by A. D. Ryan
After locking myself in the bathroom and starting the tub, I slowly stripped my clothes from my body. I was thankful my painkillers had kicked in for the most part because it made taking my shirt off a little easier. As the tub continued to fill, I stepped in, clutching the edge to carefully lower myself into the steamy, bubble-filled water. The heat of the water eased any residual aches associated with my injuries, causing me to relax further, and I found my thoughts drifting back to my stolen moment with Jensen.
He had wanted to kiss me—I could see it in his eyes—add to that the face-cupping, lips-almost-touching, which I suppose were the more obvious signs. The thought of any of it made me simply giddy. After seeing the look in his eyes, there was simply no denying just how deep his desires went—possibly as deep as mine.
I remained in the tub for just under a half an hour when the porcelain started to aggravate my bruised backside, so I grabbed my towel and stepped out after releasing the plug. Before wrapping my towel around me, I decided to check out my bruises to see if, maybe, they were looking any better. They weren’t. I should have known better. After my most recent fall yesterday, I had bruises on top of my old, fading bruises. They were ugly and black, fading to purple on the outer edges. The darker ones were around my cracked lower ribs. It wasn’t good. I was a mess.
Unable to look at the dark marks on my skin anymore, I wrapped my big fluffy towel around my body, grabbed my discarded clothes, and opened the door. I was startled to find Jensen on the other side. His eyes quickly moved down to the exposed skin of my neck and upper chest, causing my skin to blush under his stare.
“Y-you’re still here,” I stammered.
“Yeah.” His voice was low as he spoke. “I wanted to wait until you were done. To make sure you got out okay.”
“Oh, right.” We stood in the bathroom doorway, the awkward silence that had become somewhat normal between us lingering before I nodded my head to my room. “I should, um, get dressed.”
Please ask if I need help—no, wait …
“Okay. I’ll be home in a few hours. Call if you need anything. I took the bread maker down for you, but please, be careful,” he said, repeating himself for the millionth time in the short time he’d been here.
“Thank you. I will. I’ll see you around dinner, then?”
“Wouldn’t miss it.” With one last longing look—at least, I saw it as longing—Jensen turned and headed for the door while I went and found my white, strapless summer dress to slip on. I didn’t want to worry about pulling a shirt over my head, or a bra aggravating the bruises on my side, so it worked great because it just slid up my body. No buttons or zippers.
After putting on my underwear, I pulled the dress up over my hips and positioned it over my breasts. Once I was dressed, I folded my yoga pants and put them at the end of my bed before folding Jensen’s shirt. I was going to place it on my yoga pants, but then figured Jensen would find it, so I went and hid it in my underwear drawer in hopes he wouldn’t look there. I wasn’t kidding when I said he wasn’t getting it back.
I had a little over four hours until Jensen returned to get a vegetarian pizza put together. I measured each ingredient out perfectly into the handy little machine and pushed the button to start the process. By the time I was finished cleaning up, I felt exhausted; doing even the smallest things seemed to wear me out. Maybe Jensen was right to be so concerned.
Since I had a couple hours before the dough was done, I decided to rest. There was nothing worse than feeling completely helpless; I hated just sitting around. Having slept through the episode of SNL I’d put on earlier, I decided to give it another go. I skipped through the monologue, having seen it already, and was laughing well throughout the show. In fact, there were a few scenes that had me holding my side because I was laughing so hard—maybe comedy was a bad idea in my current condition.
The timer on the bread maker sounded, so I got up and went to prepare the pizza. I placed the pizza in the fridge so I could cook it closer to when Jensen would be back, and then decided maybe that wasn’t enough. I looked through my cupboards and decided to make a simple soufflé for dessert. Okay, simple for some people. I had just finished mixing and dishing them in their own dishes when the front door opened. I wiped my hands on a tea towel and turned to welcome Jensen back.
“Hey,” he greeted brightly. “Still in one piece, I see?” His eyes moved down my body and his brow furrowed slightly—almost disappointed. “You changed.”
“Oh, yeah. I couldn’t really work the shirt alone. This just slid right up.” I paused for a moment before turning toward the fridge and pulling the pizza out and setting the oven temperature “Um, I made pizza for dinner.”
Jensen stood behind me, the heat from his body blanketing me, and he watched over my shoulder as I fidgeted with the shredded cheese on the pizza. “Pizza, huh? Looks delicious.”
“Thanks.” I beamed proudly. “I made dessert, too. I’ll put them in the oven after the pizza so they’re warm when we’re ready for them.”
My eyes were trained on our dinner and nothing else out of sheer nervousness. His head must have shifted, though, because I felt his breath on my cheek. I shuddered.
“You do realize that you’re quite a catch, don’t you?”
I laughed, because my latest failed relationship would prove otherwise. If I was such a catch, Dane wouldn’t have felt the need to treat me the way he did and look elsewhere.
“You have a successful business, your own home, you’re funny, beautiful. You’re not afraid to speak your mind … Madi, you’re every man’s dream girl. Some men are just intimidated by that.”
Even though he didn’t mean anything by it, my heart still strained upon hearing his words. “Well, not every man’s,” I whispered. A lone tear escaped the inner corner of my eye. I caught it with the tip of my finger before Jensen could see.
“He was a fool.” There was a brief pause as our eyes found one another’s, and I heard the sincerity in his words. I contemplated moving to the tips of my toes and kissing Jensen in that moment to forget the pain that remembering Dane’s betrayal and mistreatment had caused. I wanted to feel something other than sad and angry about Dane and how I’d fallen for his lies time and time again. Jensen spoke before I could follow through. “I’m going to go have a shower while dinner cooks. I’ll be out soon.”
With Jensen gone, the oven beeped, alerting me that it was pre-heated, and I slid the pizza onto the top rack before setting the timer for thirty minutes. Moments after the bathroom door closed, the shower started, and I finished putting the rest of my dessert ingredients away.
As I was just closing the pantry, there was a loud knock on my front door that startled me. There weren’t many people who knocked. Dad always just walked in; sometimes he’d give a light knock as he opened the door, but not always. Jeff and Tom rarely came over unless Dad was already here, so knocking wasn’t something they did either. And my best friend, Willow, well she lived with me before shacking up with her boyfriend, Brandon, in Memphis. This was her home first, so she didn’t have to knock.
So, who the hell was knocking on my door at six p.m.? There was another knock as I washed my hands, so I grabbed the dish towel off the counter and dried them as I made my way for the door.
As soon as I opened it, I wanted to slam it shut again but was frozen in place.
Chapter 10. Uninvited Guests
“Hey,” Dane said, his honey-brown eyes appearing hopeful.
“Wh—what are you doing here?” I stammered, still shocked to see him here.
“Can I come in?” He took a step forward before I could answer, so I moved to close the door.
“No,” I replied through a dry laugh. “Definitely not.”
“I think I forgot my cell phone charger. Can I at least look for it?” he asked quietly, his eyes silently begging. It was the polar opposite to how he acted the last time I saw him. My dad made me leave the ranch when Dane came to pack his things, because he didn’t want me
in harm’s way should Dane lose his cool again.
With an exasperated sigh, I stepped aside and allowed him through the front door, closing it behind him and following him to the kitchen. I didn’t want him here; I hated even being around him. Just seeing him again reminded me of the look on his face when he shoved me against the wall and punched a hole through it just outside my bedroom.
I leaned against the stove and watched as he began rifling through the drawer of the island before looking over his shoulder at me. “You wouldn’t take my calls.”
“I had nothing to say to you. Still don’t, actually.” My annoyance and anger were slowly flaring up, pushing away the gut-wrenching hurt and disgust that seeing his face brought up.
“Well, I have plenty to say. I’m so sorry, Madison.” Funny. He didn’t sound sorry. No, he sounded like a guy who thought I was naïve enough to take him back. I’d be willing to bet the girl he’d been screwing might have caught a glimpse of his true nature and wanted nothing to do with him either, so he came crawling back to the moron who didn’t see his cheating ways for months.
“You find it yet?” I asked, trying to hurry this process along before Jensen got out of the shower. That plan wasn’t in the cards, though, because as soon as I spoke I heard the water turn off.
Dane perked right up, hearing it also. “Is there someone here?” he asked, completely astonished. “Are you fucking somebody else?”
My jaw actually dropped. Not quite to the floor, but it had to have been pretty damn close as I stood there while he asked if I was “fucking somebody else.”
“Are you?” he demanded, slamming the drawer shut before completely turning around to face me. I jumped as the contents clattered, but then fought the fear that was clawing its way up my body and confronted him.
“Are you seriously asking me this, Dane?” The look in his eyes told me that he most definitely expected an answer. “What would it matter if I was? It’s not like I would be cheating on anyone.” I narrowed my eyes accusingly at him as I spat out my venom-laced words. “Look, have you found the damn charger yet? I need you to leave before—”
Before I could get another word out, he interrupted me, taking another step and getting in my face. At five-ten, Dane had to look down at me. “What? Before your new fuck-toy comes out and sees me here? No, I think I want to meet him,” he snarled as he walked angrily over to the table and plopped down in Jensen’s chair. Dane was pissed, and I felt really, really happy about that. Even just the thought that I had moved on seemed to get under his skin.
I only rolled my eyes and turned away from him to move the vegetables from the fridge to the island so I could make a salad to go along with dinner. “Dane, just leave. Anything that goes on in my life doesn’t concern you anymore.” He didn’t budge, though. Instead he sat there, with his arms folded over his chest and waited—not for long, however.
“Smells good out here, love,” Jensen called out as he approached the kitchen.
“Thank y— Wait, what?” Clearly I was hearing things. Before I could question him further on this whole “love” nickname, I gasped when I saw him enter the kitchen with nothing more than a towel wrapped around his waist. “Jensen … we have com—” I wasn’t given the chance to finish my sentence before he wrapped his arms around my waist, being careful when he pulled my body flush to his.
The look in his eyes was the same one he had given me earlier at lunch and the first time we had almost kissed. They were dark and stormy, his lids hooded with lust as he closed the gap between us. There was no time to protest his actions as his lips connected with mine, setting fireworks off all around me. My central nervous system was lighting up like the Fourth of July.
I had imagined this moment multiple times, but never had I expected his lips to be this soft. Soon, nothing mattered other than the way my body softened in his arms, and I gave in to whatever he wanted.
My hands moved up his arms until they were finally—yes, finally—locked into the hair at the nape of his neck, pulling his face closer to mine. His stubble scratched my chin, but in a good way that only added to the tingles that currently shot through me. The dull ache in my left side didn’t even matter as Jensen’s hold on me tightened, his left hand moving up my right side toward my breast. My breath hitched when he stopped just below it and his thumb lightly grazed it over the thin fabric of my dress. My nipples began to harden instantly, and I shifted my body slightly into his now-obvious arousal. Shockwaves moved like lightning through my body until they stopped between my legs, and I sighed softly into his mouth.
Everything about Jensen was intoxicating, especially how he was constantly aware of my injuries, even as we finally lost ourselves to our urges. I released my hold on his hair and allowed my hands to move down over the sculpted muscles of his back until they rested low on his naked hips. That was when my eyes snapped open. I pulled back from our kiss, licked my lips, and looked down between us. At some point in our impromptu make-out session, Jensen’s towel had fallen to the floor, and I was now being treated to the sight of a very naked, very hard Jensen Davis. “Glorious” no longer defined him. He bordered on otherworldly.
Dane cleared his throat, and both of our heads snapped toward him as he stood from his seat. I was thankful for the large island in the middle of the kitchen that kept Jensen’s naked body hidden from view. I bent down, trying to avoid eye contact with Jensen’s junk in the process, and grabbed the towel from the floor before handing it to him. Even wrapping it around his waist didn’t help conceal his huge problem. Not that I really expected it to.
“Oh, why didn’t you tell me we had company, baby?” he asked, and that’s when I heard a slight lilt in his voice that indicated he already knew.
“Well, baby,” I said, playing my part. “It’s a little difficult to talk with your tongue in my mouth.”
Winking, Jensen walked around the corner, his erection still straining against the blue terrycloth of his towel. He held out a hand to Dane—whose eyes went wide as they focused on Jensen’s lower half. “Hey man, I’m Jensen.”
Dane blinked a few times before looking back up at Jensen’s face. “Uh, Dane.” He took Jensen’s hand and shook it once before glancing back at me.
Jensen looked over his shoulder at me and smirked, then returned his eyes to my ex. “Dane? Oh! You’re here to fix that hole in the wall, right?”
Looking irritated, Dane huffed, his nostrils flaring with anger. “I should probably go. Sorry to intrude.”
After making a hasty retreat from the house, I heard Dane’s car peel down the driveway quickly, kicking up gravel in his haste to get out of here. I turned to Jensen, who was now sitting on the island in just his towel, picking at the cherry tomatoes I was going to put in the salad.
“So, that was him, huh? He seemed to take the hint.” He looked so smug up there, popping the tiny tomatoes in his swollen and kiss-reddened lips.
“And, what hint was that, exactly?” I inquired, my cheeks sore from the smile I hadn’t realized was plastered on my face. Jensen Davis just kissed me.
“Indeed he did,” he whispered with another quick wink in my direction. That sure as hell got the smile off my face. I really needed to check my brain wiring before I thought … or spoke … or did, well, anything.
“Ummm …” What was I supposed to say? Thanks? Was it good for you? No, that was dumb, clearly it was good for him. My eyes fell to his lap again to see his terrycloth pop-tent was still very much erect. An entire group of Boy Scouts could have camped out in there. Not that I’d recommend such things. That would be inappropriate.
“Madison, you’re turning blue. Breathe,” he instructed, popping another tomato between his luscious lips. Lips that I felt on mine. So soft …
Listening to what he said, I took a breath and locked eyes with him. I was just about to ask him what the hell was with that kiss, but was interrupted by the timer on the stove. I went over, removed the pizza from the oven and placed it on top of the stove. “Dinner’
s ready. You should go and get dressed.”
He hopped down from the counter.
“Madison, I haven’t been in a relationship in a very long time,” he said. “I …” He sighed. “I feel like there’s something between us, but if I’m being honest, I’m not ready for anything too serious.” His eyes held mine. “And I don’t think you are either. Am I wrong?”
My heart fluttered like a hummingbird’s wings as he reached out to push a tendril of hair behind my ear. There was no use denying it anymore. There was definitely something happening between us.
“You’re not.”
Jensen smiled, his gaze wandering over my face. “What are you scared of?”
I didn’t even have to think about it. “Of putting myself in a position to be hurt again.”
Jensen’s brows furrowed contemplatively. Then he nodded, understanding. “Maybe we keep things light and casual. Fun.”
His offer was tempting, but it also had the potential to get messy if feelings got involved. However, we were both adults. Surely we could figure out how to make it work.
Pulling my lower lip between my teeth, my gaze holding his, I thought about his proposal. Something about the way he looked at me convinced me to throw caution to the wind, so I slowly stepped into him, placed a hand on the side of his face, and pressed my lips to his.
Chapter 11. Past Meets Present
“Hey, you up?” I asked, poking my head in Jensen’s room. He was lying on his stomach with his arms tucked up under his pillow. The contrast of his messy brown hair against his white pillow was almost shocking. Until I looked down a little. The smooth, solid lines of his bare back were visible, and my eyes trailed down the contours of his body until it ended at the white sheet that was just barely covering his ass.
Lifting his head and turning it toward me, he smirked. “I don’t know. You want to come over here and check?”