Page 53 of Always Been You

He opened the door and she walked through it, glancing over her shoulder as she did, "Oh and I also told Ali about our," she lifted her fingers and made air quotes, "relationship."

He stared at her, not sure how to respond. It was clear that she thought he'd be upset with her, but he couldn't care less who she told. This entire thing wasn't really to keep the matchmakers out of his hair, it was just to get close to Jess while her guard was down, but she didn't know that.

She pointed at him. "See. Grumpy. You should really look into getting those pills."

With that, she spun and headed up the stairway. He didn't mind the view at all. Today she was wearing loose sweats with a drawstring waist and a shirt that landed just below her rib cage. The clothing highlighted her hourglass figure.

He'd spent a lot of time studying every inch of Jess's body this past weekend and while he loved every single part of her, his favorite real estate might be her torso. He was borderline obsessed with the way her waist pinched in at the center and flared out at her hips. And Ethan was happy that he was going to have an excuse to touch it for the next two hours.

"Hello, Miss Penelope," Jess said brightly as they made their way into the rehearsal space.

Ethan raised his hand in greeting, less enthusiastically than his dance partner. The upside of the next one hundred and twenty minutes was that he'd be with Jess. The downside was, they had a chaperone.

But, hey that was the price he had to pay, and he was more than happy to cough up the dough.

"You're late," Miss Penelope snapped.

Both Jess and Ethan's eyes shot to the clock hanging above the center mirror. It showed it was two minutes past six. That was downright early for Jess, but he didn't feel either woman would appreciate him pointing that out.

"Oh, I'm sorry-"

"Sorry is not acceptable. My time is valuable and if you don't respect it then-"

"It's my fault, Miss Penelope." Ethan instinctively took a step forward, so that he was in the drill instructor's line of fire. "I was held up at work. I'm on a task force, and we were tracking down a violent offender who murdered two innocent people. There was a standoff when we went to apprehend him, and I was injured." Ethan pulled up his shirt to show the bruise that he'd sustained when he'd been shot.

He heard Jess gasp quietly beside him.

"I haven't slept or eaten in thirty-six hours, but I'm here because I do respect your time." He was here because he respected Jess and wanted to see her, but Miss Hardass didn't need to know that.

"Well, then," Miss Penelope cleared her throat and looked unsure of how to respond, "let's get to work." Then she crossed the room toward her music player. "Do a few moments of the connecting exercise and then stretch."

He turned to face Jess, expecting her to mouth a thank you or a nice save but instead he saw that she was looking up at him with tears pooled in her bottom lids.

"Hey," He touched the side of her face and ran his thumb along her soft cheek and whispered, "It's okay, she's not mad any-"

Jess swatted his hand away from her and her expression morphed to anger. "I don't care about her! Why didn't you tell me you got hurt?"

"It's not a big deal. I've been shot-"

"You got shot?!" Her voice cracked and whatever he still had left of his heart was transferred to her in that instant. And when he saw her lip tremble he knew that any chance he'd ever had of getting it back was over. "Are you okay?"

"Yes." He took her hand and pressed it to his chest covering it with his own. It was something that his dad had done for him when Ethan had been scared of him getting hurt. "Do you feel that? I'm fine."

Her eyes softened for a moment before narrowing as she tugged her arm away and slapped his arm.

"What was that for?"

"For getting shot." She said as she sat on the floor and spread her legs apart in a stretch he was very much a fan of. She lowered her body between her outstretched legs, spreading her arms out in front of her and her head lifted up so she could look at him. "Don't do it again and if you do, tell me."

"Okay."

"Promise me."

"I promise."

"Mr. Steele," The drill sergeant called out. "Less talking, more stretching."

"You got me in trouble," he whispered as he bent over and touched his toes.

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