CHAPTER FIVE

Grady

Rolling over onto my side, I nearly jumped straight out of bed when I saw the time on the clock. Twelve-thirty? I couldn’t remember the last time I slept past nine on my day off. Then again, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d tossed and turned in my bed alone. At one in the morning, when I’d still been hard as a rock and no closer to sleep than I’d been before I’d jerked off twice, I’d considered calling someone. I wasn’t proud of the fact I had a list of girls I could call for no-strings-attached sex, but it was what it was. In the end, I’d decided that even I wasn’t low enough to fuck a girl with the image of another burned in my brain.

After a quick shower, I downed a protein shake and a banana and was out the door on my way to Naomi’s. I wasn’t sure I could convince her to seriously look for another job, but I was determined to give it my best shot. It was that or a lifetime of regret for not honoring my promise to Nathan.

I walked up to the front door with images of the woman inside on all fours and her sweet moans from last night echoing in my ears. “Sweet Jesus,” I muttered looking up at the sky and saying a silent prayer that I could keep it together.

A minute went by after I rang the doorbell. Then two. Her Jeep was parked out front so I knew she was here. I pounded on the door a couple times and yelled from the doorstep. “Naomi, it’s Grady. Open up.”

Another minute.

I tried the door and it pushed open. Why wasn’t I surprised she left it unlocked?

I peered into a quiet living room. No sign of her. “Naomi,” I called again as I shut the door and crossed the living room. I checked the kitchen and laundry room — both empty.

“Naomi, are you here?” I pulled out my phone to dial her when she appeared in the hallway. Eyes half-open, hair in a mess of tangles around her face.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, sounding genuinely surprised and looking every bit as young as she was in cotton shorts and a white tank top that showed off a strip of tanned skin just below her belly button.

“I told you I’d be by today to help you look for jobs.”

She turned without a response, padded back down the hallway and disappeared into the last bedroom on the left.

I cursed under my breath and followed her. The room was painted pale yellow. A floral quilt had been thrown to the bottom of the bed, and she was sprawled out with a white sheet pulled up to her waist.

“Get up.”

“No, I have a job. I don’t need to look for one.”

I had her in my arms before I could change my mind. She squealed as I carried her over my shoulder into the attached bathroom and placed her upright in the shower. She looked angrier than a hornet as I turned the water on blast.

“Shit, that’s cold!” she shrieked.

The thin shirt molded itself to her tight body and the pink outlines of her nipples became visible. The anger left her face as she followed my line of vision to her breasts. Her breathing hitched and her nipples tightened.

I turned before I did something stupid. “We’re leaving in five minutes.”

By the sixth stop, it was clear it was harder to find a job in this town that I had thought. She’d filled out a few applications anyway, probably to appease me, and was told they’d keep her on file in case anything came up. She’d been ogled everywhere we went.

“You get that no one is going to hire me, right?” she tossed at me as we got back in my truck and I pulled out onto the main drag of town.

“Something will come up. People quit jobs all the time.”

“You really don’t get it.”

I turned to look at her in time to see her shake her head and look out the window.

“No one is going to hire Princess Peach.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

She snapped her head around and met my gaze. “I guarantee if you called that restaurant right now and asked if they were hiring they’d say yes. Getting told to fill out an application is the equivalent of being told to get lost.”

“Why’d you do it then?”

“Because I knew you wouldn’t leave me alone until I did.”

“Fair enough.” I ran a hand through my hair. “Okay, so the places we went are run by judgmental prudes. Where do you want to work?”

She lifted an eyebrow.

“You know what I mean. What places do you like to go to around town?”

“There is one place that always treats me well.”

“Great, let’s go there.”

I wondered what category I fit into. Had I been one of the assholes that had treated her badly? There’d been no subtlety to my opinion about her job. Did she know that wasn’t because I thought less of her? The very opposite, actually. I thought too much of her.

She gave me directions, and as we drove out to the far east side of town, I was eager to shake the hand of whoever had been nice enough to not make her feel like a prostitute. I was also eager to go back to every place we’d been today and give them a piece of my mind. If I had to kick my own ass, I would. My thoughts drifted to Nathan. Had he known she’d been getting treated like a leper around town?

“I should have known,” I mumbled as she directed me to pull into the parking lot of Big John’s.

“Live a little,” she dared, jumping out of the truck before I’d even turned off the engine.

Big John’s was an adult store. I hadn’t been in it myself, but I’d been in enough stores like it when I was younger. Giant neon letters in hot pink and electric blue on the shop’s sign burned obscenely bright even in the afternoon sun. The parking lot was empty. Thank God.

Naomi threw her arms around a big, burly older man. She was happier than I could remember seeing her.

“Well if it isn’t my favorite customer,” the man said as he stepped back and smiled down at her.

I’ll bet.

“Who’s this? Finally settle down and get a nice boyfriend, Naomi?”

She laughed, and I wanted to kiss the humor right out of her.

“John this is Grady. He was Nathan’s best friend and has named himself my new protector.” She rolled her eyes.

John looked me up and down with a smile, but to his credit, he kept his thoughts to himself.

“Nice to meet you, Grady.”

I stepped forward and extended a hand. “Likewise. Quite a store you got here.”

“Got a whole room of videos and magazines in the back.” He tilted his head to the rear of the store.

“Thanks, I’m just here for her.”

“Any new clothes since last week?” she asked, pointing toward a rack of lingerie filled with pleather and nylon.

“Sure are. Take a look at the far end. I think you’re going to like them.”

Naomi bounced off, and John and I were left in an awkward silence.

“So, Grady, what do you do?”

“I work at the fire station.”

“A firefighter, eh? Just like Nathan.”

I nodded. Nathan was the reason I’d done it. He’d always been more of a saint than a man, and he’d dragged me along to meet Chief Karl when I’d have rather been sitting at home playing Xbox and waiting until nightfall so I could find the next party. He’d saved eighteen-year-old me.

“Thank you,” I said quietly, not sure exactly how to phrase my appreciation. “You’ve been good to her.”

He nodded but crossed his big arms over his chest, and I realized she already had at least one protector in town, and he’d been doing a far better job of being her friend than I was.

“It’s recently come to my attention that not everyone in this town has treated her with the respect she deserves.” My eyes were drawn to her across the room. Her mouth moved to the lyrics of the pop music playing over the speaker, and she moved her head with the rhythm. She looked like a regular, carefree twenty-two-year-old, and I knew right then I’d do anything to keep that look on her face.

“She deserves so much more,” I said more to myself than to John. He smiled when I lifted my eyes from Naomi to meet his. “Let her know I’ll be in the truck waiting for her.”