Chapter 39
“I’m starving,” the naked woman currently draped over him grumbled, reminding him that they hadn’t had a chance to eat last night.
“Me, too,” he said, struggling to find the energy to get up and do something about it.
Nine times, he thought with a smile before frowning.
Or was it ten?
Deciding that it didn’t matter, he reached over and grabbed her cellphone off the nightstand and checked the time. It was after eight o’clock in the morning, he was starving, exhausted, and more than okay with passing out and sleeping away the rest of the day, but the demanding woman on his back was apparently having none of that.
With a groan, she rolled off his back and-
“Ouch.”
Kept on rolling until she landed on the floor on that beautiful ass that he couldn’t seem to get enough of. Smiling, he opened one eye to watch her as she stood up, gently rubbing her bottom as she dragged herself towards the bedroom door, pulling on one of his shirts along the way. Deciding that he needed to conserve his energy in case she needed help, he closed his eyes and groaned when she came back a minute later and flopped herself back down on top of him with a sigh.
“The snack box is empty,” she mumbled, which really didn’t surprise him.
“Trevor and Jason must have come over to work on the kitchen,” he mumbled, not bothering to open his eyes.
“That would explain why they’re outside getting out their tools,” she said, squirming on top of him to get comfortable.
“We’re almost done,” he mumbled, already starting to fall asleep again.
“This doesn’t solve my most pressing issue at the moment, Yummy,” she grumbled as she continued to squirm.
“And what’s that?”
“You need to feed me.”
“I wish I’d known you were high maintenance before I let you have your way with me,” he said on a heavy sigh as though this somehow pained him.
“Live and learn, Yummy. Live and learn,” she said, pressing a kiss against his shoulder that had him smiling.
When he didn’t respond, she squirmed again to get his attention. “Are you going to feed me?”
“Do I have to?” he asked, making sure to sound putout.
“Yes, yes you do.”
“I’m going to need a shower first.”
“That really went without saying, Yummy,” she said, pressing another kiss against his shoulder before she rolled off him, more carefully this time.
“And you’re going to let me have my way with you in the shower?”
“Again, that just went without saying,” she said, making him smile as he rolled off the bed and followed her into the shower where he put that faded tiled wall that needed to be replaced to good use.
*-*-*-*
“This isn’t exactly what I had in mind, Yummy,” she said, biting back a yawn as she picked up her menu and stared at the picture of a stack of pancakes that would really hit the spot right about now.
“And what exactly did you have in mind?” he asked, reaching over the table and taking her hand into his as she struggled to keep her eyes open.
“Breakfast in bed served to me by an incredibly hot man determined to see to all my needs?” she said, smiling when he chuckled.
“And I probably would have done just that if my cousins hadn’t eaten everything in sight,” he said, gently caressing the back of her hand with his thumb as he looked over his menu.
“Now we’ll never know, will we, Yummy?” she asked with a sigh as she took a sip of her orange juice.
“Next time,” he promised her with a wink and a look that told her there would definitely be a next time.
Most likely smiling like an idiot, she cleared her throat and shifted her attention back to the menu. “Will I be expected to put out to pay for my breakfast?”
“That really went without saying, sweetheart,” he said with a slow caress of his thumb that had her biting back a groan and a suggestion that they wrap this up and go home.
“Officer Bradford, what a pleasant surprise,” Kelly, their waitress for the morning and a woman that Kasey really could have happily gone without seeing this morning, said with a warm smile for Reese. “What can I get for you today?”
Reese looked at Kasey and asked, “What do you want, sweetheart?”
“Are you going to steal my food every time you think that I’m not looking?” she shot back, blinking.
“That really went without saying,” he said, chuckling.
“I see,” she murmured as she put her menu down and looked at Kelly only to find the woman that normally went out of her way to ignore her, staring at her with a frown and before she could question it, it was gone and Kelly was looking bored.
Shaking it off, Kasey ordered her food, making sure to add extra food so that Reese could steal it. As soon as Reese was done ordering, and she still couldn’t get over the amount of food that he was able to put away, Kelly was taking their menus and was back to smiling at Reese.
“How much longer will you be with us, Officer Bradford?” she asked, making Kasey frown this time, because now she had a pretty good idea how everyone in town seemed to know his name.
“A few more weeks,” he said, looking at her with an unreadable expression on his face that left her stomach in knots.
“Aw, that’s too bad. We’re really going to miss you around here,” Kelly said with a slight pout.
“I’m not going far,” he said, keeping his gaze locked on her as she looked past him at the trio of waitresses that always seemed to be hanging out at the register when he was around, watching him as they whispered and laughed and made her sick to her stomach.
“Your food will be out in a few minutes,” Kelly said, as Kasey forced her gaze away from the gossiping trio and looked back at Reese to find him staring at her intently.
“We should probably talk,” he said with a heavy sigh as he rubbed the back of his neck.
“We probably should,” she murmured in agreement as she took a sip of orange juice and waited for him to start, but instead he sat there, looking uncomfortable and if she hadn’t suddenly been sick to her stomach at the thought of never seeing him again she probably would have smiled.
When it became obvious that he didn’t know where to start, she decided to help him out. “When do you leave?” she asked even though it was the last thing that she wanted to talk about, but she couldn’t pretend that it wasn’t going to happen.
“In a couple of weeks,” he said, taking one of her hands into both of his.
She nodded as she stared down at their hands, wondering why Reese leaving suddenly felt real. She’d known since the beginning that he was only here for the summer, but the possibility of never seeing him again had never really crossed her mind.
“Four days on, three days off,” he said, giving her hand a small squeeze.
“What?” she asked, looking up from their hands to find him smiling at her.
“That’s my schedule. I work Monday to Thursday, twelve hour shifts, and then I’m off for three days. It’s only a four hour drive,” he said, and she considered pointing out that it was actually a six-hour drive this time of year thanks to all the tourists, but decided to save that argument for another time.
“This isn’t over, Kasey. Not by a long shot.”