“Thanks.” She smiles. “I love cooking but don’t get the chance to cook for others often. Just Sarah.” She shrugs, and I think back to my earlier thoughts and the questions I had.
“I’m not sure how I got so lucky that no one has locked you down yet. You bake, you cook, you’re beautiful. What else are you hiding?” I tease.
I feel her body tense beside me, and it makes me look at her more closely and wonder, is there something she’s hiding? Just as fast as I think it, it’s gone. There is no way Jade could be hiding something. Sure, she’s shy, but I don’t think she would hide anything. She’s too genuine.
“I’ve never really dated,” she tells me with a brief shrug. “So no one has really had the chance to lock me down.” I can tell she means for it to be light and playful, but I sense hurt behind her words. Who could hurt this amazing and kind woman?
“Lucky me then,” I say, making her blush.
We finish our meal in a comfortable silence and then head out to the patio to rest our stomachs before dessert. The sun is setting, and its orange rays beat down on us. I reach for Jade’s hand as she walks by the chair I’m sitting on and give it a little tug. She bites her lip and hesitates for a moment before she lets me lead her to stand in front of me. My eyes graze up her frame,and I gently pull her down onto my lap. She’s stiff at first but eventually relaxes against me. Her head rests under my chin, and I can’t help but smell the floral and honey of her shampoo. My dick twitches and I have to shift in my seat. We sit there like that for a while, just watching the sun go down, and I hope to God she can’t feel my raging hard on. She shifts, her ass dragging over my cock, and I curse, letting out a groan.
“Oh,” she says, her cheeks heating as she realizes my body has reacted to her. “I’m so sorry.”
I chuckle. “No need to be sorry.” I kiss the side of her head, and she gets up from my lap, allowing me to tug at my trousers.
“I’ll go get the cake,” she says, bolting through the patio door. Once she’s gone, I quickly rearrange myself and let out a breath. I don’t think I’ve ever been this hard, and all she did is sit on my goddamn lap.
We eat the cake and watch the final rays of the sun set before we go inside to clean up. Everything washed and put away, she walks me to the door.
“Thanks for dinner and dessert,” I say, bending down to place a kiss on the top of her head.
“It was my pleasure.” She smiles up at me, and now my hard on is back in full force as I think about her pleasure. I need to get home and jerk one out asap before I combust in my pants like some fucking horny teenager.
“Bye, beautiful. See you tomorrow.”
“Goodnight.”
I’m just pulling into my driveway when my pager goes off.
“Fuck,” I curse before dialing the station.
Garrett picks up. “Sheriff. You need to come in. We got another body.”
Our victim from last night has been identified. A young woman on vacation with her best friend went out for a smoke last night and never returned. Just like the other victims, she’s blonde. Her friend says they just celebrated her twenty-sixth birthday.
This is such a fucking mess. Four bodies and no fucking leads.
Cade comes into my office, plopping down and looking a little haggard. When he met us at the crime scene last night, he said Maysie was sick with the flu and Hudson started complaining about a stomach ache after dinner.
“You look like shit,” I tell him.
Slumping down in the chair by my desk, he runs his hands over his face and lets out a sigh. “Feel like it too. I’m fucking exhausted, man.”
“You need to quit putting it off and get help already.”
“I know,” he grumbles.
“Go home and get some sleep.”
“Mom’s there with the kids. Both of them are throwing up now. I don’t want to go there and have her think she needs to watch me too. You know how she can be.”
I dig in my pocket and produce my keys. “Here.” I throw them. “Go sleep it off at my house. And take the goddamn day off tomorrow.”
“Thanks, man.”
Cade leaves just as Ian enters. “Hey, I’m heading out. A call came in from Small Town Stories for a domestic dispute”
“How much you want to bet it’s going to be fucking Shepard,” I snarl.
