A smile that made me smile in return. “Hey there, beautiful.”
Fourteen
Chloe
Everything was a blur after I saw him smile. It lit up his features in a way I’d never seen before, and I committed the entire scene to memory. I remembered him turning off the shower. Scooping me into his arms. I briefly remembered the feeling of a towel against my skin. And when I came to the next morning, something strong and tight wrapped around my waist.
“Mmmm, morning,” he murmured.
I giggled and turned myself around in his arms before kissing the tip of his nose. The sleepy smile that crossed his face before his snores started back up made me want to grab his cheeks and kiss him even deeper. But I wasn’t a fan of morning breath. Especially his.
“Ugh,” I whispered as I turned back around.
Hey, not everything can be romantic, right?
The second my phone vibrated on the bedside table, though, I quickly snatched it up. The sound caused West to turn over, releasing my waist in favor of getting comfortable, and I took the liberty of checking the message. I mean, I knew who it was. It wasn’t Lexi because if she needed me, she’d just come knock on my door. Plus, she was much too preoccupied with her new family. Not that I was complaining or anything. It did make things a bit lonely, though.
Well, whenever West wasn’t railing me.
The memory made me smile before I checked my text messages, and my perfect little sexual bubble burst.
Agent Baker: We need to talk. Call in fifteen.
“Shit,” I whispered.
Well, at least he wasn’t asking me to go anywhere, which was a plus. I peeked over my shoulder at a snoring West before I attempted to ease myself out of bed. I rummaged around for a long t-shirt before settling on wearing his, and as I scooped it up from the bathroom floor my phone buzzed.
Chad was calling.
Of course, he wouldn't wait the entire fifteen minutes.
“I thought you said fifteen,” I whispered before I pulled the shirt over my head.
“Meeting got out later than usual. And you know I don’t operate on your schedule.”
I scoffed before I closed the bathroom door. “I wasn’t the one who set the schedule, Chad.”
“You mean, Agent Baker.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Look, I’m glad you’re calling, because we really need t—”
“Still at that retreat, I see.”
I froze. “What?”
“Your GPS still says you’re out in the middle of nowhere. Sure you don’t have an address change you want to update with us?”
I rolled my eyes. “Just because I’m getting away from it all for a little while doesn’t mean I need a damn address change.”
“So, if I come out there to find you, I’m going to find a luxurious retreat you’ve been on for two and a half weeks now?”
God, it felt so much longer than that. But I chose to ignore his goading. I knew he was trying to get me for something. Anything. The man had always treated me like shit. But I knew that if he figured out where I was, who I was with, and who I had suddenly become involved with, he’d use it against me.
He’d ruin my life with it, and he’d try to get me to ruin everyone else’s as well.
“Anyway,” he said, bursting the silence, “I have more information on this case you did some work for us on. Can you meet me at—”
I closed my eyes. “I can’t work on the case any longer. Something has come up.”
