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Chapter FiveSadieI wake with a groggy feeling, fatigue draped over me like an invisible heavy blanket.
Getting to sleep last night was next to impossible with the word Sparkplug bouncing around my head, causing spirals of confusion to move through me, making me question why the heck Saul Sykes would banter with me like that.
I sit up and let out a yawn, my head pulsing with a headache from lack of sleep.
With the morning sunlight shafting through the windows, hazy with the clinging snow, the meeting with Saul last night seems like a dream.
Did we really stand bare inches from each other, so close I could feel his breath, see the brimming intensity in his eyes?
Did we really laugh together?
I shake my head and stand, dragging myself into the ensuite, maybe a will shower help to wash away some of the unreality still tethered to me from last night.
It’s painfully predictable what traitorous thoughts flood into my mind the second the hot water slides down my skin, making me tingle and sizzle with the heat of it. And even if I saw it coming a mile away, it makes no difference.
His hands, the sultriness of his breath, the way he strode confidently over to me as though any second he was going to lean down and kiss me.
I wash quickly, not allowing those thoughts to push me to anything I might regret. The shower pressure is way too freaking tempting with Saul staring sternly at me in my mind, with that smirk touching his lips, my nickname ready to fire at me and send me into a confusing world of sensation.
Wrapping myself in the fluffy bathrobe, I walk across the bathroom, the heated floors drying my feet almost by the time I get to the bedroom door. I glance at my phone and see that I’ve got a text from Aaron, letting me know he’s thinking of me. I text him back and then spot the handwritten note on the bedside table.
Is it from him? a voice whispers in my mind, too full of giddy hopefulness. I bet it is. He’s going to ask if I’m a Sparkplug in more ways than one. He’s going to tell me to meet him in some secret room and then we’re going to give in to this wild feeling I can’t get rid of, that I don’t want to get rid of.
I let out a sigh when I pick up the note, but whether it’s of relief or disappointment even I can’t tell.
Tried waking you, but you were really out of it. I’m running into Marchway to check out the bookstore. I’ll be back by lunchtime. Lots of love and try not to piss Dad off LOL xx
I glance at my phone again, reading the time.
Half-past nine, which means that potentially I’m going to be alone in the house with Saul for the next two plus hours.
I drop onto the edge of the bed, wrapping my arms around myself so that the fluffy material of the bathrobe presses closer to my skin.
This is a big house – that’s an understatement – so it wouldn’t exactly be difficult for me to stay out of Saul’s way until Fiona got home. I could even just stay in my room, ensuring that our paths don’t cross. That way I won’t have to address Sparkplug or last night, or the seemingly real possibility that the whole thing was a figment of my imagination, a twisted dream.
“Jasper.”
His voice, just outside my bedroom door, growly and husky just like it was last night.
“Dammit, boy.”
I leap to my feet and brush down my bathrobe when I see my door cracking open, and then snap open when the powerful dog comes loping into the room, a big pink grin on his face as he bounds over to me, all wagging tail and hanging tongue.
“Hello, Jasper,” I laugh. “This is a nice surprise.”
I reach down to greet him as he sits like a good boy, taking my petting in a dignified way.
And sure, maybe I focus on Jasper so I don’t have to address the hulking form of Saul filling the doorframe, standing there in a silver suit with a confused expression on his face, his lips twisted, his eyes seeming to flit over me before settling elsewhere, anywhere else, anywhere except for me.
Look at me, some part of me screams. Drink me in with your eyes. Possess me with your gaze.
“He never normally does that,” Saul murmurs, stalking slowly into the room. “Just running off like that. He must really like you.”
“He’s the cutest dog in the universe,” I baby-talk to him, framing his face in my hands and leaning down to kiss him on the top of the head.
It’s only as I stand that I realize the movements caused my robe to shift, showing the top of my chest, maybe a little cleavage. I glance up at Saul and see that his lips have become a hard line with a subtle twist that could mean disgust or … or what? Or lust?
