When sleep wouldn’t come, John headed to Ava’s store. He’d been given pain meds by the doctor, but he didn’t bother filling the prescription. Three ibuprofens and the wrap they’d put on him in the emergency room was plenty to deal with the pain. He was told he needed to take at least three days off before they’d let him back to his desk. Three days with a wack job out there attacking jewelry store owners.

Needless to say, he wasn’t doing well with being sidelined.

If he couldn’t work, maybe he could convince Ava to let him be her twenty-four-seven escort. The idea that she and her sister were sitting in a jewelry store like sitting ducks for this guy had him on edge in a bad way.

Her smile when he walked in the door did a lot to lift his mood, but still, he’d feel better if she and her dad agreed to close the store for now.

“What are you doing here?” She gasped when she saw his arm. “What happened?”

He used his good arm to pull her to him when she rushed forward. “Nothing. Scuffle at work.”

He had to admit, he liked the way her eyes searched his face.

“You’re all right? Is it broken?”

Her soft body pressed against him as she leaned into him, and he went rock hard in an instant. Damned if she didn’t take his mind off the job—all the way off the job, the robberies, all of it.

He glanced around the store, which was thankfully empty except for the security guard who had let him in, then leaned down to whisper in her ear. “You need to get us out of sight and in the back now.”

Her eyes went wide, and she nodded.

She led the way through the back, past her sister who grinned and waved at him, and into the office.

“What is it?” She had barely shut the door when he turned her, pressing her up against it, letting her feel what she’d done to him out there.

“You can’t put your hands on me in public like that if you don’t want the whole world seeing what you do to me.”

The look of shock on her face was comical. So were the slaps to his shoulder when she processed what he’d said.

“I thought you were bringing me back here to tell me what happened to you, not to …” she stopped, a pink flush hitting her cheeks. “Not to … you know.”

“Not to do this,” he said, lowering his head to her neck. He knew what spot would get her going and headed straight for it. He ran his mouth over the silken skin at her neck, then nipped lightly, loving the soft sound that escaped her lips.

He wanted to lift her onto the desk and pull open her blouse. He wanted to get his hands and his mouth on her small breasts, suckling until she cried out and wrapped her legs around him.

The pain that hit him when his bad arm brushed up against her side was sharp and unforgiving, pulling him from that haze that had taken over as soon as he’d gotten her into the small room.

He hissed and stepped backward.

Ava smirked. “You deserve it. You’re horrible, getting me back here under false pretenses.”

John stepped forward again, unable to resist. “You like my false pretenses,” he said, reaching again with his good arm.

She laughed, but this time she held him at arm’s length. “Tell me what happened to your arm.”

He shook his head. “I wrestled with a guy. He’s in cuffs, I’m here.”

“But you’re okay?” She said, her eyes scanning his body again.

Damn, he wished that was her hands checking over him.

“I am. And I also get to stay here with you and take you to dinner when you close up.” He was desperate to take a make lemonade tac here.

She looked at her watch and raised her brows. “That’s two hours from now.”

“Not a problem. I’ve got nothing to do.” He nodded toward the computer monitor in the corner that showed the three video angles for her security cameras in the showroom. “I’ll watch you work and help you when it’s time to close up.”

She took and held a deep breath as she looked around the office, before letting it out. “I just convinced my dad to stay at home. He’s been standing guard over us every day for the last week. I ended up having to worry about Janna and him, both. I’m trying to get Janna to stay home, but she’s too stressed at the idea of me being here while she stays home.”

John softened and reached his good hand up to massage the tension in her shoulder. “I’m not your dad. You don’t need to worry about me. I can take care of myself.”

She looked at his bandaged wrist.

“Watch it, woman. You’ll damage my sensitive male ego.”

The laugh she gave him washed over him.

There was a knock on the door. John leaned down and caught her mouth with his, stealing a quick, deep kiss that would have to tide them over until he could get her home.

The dazed look on her face when he pulled away from her made him grin. John leaned past her and opened the office door.

“Sorry, Ava. One of the accountant guys is here,” one of the store salesmen John recognized from his last visit said.

“The accountant guys?” John asked.

Ava thanked the messenger and turned back to John. “A few guys that rent an office in one of the buildings here. Sweet guys. They started an accounting company together, but I’m afraid it’s not going well. I’d love to give them some business, but my dad still does our books and he loves having a hand in the business. I don’t feel like I can take that away from him.”

John scowled at the computer monitor where one of the cameras showed a young man in an ill-fitting business suit pacing the length of one of the display cases. “Is he bothering you? If he’s coming in to pressure you—”

Ava shoved him. “Leave him alone. Corey’s a sweet kid. He just comes by sometimes to chat and see if I’ve changed my mind.”

Ava left the office, and John lowered himself into her chair, watching the monitors. His scowl deepened when he saw her wrap her arms around the guy in a hug a few minutes later. Punk-ass kid was probably copping a cheap feel.

John growled and raised up out of the chair, before forcing his ass back into it. If he went out there like he wanted to, she’d probably kill him.

Still, when she was still hugging the guy a solid minute later, John didn’t stop himself. This time, he left the office and headed for the showroom floor. Fuck it, he didn’t care if she thought he was a caveman. He didn’t want anyone else touching Ava.

“Not that she really belongs to you,” he grumbled to himself as he walked toward the showroom.

Janna looked up, startled by him. He tried to smile and wave, but it might have seemed more like gnashing of teeth than a smile. Damn, he was fucking this all up.

He slowed and moved over to where Janna was working, looking at the stunning red gems she was working with. He didn’t have to have any knowledge in gemstones to guess they were rubies.

“Rubies?” he asked, quietly.

She shook her head, this time startling him.

“No?”

“Orange sapphires.” She pointed to the stone she was working with. “These ones look more red than orange. I like them that way. I don’t like orange, but I like red orange sapphires.”

John laughed and she looked up at him, a small smile on her lips like she was happy she’d been the one to make it happen.

“They’re pretty,” he offered.

“Ava’s favorite are Cuprite.” She pointed to a deep red stone lying in a tray of gemstones to her left. The stone was so dark it looked almost like blood, but it was somehow beautiful despite that. “Heart stones,” Janna said, her focus back on her work in front of her. “Ava likes heart stones.”

John made a mental note of the information, though he wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t like he’d be buying jewelry for Ava. She owned a jewelry store. There would only ever be one reason to buy a woman who owned a jewelry store a piece of jewelry and that wasn’t an occasion that would happen again for him.

Lucia’s words came back to him. What had she meant when she said he deserved to fall in love again? He didn’t have an answer to that question then, and he didn’t have one two hours later when he’d helped Ava and Janna close up the shop.

He was happy to see Ava had instituted a number of precautions. They were keeping the back door locked at all times. The front door was locked, also, and the guard only opened it as clients approached. It gave the guard a few minutes to scan and make sure the people entering the store weren’t hiding masks and weapons anywhere.

Janna had needed a reminder not to take the trash out to the back to the dumpsters. But Ava seemed to be on top of that. She said it was Janna’s job to clear out all the trash bins and bring them out in the back, but they were taking it out on their way out together nowadays, with the guard accompanying them.

John eased his car to a stop in front of Ava’s house and watched as she walked Janna up to the main house. He locked his car and walked down the drive to her place. Tomorrow, he’d get some extra lights and a better lock for her door and spend the morning putting that in before going over to hang out at the jewelry store with her.

He smiled as he walked down the driveway to her apartment. Maybe being off duty for a few days for an injury wasn’t so bad after all.

Ava met him as he got to the door and wrapped her arms around his waist.

Nope. Having time off work wasn’t turning out to be bad at all.