AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Fuck,” he says, grabbing my shirt and chucking it my way. “I got to go.”
“Now?” I pout.
“Duty calls.” He takes the call as I collect my clothes and get redressed. When he returns to the kitchen less than two minutes later, he’s in full uniform. I watch in fascination as he attaches his gun belt around his waist. Something about this moment feels strangely…normal. It’s intimate in a way it shouldn’t be. Dammit, I can’t be catching feels.No feels, Aurora. You know better!
“Thanks for the lesson, Chief,” I say at the door, stupidly hoping for a goodbye kiss I shouldn’t want.
I don’t get one.
CHAPTER8
Garrett
“You look like shit.” Jade says without sympathy from her perch on the edge of the kitchen counter. The same counter I very nearly—
The thought causes a nearly invisible stutter step, and her eyebrows shoot upward in time with a smirky grin. I refuse to make eye contact, glancing instead to the full coffee mug she’s holding with both hands. I fucking pray she made a whole pot and saved me some. The stronger the better.
“You’re up early.”
“I have a shift at the diner. Planning to babysit me again?”
I undo my gun belt and nearly drop it on the floor before I remember I have a house guest. I carry it into the bedroom and tuck it into my closet. Accessible if I get called out again. Out of the way where Jade’s concerned. I’m halfway through unbuttoning my shirt when I sense my sister’s presence hovering in the doorway.
“Want to talk about it?”
“Trust me. You don’t want the gory details.”
“What exactly did youdoto Aurora?”
“Wh—” I let out a heavy sigh that turns into a yawn. Last night I was called out to assist with a bad accident a couple miles north of town involving a semi, a crotch rocket, and a moose. The only thing I want is a shower, though I know it won’t be enough wash away the stench. Some days I get to help people in need. Keep them safe from harm. Other days, I’m too late to change anything.
My stomach threatens to turn over with the memories.
“I was out on a call,” I finally tell Jade since she’s refused to budge. I pull off my shirt and toss it on a pile of laundry that’s overdue for a wash. Even as I turn the shower on, my baby sister doesn’t seem to get the hint.
“What happened with Aurora?”
“Nothing.” I answer too quickly, giving myself away. Because the truth is far fromnothing. The memory of her curvy body wrapped around me like a fucking delicious pretzel promises to erase all the bad memories of the accident. But it was the handsy playfulness in the kitchen that nearly made me miss the call. I was so wrapped up in Aurora and what I wanted to do to her that I didn’t register my work phone ringing.
That’s a fucking problem.
“You might be able to pull off that poker face with everyone else, but I remember who taught you how to bluff like that.”
She means our father. I shove down the pain of loss the mere mention of him brings up and disappear into the bathroom. I close the door until there’s only an inch of daylight remaining. It’s the only hope I have that Jade won’t barge in to pester me with questions.
“Nothing happened,” I call out, undressing the rest of the way and stepping into the hot stream of water. My half-hard dick reminds me that a lot ofsomethinghappened with Aurora Gray. Parts of me I thought were forever dormant roared to life last night in the kitchen. Parts that can’t entirely be explained away by lust.
“I’ll just ask her myself,” Jade’s sing-songy voice calls through the crack. “At work.”
“Good luck with that.”
The door clicks shut. Thank fucking god.
My nonchalance is a ruse. I tense, wondering if Aurora plans to tell anyone what happened between us. Would she tell her sisters? Would she tell mine? I know she has girlfriends. If people know something happened between us before the news of her arrest is made public in a few days, it could complicate the rumors. Make it uncomfortable for both of us in a small town that loves its fucking gossip. People will think I offered her a break in exchange for sex.
“Fuck me,” I groan.
There’s a reason I stay away from complicated women. It’s not as though I haven’t been tempted before. But the hold Aurora has over me is downright fucking scary. The desperate urge I felt when I pulled into the driveway a little bit ago to see her standing in my kitchen where I left her. To have her be the one to greet me after a horrid night. What I wouldn’t give for Aurora to be waiting in my bed now, offering to distract me from the horrors of the world.
