by Jill Shalvis
He was laughing again and she closed her eyes and sighed. “I really do like the sound of your laugh,” she whispered, and that was the last thing she remembered.
At some point—the muted light coming through the window suggested six-ish—she woke up draped all over AJ’s warm, hard, gorgeous body and heard herself moan.
Still asleep, he pulled her in closer and brushed his mouth to her forehead.
Nice, but not what she was looking for. She rolled over on top of him and then it was his turn to groan as his hands slid to the curve of her ass and squeezed.
Needing more, needing him, all of him, Darcy straddled his hips and sheathed him inside of her.
“Darcy.” AJ’s voice was sleep-roughened and so sexy she nearly came from the rough timbre alone. “I’ve got to get up and get to work—”
“No going. Only coming for you.” And then she started a slow grind, having to close her eyes as the hunger and desire rose up and began to overtake her as it always did with him.
AJ laced his fingers through hers and straightened his arms up above his head. This forced her lower, stretching her out over the top of him so that he could take her mouth with his. “You’re going to come, too,” he said against her lips. “In fact, you’re going to come first.” Having effortlessly wrestled control from her, he playfully tortured her with every stroke of his tongue and his body.
But she wasn’t done yet. Maybe he was the stronger, badder one, but she still had some moves, and she rocked her hips, taking him deeper. He sucked in a breath as he met her with a thrust of his own, over and over again, each sending a hard jolt of pleasure pulsing out from her core.
The low burn started at her toes and worked its way north. Slipping his hands from hers, AJ grabbed her hips, moving her in a rhythm that made them both moan as they stared at each other. Her eyes never left his as they rode together to climax.
After, she fell forward onto his chest, boneless, sated as she tried to catch her breath, smiling as his hand settled possessively on her ass. She managed to lift her head and blow her hair from her face. “Sorry to keep you,” she said, not sorry at all.
He flashed a sexy grin. “Believe me when I say this—anytime.”
When she woke up six hours later—six hours!!—she was alone and had a note pinned to her pillow right next to where she’d been drooling.
HEY, SLEEPING BEAUTY, I TOOK YOU OFF THE SCHEDULE TODAY. STAY IN BED. SLEEP. RELAX. THERE’S FOOD IN THE KITCHEN THAT ISN’T GUMMY BEARS. HELP YOURSELF. LOVE, AJ.
She stared at the note for a full five minutes before she spoke out loud in shock. “Love, AJ?” she asked the room.
The room didn’t have an opinion on the matter.
Well, she thought with a calming breath, there were all kinds of love, right? She loved Zoe and Wyatt, for instance. She loved Adam and the entire gang at Belle Haven. She loved dogs. She loved Xander. Hell, she even loved her distant parents. She loved Gummy Bears. She loved Christmas. Okay, more accurately she loved presents. She loved the beach.
AJ loved a lot of things and people, too, so really, the note meant nothing.
But still, she stared at the words for another few minutes. So did he love her the way he loved healthy food? The way he loved her brother? The way he loved … Ariana?
At that thought she grinded her back teeth together. She didn’t want him to love her in the same way he loved Ariana.
Which didn’t make this any more clear to her.
Her stomach rumbled so loud she had no choice but to follow its demand that she hit the kitchen. She looked inside AJ’s refrigerator with the same expression she’d face a veggie smoothie—gag. Indeed, there were a lot of veggies, and she resigned herself to eating twigs and berries for breakfast.
But hold on a minute.
There was a brown bakery bag with her name on it. Be still her beating heart. “Please be brownies,” she whispered, and peeked inside.
Not brownies, but a banana nut granola muffin. She slathered it in butter and nuked it. “Here goes nothing,” she said, and took a bite. And then she moaned out loud and stared in surprise at the muffin. “Okay,” she told it. “I owe you an apology.”
And very possibly she owed AJ a lot more than that. She texted him a thank-you and got an immediate response.
For?
For everything, she could have replied, because he always knew. How did he always know? She had no idea but decided on something more specific: For the bed, the sleep, the food …
She could have also said the orgasms but refrained. The man had skills, but he knew he had skills. No sense in stroking his ego any more than she already had.
His reply took fifteen minutes, which told her he was with a client. And then when the response came, she laughed out loud.
You owe me.
Oh so now we’re keeping tabs? she texted back.
Never, came his startlingly simple and devastatingly revealing answer. And then right on the heels of that text came another. No hoops to jump through, either.
She stared at her stupid phone, feeling her stupid heart do a stupid squeeze as she thumbed her reply: That’s good because I don’t exactly excel at hoop jumping.
His answer caused her first laugh of the day: It’s okay, you excel in other areas.
Twenty-two
The next day Darcy was scheduled to work at Belle Haven. She spent the morning at the front desk and the afternoon with Adam in his office.
Adam was a good teacher but he was crap at paperwork for his training classes and cert workshops. Once she’d gotten him all straightened out, she told him about the new husky she needed to pick up.
“You really need that website,” Adam said.
“I know. I was thinking something like CareDogs.com or TherapyDogsRescue.com,” she said. “And people in need of a dog can learn more about what I’m doing and how to get on my list.”
They worked on a design for a few hours before Adam drove her out to pick up and then deliver the husky to his new owner, Ronan. And damn. She knew it wasn’t brain surgery or solving hunger or world peace, but she felt …
Of value.
The minute she thought it, the tightness in her chest spread and she realized it was warmth. She felt good about herself.
And … happy.
She was chipping away at her bad karma one dog at a time.
Back at Belle Haven, Wyatt was waiting for them. He gave Darcy a hug and …
A key to Belle Haven. She stared at the key, and then back to her brother and Adam.
“You’re a part of us here,” Adam said. “And this key proves it. It’s also so that when your brother forgets his key, which he does weekly, he can call you to save him so Emily and I don’t have to make fun of him. Here’s your office.” He opened a door.
“What? An office?” She stared inside. “Um, a supply closet?”
“We’re going to fix it up,” he said, waving a dismissive hand at the racks of dusty shelves. “Use your imagination for now.”
Her chest tightened. “Really?”
“Yeah. CareDogs.com needs a center of command, don’t you think? And there’s no better place than Belle Haven for that.”
She threw herself first at Wyatt and then Adam, hugging the big badass tight. Adam sighed at the display of affection and awkwardly patted her back. Wyatt, well used to her mercurial moods, took the hug with barely a grimace.
When she pulled free, they had an audience. Dell and his wife, Jade, were standing there beaming.
“You’re an official part of our team now,” Jade said.
Darcy had spent most of her life living purposely on her own team, telling herself she didn’t need anyone. But the thought of being part of the team here at Belle Haven gave her a warm glow normally reserved for her rescues and Gummy Bears. “Thank you,” she managed. “You won’t be sorry.”
“Of course we won’t,” Adam said. “Especially if you keep your hugs to any member of the team but me.”
That night
Darcy was sitting up in bed staring down at the blank Word doc on her laptop, trying to figure out something to write about. She missed writing about her adventures, but getting out into the world to have a new adventure wasn’t going to happen.
She was still waiting for inspiration to strike, and also wondering how she was going to sleep … and what AJ might be doing … when her bedroom door opened and the man himself slipped into her room.
She stared at him. “What are you doing?”
“Playing Sandman.” He toed off his shoes and stripped down to black boxer briefs, which were sitting dangerously low on his hips, before climbing into bed with her.
“Is this about what I owe you?” she asked hopefully, setting aside her laptop.
“No. No tabs, remember?”
“Damn,” she said with heartfelt disappointment.
He laughed—God she really loved his laugh—and tugged back the covers to look at her. He laughed again as he took in her nightie, which featured Queen Elsa from Frozen.
What could she say, she loved the woman’s ’tude.
AJ tucked her into the same position they’d been last night.
“You keep getting my hopes up,” she said as he reached past her to turn off the light.
He bit down lightly over the back of her neck. “Soon.”
Her entire body broke out in anticipatory goose bumps. “When?”
“When your sister isn’t right down the hall.”
She sighed. “So why are you here if not for all the orgasms?”
“To tell you that Trent left me a message. He’s coming up the day after tomorrow to seal the deal.”
“Oh, AJ,” she breathed, clutching his arm to her chest. “That’s wonderful.”
“It is, and I owe it all to you.”
“No tabs,” she whispered, and fell asleep with him holding her tight.
When she woke up, she was once again stunned and startled to realize she’d slept the night through.
And her Sandman was long gone …
Dammit. She was hot and achy all the time and he seemed so easily able to resist her. What did that mean? She called him.
“Hey,” he said, sounding distracted.
“Hey yourself. What’s with the repeated vanishing act?”
“Had work.”
She waited for more. It didn’t come. “You sure it’s just work?”
He paused, and when he spoke he sounded baffled. “What else would it be?”
“Gee, AJ, I don’t know, seeing as you’re a word miser.”
Silence, and she rolled her eyes. “You know what? Never mind.”
“Darcy—”
“No, forget it,” she said. “I won’t beg for crumbs, not even from you. So do us both a favor and don’t play Sandman tonight.” And then she punched END so hard she broke a nail.
Luckily she was scheduled for a shift at Belle Haven and not the wellness center, and as she sat at the desk manning the front reception area with Peanut the Mouthy Parrot at her elbow and Bean the Grumpy Cat asleep on her printer, she did her best not to replay that conversation over and over in her head. The one-sided conversation.
“Men suck,” she said.
Peanut bobbed her head in agreement. “Men suck.”
“Oh shit,” Darcy said and stared at the parrot. “No, Peanut, that was my bad, okay? We can’t use that word here.”
Again Peanut bobbed her head.
Whew, Darcy thought, and smiled at the woman who walked in the front door with her cat for their appointment. “Hello,” she said in greeting. “Just have a seat.”
“Shit!” Peanut screeched just as the woman sat.
She leapt up as if there’d been a cobra on her chair. “What? What’s wrong?”
Darcy realized that the woman thought she’d yelled shit. Damn Peanut for being an incredible imitation artist. “I’m sorry, our parrot is feeling naughty today.” She turned to Peanut. “Puppies, rainbows, kittens.” She waited for Peanut to repeat any of that.
Peanut said nothing.
“Cupcakes, cookies, pies,” Darcy said.
“Men suck,” Peanut said.
Darcy thunked her head on her desk.
It was going to be one of those days. And even worse, she couldn’t help but notice that love was definitely in the air here in Sunshine.
For one thing, Dell kept cornering Jade in his office every chance he got.
And Darcy’s own brother did the same to Emily. Even hard-ass Brady, ex–special ops and helicopter pilot-for-hire, softened whenever Lilah, the love of his life, came through the offices.
And then there was Gertie, the hundred-pound Saint Bernard that belonged to Dell and Jade. She was in love with Bruiser, a six-pound Chihuahua, currently recouping from having his nuts surgically removed.
Gertie didn’t care. She lay outside of Bruiser’s crate sighing forlornly, thumping her heavy tail whenever Bruiser woke up from a nap and lifted his tiny head.
True love.
“Annoying as sh—” Darcy started to say, breaking off with a guilty look at Peanut.
“Boner,” Peanut yelled cheerfully.
The woman waiting stood and walked out.
“I so did not teach you that one,” Darcy said.
Peanut whistled and made Bean jump and fall off the printer.
The cat immediately employed Kitty Logic, which was to ignore any embarrassing situation—like falling off the printer—by redirecting. She redirected by lifting a leg to groom her Lady Town.
“Nice tactic,” Darcy said. “But it totally happened.”
Bean gave her a dirty look that suggested maybe Darcy should put her shoes back on before something bad happened inside of them.
Darcy bent beneath her desk to grab the shoes she’d kicked off and went into the storage closet—soon to be her office!—for paper to refill her printer, and found Adam in there pressing Holly up against the metal shelving unit, his hands up her pretty sweater.
“Okay, really?” Darcy asked, tossing up her hands. “All the romance around here is giving me serious heartburn. I’m out.”
Adam stopped massaging Holly’s tonsils with his tongue and grinned. “Sorry. I’ll make it up to you.”
“How? By bleaching the memories from my brain?”
“Better,” he said. “I’ve got another dog for you. Raisin, a one-year-old golden retriever from a long line of therapy dogs. She passed all the classes and testing with the rest of her litter, but she can’t be sold.”
“Why?”