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“A little, but I don’t care.”
He frowned. “I do,” he said, in a no-nonsense, very daddy-like tone.
Gia shivered, and just like that, her libido was back in business.
Xander sat up, taking her hand in his to pull her up as well. “Come on. Let’s get a shower. You have to work today, right?”
Gia’s eyes flew to the clock on her nightstand. She’d been so distracted by Xander and—Jesus—the three orgasms, she’d forgotten all about work.
It was nearly eleven. She’d slept in later than she usually did, but given the late night out, made even later by so much great sex, that was to be expected.
“I’m working the second shift, which is the end of lunch and then the entire dinner shift. I don’t get off until eight,” she added, though that probably didn’t matter to him. “I need to be at the restaurant in an hour.”
Her time with Xander was coming to an end, and it took everything she had not to sulk about that.
Xander tugged her out of the bed, to the bathroom, turning on the shower, and adjusting the dial to hot. Steam began to billow.
“An hour is plenty of time for me to take care of you,” he said, stepping under the water before reaching out for her.
Gia climbed in, his words making sense when he pushed her under the jets, wetting her hair, then grabbing the shampoo.
No one had washed Gia’s hair for her since she’d been a little girl, since before her parents’ deaths.
She loosely held onto his hips as he massaged the shampoo into her hair before helping her rinse it out. Then he picked up the soap and a washcloth and washed every inch of her body.
Gia stood still for it all, uncertain why she wasn’t insisting on doing it herself. She was tired from the sex, but it wasn’t like she was so completely worn out she couldn’t wash herself.
Part of her insisted that even if she tried to take over, Xander wouldn’t let her. But that wasn’t the part stopping her. She was standing there, letting Xander scrub her because she wanted it. No. She needed it. Needed it in ways she couldn’t fully understand.
When he was finished, Gia tried to return the favor, but Xander brushed her hands away, pushing her back against the warm tiles.
“Stand there and wait for me to wash up, Brat,” he commanded.
And once again, she did as he asked because her independent side wasn’t running the show right now. Instead, the little girl who’d felt lost and alone since she was ten years old was in charge, and she refused to give up this moment, this feeling of being loved, cherished, cared for.
Even if that wasn’t Xander’s intent, she was going to pretend it was because it was smoothing out rough edges Gia hadn’t even known were scratching her.
Once they were both clean, Xander turned off the water, grabbing a towel from the rack. He dried her off first, then took care of himself.
She gave him a rueful grin when she saw his discarded—now-wrinkled—pants and shirt in a heap on the floor.
Xander reached for them both, shrugging them on, not bothering to don his boxer briefs.
“Is going home commando the equivalent of the male walk of shame?” she joked.
Xander slipped into his shoes. “Maybe, but I’m not walking home. I’m walking to my car. I didn’t stop at my family’s house before the social, since I was already so late. I’m going to go down and grab some clean clothes to change into. Then, I’m going to walk you to work.”
Another great thing about Gia’s apartment was how close it was to the restaurant. “You don’t have to do that.”
He ignored her as he gave her a quick wink. “Worked up an appetite last night, and you mentioned brisket.”
While he went down in search of clean clothes, Gia quickly threw on her “work uniform” of jeans and a Sparks Barbeque long-sleeved shirt. She was tying up the laces of her tennis shoes when Xander returned. He changed quickly, then they donned winter coats and he led her back to his car, where he stashed his dirty clothes before the two of them took off for the restaurant hand in hand.
She expected him to drop her hand when they stepped into Sparks Barbeque, but Xander held tight, even as several heads turned in their direction.
Gia and Alison weren’t the only fans of small-town gossip. Hell, they weren’t even the biggest fans of what felt like the small-town requirement. That honor rested with Uncle TJ and her cousin, Macie, both of whom were currently staring at them.
Xander claimed a spot at the end of the counter. Gia tried to tug her hand free, but Xander used his grip against her, pulling her close. “Give me a kiss,” he murmured in her ear.
