Actually, she might already be asleep.
“Let’s go home, baby.”
My voice is soft, so I don’t scare the shit out of her, and she opens her eyes and smiles over at me.
It looks like even that much movement is strenuous for her.
“Home sounds great.” She sighs and walks right into my arms, buries her face in my chest and leans into me. “It was such a good day.”
“I know I said it about a dozen times today, but I’m so proud of you, Wildfire. You were the talk of the town today.”
She doesn’t fight me when I lift her into my arms.
“It’s past midnight.” I kiss her forehead once, and it feels so good that I do it again. “Tell me that you got everything prepped so you don’t have to come in here in four hours.”
“I’ll come in at six and start baking,” she replies with a yawn. “You have to put me down so I can shut everything off and lock the door.”
I don’t like it, but I do as she says, and follow her around as she turns off lights, checks the stove and ovens, then tosses her apron in a hamper and grabs her handbag.
She checks the lock three times before she turns to climb into my truck.
Once I’ve pulled onto the road to head home, I take her hand. “Why do you always check the locks three times, Juliet?”
She squeezes my hand, and I hear her sigh next to me. “Because Justin used to sneak into my room to fuck with me. He’d hide in there, and when I came in, he’d do the jump-scare thing. Startle me. He loved to do that when I was in the shower, too, and one time I fell and hit my head. Knocked me out. I woke up a few minutes later, still in the bottom of the running shower, and Justin was laughing his ass off in the kitchen. It’s a wonder I didn’t drown.”
My hand tightens on the wheel, and anger pulses through me.
Motherfucking asshole.
“It got to where I not only made sure that I locked the door, but I got to be a bit OCD about it, checking over and over again. Now it’s just a habit to check three times.”
“Fuck, I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, well, that wasn’t the worst of it.” She says it so casually, as if it’s sonormal, it makes my teeth clench. “Between the control he had on every dime I spent, basically isolating me from everyone, and well. It doesn’t matter now. What anasshole. I’m glad I had them pull the plug, but I’ll deny it if you ever tell anyone I said that.”
“I’d like to resurrect him and skin him alive.”
I feel her gaze on me as I pull into our driveway.
“And I don’t give a fuck who you tell that I said that. I’ll say it to anyone who asks. That motherfucker deserved far more pain than he got.”
Here in the dark quiet of my truck, Jules lifts my hand to her cheek and smiles softly.
“I’m so great now, Brooks. I’m not scared or sad. I have an incredibly full life, withtwohouses that my insanely hot husband bought for me, a business that’s thriving, and friends and family who make me feel like they’ve been mine forever. It doesn’t get any better than this. So we don’t need to be angry with him anymore. He’s gone, and he can’t hurt me.”
“You’re incredible, you know that? Come on, let’s get you into bed.”
“I need a shower,” she says as she opens her door.
“What are you doing?” I can hear the amusement in my voice when she frowns over at me. “Youneveropen your own door, Wildfire. Not if I’m around.”
“Yeah, yeah, chivalry and all that.” She rolls her eyes, but I lift an eyebrow, and she lets out a chuckle. “Well, get a move on, husband, I’m tired.”
“You’resogoing to pay for that,” I mutter as I get out and walk around to help her out of the truck.
Jules heads straight back to the bedroom, shedding out of her clothes on the way, leaving a trail behind her, which I happily collect and toss into the hamper when I get to the bedroom and see her gorgeous naked ass stride into the bathroom.
The shower comes on as I strip out of my own clothes. Although I’ve already had a shower, there’s no way in hell that I won’t go in there with her right now.
