Page 9 of Shadows in Bloom

I frown. I don’t like that either. All the things that can go wrong, inebriated and alone, in the dark. I shake my head resolutely. “That’s not safe when you’re this drunk.”

Jamie blinks. “M’fine. Can handle myself.” She tries to pull away, but my grip tightens. She looks down again, chest rising and falling a bit faster.

Just let her go. She’ll be fine.

You can’t risk…

“Come home with me.” Fuck.

Her breath hitches, and the sharp intake is loud in the buzzing chatter of the bar. But she doesn’t pull away, and that gives me hope.

What the fuck am I doing?

Jamie seems to sense something, even in her state, because her eyes narrow slightly. Which is honestly an adorable look when she can barely stand straight.

Even drunk off her ass, she’s as smart as a whip.

“What’re you talking about?”

I swallow. I have no idea. “It’s not safe for you to be alone right now. You should… Let me take you to my place. We can hang out. Talk. Sober you up a bit so I don’t have to worry about you drowning in a puddle of your own vomit. A win-win.” I grin, feeling unbalanced.

Jamie snorts, which turns into a laugh as she tosses her head back. Her hair falls off her shoulder, exposing her throat to the dim lights above. My eyes trail up the slope of her neck, over her rounded jaw, and across the pink hue of her cheeks.

“That is so far from what I had in mind,” she mutters in what was probably meant as an internal thought but came out loud enough for me and a few others to hear. I stifle my laugh, but Seb doesn’t manage the same.

His cackle fills the air, making Jamie flush beautifully. “Whatever,” she grumbles as she pushes away.

“Wait.” I reach for her again. I don’t manage to grab hold, but she pauses, even if it is a bit of a stumble. I glance back at Wayne and Sebastian. “You guys good?”

Wayne grunts. Sebastian rolls his eyes before wagging his brows. “We’re good, Fi.”

I flip him the bird as I hop up on the counter and spin around, dropping my feet to the floor on the other side. Jamie is balking at me, hair a tangled mess around her head as I step up to her. Grabbing her elbow, I guide her around the back, ignoring the racket of my heart as we step through the back door and into the darkness.

I can’t help the way my eyes ping around the small parking lot. It’s mostly enclosed by a privacy fence and bathed in yellow light, which gives me relief, but the shadows lingering within draw goosebumps to my skin.

Jamie stumbles over the gravel, reverting my focus back to her as I help her into the passenger seat. I reach for the seatbelt, leaning in to pull it across Jamie’s torso. Her breath stutters when I draw close, and even as I taste the alcohol leaking from her pores, I still inhale deeply, smelling lavender beneath it all.

As I press the buckle into the latch, I can’t help but turn my head, putting our noses centimeters apart. The yellow light of the lamp post outside is all I have to see, but it’s more than enough to catch sight of her wetting her fucking lips. The heat from her tongue radiates outward, licking across the tingling skin of my mouth.

My molars press together, hard enough to cause an ache as I force a breath. Because I’m very much sober, and Jamie… Jamie is not. She can’t make sound decisions. Because if she could, she definitely wouldn’t be in my car with me. And she sure as shit would’ve never agreed to come to my place.

Jamie’s never been that forward, no matter how hard I tried.

I flirted relentlessly, drawn to her adorable stumbling from the moment I met her. So impossibly cute in her oblivious charm. But no amount of blatant perusal could ever get her to take the next step. We shared short conversations, important conversations that I always looked forward to every time I saw her. She was almost always clad in her bulky, polyester police uniform. A uniform that never failed to make me fucking hot.

But every interaction was always cut short by her retreating. Either mentally, and the conversation would die out, or she’d quite literally move across the bar to drink alone in the corner when Rhett wasn’t with her.

And as much as I tried, as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t force something out of her when she clearly wasn’t ready.

I’m worried she still isn’t. That she only agreed because she’s fucking drunk—and not because she wants to be around me.

But she did pursue me the other day. She followed me out, worried for me. She started a conversation and tried.

I’m the one who walked away.

Maybe it’s different this time… It could be.

I pull back with a stuttering breath, closing her door with a soft thud before dropping my head against the cool metal. The night air is balmy but comfortable, and I breathe in slowly for three consecutive breaths before the goosebumps prickling across my skin force my head up so fast, my neck cricks. I grit my teeth through the flare of pain as I glance around.

---