the god’s honest truth. It wasn’t exactly the whole truth, but whatever .
“Doesn’t smell like he was a gentleman,” Todd said as he cracked the window for a bit of airflow. Spying a small pile of empty condom wrappers on the side table, he nodded in approval. “Glad to see you used protection. Now spill. You don’t have to give me every tiny detail, but give me every tiny detail.”
Frankie accepted the offered paper cup of what smelled like a chai latte and inhaled the spicy-sweet scent. The notes of warm cinnamon conjured fresh flashes of Benjamin all over her—touching, kissing, nibbling. She shook the images from her mind. It was over and done. She needed to take it all at face value and move the hell on.
“Ok, fine. Paint me a blurry watercolor instead.” Todd settled into the threadbare chair in the corner of the room, perching an ankle on his opposite knee. He wore black socks with Christmas lights winding around the ankles. The tacky footwear was in such juxtaposition to his cool, fashionable aesthetic that Frankie finally cracked a little smile. “Was he tender? Did he toss you around like the brute he is? What was he packing? I’m not referring to the Glock on his hip, so don’t be coy.”
Her friend sought vicarious action, and she wanted to deliver. He’d bought her coffee and a chocolate croissant after all. Talking about the whole thing would probably make her feel better. But how much should she divulge?
“Can you keep a secret?”
“I am a master secret keeper.” He leaned forward, propping forearms on his splayed knees. Pointing to his lips, he assured her, “Like a steel-trap.”
“All right.” She shrugged, sinking cross-legged onto her bed with the pastry in her lap. “First off . . . I sent Clint packing last night.”
“Was this after the coitus?”
She choked on a flaky bite. “No. No coitus with the sheriff. ”
“So then who helped you aromatize your room?”
Frankie worried her teeth along her bottom lip, while Todd’s demanding stare burned a hole through her face.
“Benjamin.”
“Professor Prick?” It was her friend’s turn to choke. She waited patiently as he found his bearings. “Oh wait. Never mind. I get it.” He settled back against the chair and took a sip of his coffee.
“What’s there to get?”
“You guys hate fucked.”
“What? No.” One thing was certain: She didn’t hate Benjamin. Was she disappointed that they wouldn’t hook up again? Yes. Were her feelings hurt? Maybe a little. But she wasn’t exactly harboring stabby feelings toward the guy either. “I don’t hate him.”
"Was this your first time together?"
Frankie glanced away and took a long swig of her chai, despite how the scalding liquid decimated her tastebuds.
"I knew you were holding out at the nail salon. I have half a mind to take back that half-eaten pastry," Todd scoffed with mock offense. He rolled his eyes as Frankie dragged her tongue up one side of the croissant to lay claim. "It's cute you think that would stop me."
"We agreed the cabin hookup would be a one-time thing, but then last night . . . Whatever. It was just a meaningless fling and now it's over."
Todd sucked his teeth and narrowed his eyes, the word bullshit hiding on the tip of his tongue, then his eyebrows raised. “You love him.”
Frankie barked out a hysterical laugh. “No, I don’t!”
“But you definitely have feelings for him. Warm, sexy, make you tingle kind of feelings.” He waggled a finger at her, confident in his assessment. “Admit it. I can smell a liar. Even in this sex dungeon candle shop. Yes, I’ll take a triple wick mason jar of the Spank & Spice, please.”
“You’re so dumb,” she mumbled, taking another giant bite to avoid confession. Alas, her flaming cheeks responded for her.
“Are you going to be seeing him again?”
She shook her head, barely registering the buttery flake of her usually favorite treat. While she wouldn’t be seeing him intentionally, the truth was she’d probably run into him on and around campus. Their paths did have a tendency to cross after all.
“Why the hell not?”
“Come on, Todd. You know why.”
“I really can’t come up with a single, solid argument.”
“Then please allow me to list them for you.” Frankie brushed the crumbs from her hands, ignoring the snide judgment on Todd’s face as he watched the wayward flakes tumble to the carpet. “First, he’s a professor at the college I attend—”
“Ah, but he is no longer your professor. You won't even be affiliated with the same department.”
“Sure, but fraternizing with a student could still cost him his job security. He told me he’s up for tenure and something like this could derail the whole thing.”
“Sounds like a him problem,” Todd mumbled.
“Second,” she said forcefully, choosing to ignore him. “I am on full academic scholarship. Funny business like banging my teacher could jeopardize that. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a cool fifty grand floating around to back me up. And since I’m not going into social work to get rich, I’d be paying off the resulting student loans well into retirement.”
“I’m sure there are people who would help you if it came to that. Jonathan or your mom.”
“I could never ask them to do that, especially after being so reckless with the scholarship to begin with.”
Her friend shrugged but deflated a little. “That’s fair.”
“Three, Benjamin is damaged, and while I’m the last person to ever judge, he doesn’t do relationships. Something about how it would end badly.”
“I love a brooding academic.”
“Then have at him, be my guest.”
Lounging back in his chair, Todd appeared to consider the idea then swatted away the words like a circling gnat. “Nah, I don’t think he’d ever swing that way.”
“Finally, my animalistically protective older brother probably wouldn’t be too thrilled.”
“Understatement of the century.” He rose and walked to Frankie. The weight of him next to her caused the mattress to dip, and she allowed the excuse to snuggle into her friend's side. “You’re sure there’s nothing you can do to make it work?”
“You mean if he would have stuck around to discuss it instead of disappearing like a thief in the night?”
Todd screwed up his face. “Ok, that’s not a good look. But look on the bright—ouch! What the fu—”
He squirmed, raising a hip to pull something out from under his butt cheek. He held his hand open to find two glimmering baubles in his palm—Benjamin’s cuff links.
“Now I guess you have to see him again.”
“Because he left some jewelry behind? Whatever. Toss ’em or keep ’em.”
Todd’s shrill laughter matched the frantic clamp on Frankie’s wrist. He dropped the twin bits in her hand and stepped away. “While those are not my responsibility, please, please, please, on all that is holy and fashionable, don’t throw them away. Those antique babies could pay for a month of our rent. Plus utilities.”
She eyed the mother of pearl inlay set inside a ring of obsidian, and the word Bvlgari repeated twice around the surrounding silvery metal—though more likely white gold or platinum by Todd’s dramatic response.
“What makes you think they’re antiques?”
“Call it a hunch, but you need to return those. They might be important to him, and I don’t just mean because they’re pretty and expensive.”
He was right. What if they had been a gift from his mother? While Frankie had zero intention of continuing her involvement with Benjamin, she also didn’t resent him enough to toss out a potentially sentimental heirloom.
“I’ll drop them by his office at the start of the next quarter.” What she didn’t say was that she would easily avoid actually seeing him and slip them quickly into the mail slot on his door.