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Instead, I pulled a chair from the kitchen table and climbed up on it to see if there was a button to shut the alarm up. It looked ancient, definitely not hooked up to the house electrical, and I ended up pulling the cover off and taking the battery out.
A few minutes later, I was back up on the chair, trying to replace the battery now that the smoke was gone, standing there like a naked statue on a pedestal, when Ava reached the bottom of the stairs and met my gaze, her eyes wide and alarmed.
“Everything’s fine,” I reassured her. “No fire department en route. No flames.”
Her gaze lowered to my dick and that was enough to make me semi-hard again. That and seeing her all quickly thrown together, her hair pulled up and still wet, her lips still a little swollen. It made me want to get her all undone again.
As I climbed down from the chair, she averted her gaze, still not smiling, and smoothed a hand down the side of her shorts, drawing my attention to her slender, gorgeous legs. They weren’t long legs, but they didn’t need to be. I could spend hours nibbling on them, running my tongue over them, showing my appreciation of her body. There were subtle changes from the past, like just a few more womanly curves at her waist, and I loved every one of them. Wanted to spend more time learning them in fine detail.
Without saying anything, she went toward her shoes and slid her feet into them. I couldn’t help noticing she hadn’t looked at me again. I pulled the towel back around my waist, sensing she was uncomfortable, though I wasn’t sure why. What we’d shared upstairs had been fucking incredible, and I’d swear, just fifteen minutes ago, she’d agreed.
“Are you okay?” I asked, stepping closer to her, stopping myself from dragging her up against me.
Her phone sounded an alert, and she lifted it and read a message.
“Fine,” she said as she read the message on her phone. “That’s from the Patels. They’re ready to check out, so I have to go.” She turned toward the door, then spun back to me, stood on tiptoes, and pressed a quick kiss to my lips, almost like an afterthought.
My hand went to her waist as she did it, but she hurried off, leaving me grasping at air.
“I’ll see you later,” she said, then hurried out the door, leaving me standing there, staring after her, wondering what the fuck had just happened.
It was nothing good, no question about it. I understood we’d picked an inopportune time to get horizontal, but I couldn’t help but be aware of two glaring facts.
One, she’d been rushed and botheredbeforeshe’d received the text from the inn guests.
And two, she’d used the wordfine. I had more than enough experience with women to know to never trust it when a woman says she’s fine.
Chapter15
Ava
Standing outside of the inn, I shoved my misgivings aside, headed to the door, and blazed inside as if I didn’t have a doubt in the world.
“Hello,” I sang out to the Patels. “It’s been one heck of a morning.”Not. A. Lie. “Thanks for your patience. Let’s get you checked out and on your way as quickly as possible.”
“Oh, we’re in no hurry at all,” Janie Patel said as she wrapped herself around her new husband’s arm. “We’re taking the scenic route home. Driving. No schedule at all. We’re going to enjoy the next three days ofusbefore we get back to Bismarck.”
“You two are so lucky,” I said as I went around the counter and pulled out their paperwork.
Janie giggled, exchanged a look with her husband, Ari. “We think so.”
I was a newlywed once. I hated to think of Wes now, but I’d loved him at one time—or at least I’d thought I did. If this was what love looked like, where two people couldn’t stop touching each other, couldn’t stop exchanging private smiles, then I wasn’t so sure I could’ve called it love even back then. These two seemed to have the type of connection everyone searched for.
Cash’s image popped into my mind, taunting me, trying to make me confuse lust with love, so I got down to business.
“Other than skipping the early-morning fire alarm, is there anything we could do better here at the Honeysuckle Inn?” I asked them, bracing a little for their response. This was my first time asking that, something I’d seen recommended in one of the hundreds of articles about running an inn I’d read over the past week.
Ari Patel folded the papers I’d handed him and slid them into his pocket. “There were a couple of times we thought it would be nice to have room service.”
Janie giggled again, and it was quite clear why they hadn’t wanted to leave their room.
“I’m in the food service industry,” Ari continued. “I couldn’t help noticing that the kitchen here would be more than adequate for some light food service, beyond breakfast pastries. It seems a waste of space as it is.”
I tilted my head, considering what he said, unable to argue with any of it. Also unable to wrap my head around how I could manage adding food service to my list, but it was worth thinking about. “That’s a great suggestion. Something for me to consider. Thank you.”
“I love the loungers out by the lake,” Janie said. “They’re good for getting some sun—or moonlight. It’d be even better if they had some thick cushions.” Again with the giggle and the weighted look at her husband, and I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know exactly what they’d done out on the loungers under the moon.
“Cushions for the loungers. Fabulous idea.” I jotted both it and the room service idea on a pad of Post-its.
