I also hated that he’d seen me in a compromising position with Gina, but I took comfort in the fact that she’d been covered up. It could’ve been so much worse. I’d been wrong to do something like that as sheriff, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t damn good at my job.
Beware of rampant lust—while on duty anyway.
At home, however...
I brushed a kiss over her shoulder, working my way over to her neck.
She reacted after a couple minutes, smiling and stretching. “Good morning.”
“Good morning to you. How are you feeling?” I fumbled around the back of her head, checking for the knot. It seemed smaller. Almost unnoticeable. “How’s the head? If you’re not feeling well—”
“You’ll have the ambulance out here before I can get my underwear on? Believe me, I know. I’m okay. Slightest soreness ever. It was just a tiny tap. Don’t even know why I fainted.”
“Concrete’s not meant for heads to land on.”
“And the women in town say it’s the baby blues that make you hot. Little do they know about your powers of observation.”
“Smart ass.”
“You like my ass
.”
I peeked under the sheet and murmured in approval. “Sure do.”
“Why were you even there last night? I thought you had to work.” She smiled. “Sami looked so sweet in that reindeer onesie. Where did you find that?”
“My dad found it actually. Turns out he’s already getting into the PawPaw thing.”
“PawPaw? Cute. And of course he would. Parents live to be grandparents. It’s like their job in life to wheedle grandkids out of their unsuspecting children. You just presented him with one.”
“So did you.”
She didn’t reply.
I had to keep my cool. We’d taken years to get to this place. It wasn’t as if I could tie off bows on everything just because we’d had sex.
Roof-raising sex. The kind I’d always known we’d have—when I wasn’t burying the very idea.
One thing at a time.
I set my chin on her shoulder and tried a different direction.
“I called Caleb,” I admitted. “He wanted to cancel the date because he had this crazy idea I wanted to drive him out of town and leave him for dead.”
Her brow arched. “You? How could he?”
Since she was warm and sated in my bed, I was magnanimous enough to laugh. “I don’t know. I’m a nonviolent sort.”
“Right. Practically a puppy. Who carries a gun legally.” She sent a sultry look at me over her shoulder. “Two guns.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere you haven’t been already. I didn’t demand he cancel. If he’d intended to go, I would’ve stepped back.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“I would have.”
“Just lurked in the bushes like a creeper?”