Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
I went back to him, and with no small amount of shock, asked, “You got in bed beside me, and I didn’t wake up?”
He shook his head. “Nope. You were dead to the world.”
Argh!
I wasted my second-best nightie!
Okay, don’t panic.
Maybe I could salvage things.
“If you work late, don’t you get to go to work later in the morning?” I tried.
“I am going to work later in the morning,” he answered.
“By…an hour.”
He seemed to be struggling with a smile, when I didn’t think anything was funny, because, again, we hadn’t broken the seal.
“I have some more bad news,” he announced.
I’d barely been awake five minutes. I was already not thrilled with what I was processing. I wasn’t sure I could take more bad news.
“Fabulous,” I muttered.
“I gotta take a shift in the surveillance room tonight. I won’t be relieved until late. So I probably won’t see you until tomorrow.”
“Wait. I thought only the junior investigators did that.”
“They would only do it if we had the appropriate staff hired to man that room. Now, we all have to kick in.”
“But you worked late last night,” I pointed out.
“Taking my turn is part of that ‘taking your brothers’ backs’ I was talking about last night.”
God!
Why did he have to be so responsible and dedicated to teamwork?
“So we’re not gonna break the seal on wild, sweaty sex until, earliest, tomorrow?”
I barely got the last word out before I had an arm around my waist, I was flying through the air only to hit a hard wall of muscle, and then I was being kissed.
Hard. Deep. Wet.
And delicious.
I had my hands in his hair. Eric had jacked up my nightie at the back, so I also had his hand cupping one cheek of my ass inside my panties, skin to skin. Their first introduction. And they liked each other a whole lot.
This made me think he was going to be irresponsible and go even later to work.
I was in for that.
All in.
But he set me on my knees in bed, slid his hand out of my panties and the pad of the thumb of his other hand ran along my lower lip.
“I couldn’t help it,” he murmured, watching his thumb move. “It was the nightie. But that was a mistake.”
“I take it that means you’re going,” I noted.
“Sorry, honey,” he whispered.
“Do not even say I’m the bigger tease, ever again.”
He smiled at me, kissed my nose, and ordered, “Don’t dive into that icebox cake. We’ll have it tomorrow.”
And then he was gone.
Gah!
I fell back on the bed.
And I was Jessica Rose Wylde. I didn’t do what I did next.
Ever.
But I did it then.
Because I couldn’t help it.
No Eric.
No icebox cake.
Thus, I pouted.
For a very long time.
One could say I was not in a better mood by the time I swung into work later that morning.
I knew I wasn’t hiding it when Harlow, behind the bar shooting Diet Coke into a glass, turned to look at me, her eyes got big, and she said, “I can tell something’s wrong, but with that look on your face, I’m scared to ask what it is.”
Raye came back with some empty mugs while I explained, “Eric was called out last night in the middle of dinner because one of the cases he was working broke. He didn’t get home until late. He was wiped, and I was out, so I only saw him this morning long enough for him to tell me he’s working the surveillance room tonight, so I won’t see him until tomorrow. Oh, and he laid a hot kiss on me, leaving me wet and frustrated, before he went to work. And just FYI, I don’t have any awesome memories of sticky, delectable sex with Eric to tide me over, because we haven’t done it yet.”
Harlow scrunched up her face in disappointment for me.
Raye grimaced.
She then said ruefully, “Just so you know, Cap was working that case with Eric so he was out until all hours too. And it happens, Jess. A lot. Probably two, three times a week. He gets home late as well.” Her gaze on me became intense. “It’s important to understand, babe, these are not nine to five guys.”
“I can tell he loves his job,” I retorted. “That’s not the issue. The issue is, I’ve gone through the top three of my four sexiest nighties, and they saw no action. I’ve got one left, then I’m down to the dregs. Sure,”—I flipped out a hand—“those dregs are top-notch. I don’t do anything but. They just aren’t my best. Now we have this situation with these abductions, and we have questions to ask and stakeouts to do, which means I don’t have time to run to the mall to find even better ones to mark the occasion.”
At this point, I realized we had an audience, so I turned to the bar to see Byron standing there.