Page 38 of Healing Hope

He shook his head, chuckling a little. “Just thinking how lucky that cone is.”

Jess laughed, glancing at Hope to make sure she hadn’t heard. “You’re bad… “ She quirked a brow at him. “I’m willing to share.”

She held her cone out to him, and was a little surprised when he leaned in and took a big bite out of it. “Hey, why’d you do that?”

“He grinned as he swallowed the ice cream. “Now I get to watch you lick it back into shape.”

Jess laughed, shaking her head. Who would have thought that Paul Jameson would have a playful streak? Jess looked at her cone, then very slowly, very deliberately, licked up the side to the top of the cone. Paul’s gaze narrowed, and she could feel the tension rise. His body went still, and his own licking paused as he watched her consume her ice cream. Jess felt a little ridiculous teasing him this way, but it seemed to be working.

“What are you doing to me, Jess?”

His voice had gone so low. There was a rasp to it that hadn’t been there before.

The entire world faded away as they stared at one another. She felt something cold on her hand and realized that she’d let her ice cream melt. Tongue out, she began twisting the cone to catch the runoff. With a huge bite, Paul ate the top of his cone off.

“You’re going to get brain freeze,” Jess warned.

“I don’t care. I need to cool off somehow.”

Laughing, she turned to look out at the tumultuous Pacific. It would be smart if she cooled off as well. She couldn’t help but look at him again. He was staring at her as he crunched through his cone, and she had a feeling he was thinking about biting other things.

Which was fine by her…

15

Paul had the worst case of blue balls he could ever remember having.

After two weeks of watching Jess in her skimpy outfits, he didn’t think he could get any worse. Then she ate that damn ice cream, working her tongue. It may not have looked suggestive to anyone else, but he’d been looking straight at her.

Turning to watch Hope play at the edge of the ocean, he gave himself a breathing exercise. It took a few minutes to get himself under control. Jess had carried their trash back to the restaurant. Now she was heading down the beach to play with Hope.

“It’s just you and I, girl,” Paul said to the fuzzy little mutt. Sophie gave him a happy, tongue-hanging look, then turned back to watch Hope. Sophie was definitely Hope’s dog, and even just out of a splint, she wanted to be down there with her.

“We’ll go down, but I’m carrying you,” Paul warned. “And you’re keeping the leash on if we do let you walk.”

Tucking Sophie into the crook of his good arm, Paul left the picnic table and trudged down through the sand to join his girls. Because that was how he thought of them. Yes, it sounded possessive, but he was kind of okay with that. His girls. He glanced at the little dog in his arm. Yeah, he could include her in the group as well. The little dog had grown on him.

Jess grinned at him when he joined them, and Paul had the stop and stare. Fuck, she was beautiful. Her tawny hair was flying around her head, but her sea-green eyes were sparkling with laughter as she waded through the edge of the surf, sandals in her hand. She also carried Hope’s shoes in her hand so that the girl could play as well.

“What’s wrong,” she called over the sound of the ocean.

Paul shook his head. There was no way he was telling her he thought he was falling in love with her. No fucking way. It was too much. And they’d barely kissed, let alone gotten busy. Jess probably had guys in love with her all around the world. She’d just come from a fucking date in New Guinea. How could he compete with that?

Yeah, he made decent money, but he couldn’t give her the lifestyle she obviously preferred.

He couldn’t help hoping that, as a package, they could be more appealing. In the back of his mind, he’d been playing with the idea to ask her to stay. Would she even entertain the thought? He doubted it. Jess was a carefree spirit, and she’d already shown that she didn’t want to be tied down. He would just have to live with that. Maybe, when she finally left, they could explain to her she was always welcome to come home to them. Because she had created a home out of his house. There was laughter now, and love andlife.

They played until the waning sun sank below the horizon in a truly remarkable display of colors. Then they headed back down the beach to the ice cream shop, where they parked the car. Hope held his prosthetic for balance, and Paul took Jess’s hand in his left, and they walked all the way to the Jeep that way. Like a family.

Once back at the house, Jess and Hope disappeared to go clean up. Paul went into his office to check the security cameras and look for any emails or anything, but it was quiet. He shut everything down, locked the house, set the alarm, and headed into his own bathroom to get cleaned up.

Anticipation rolled through him as he thought about the day. There was a need between them, he could tell, but he wasn’t sure exactly how to approach her. And he certainly didn’t want her to feel obligated in any way.

Taking his prosthetic off, he wiped it down with a cloth and set it aside. It had chafed a little, with the heat, today, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to put it back on tonight. Turning the shower on, he grabbed a towel from the cupboard and set it on the rod before stepping in. The water felt fantastic, and he stepped under the head to let it rain down his body.

Then he felt a touch on his back. It should have startled him, but it didn’t. He knew they would connect tonight. He just wasn’t sure when or how. Turning, he found Jessamy behind him, in all her tan, naked glory. It was a struggle to look her in the eye, because he basically had a goddess standing in front of him, but he managed. “I wondered if I would have to come to you.”

She tilted her head to the side and gave him a lop-sided smile. “Well, that could have been awkward. Hope is in my bed, and her dog is beside her.” Her brows furrowed. “I’ve never slept with a dog in my life, but I have for the past three nights.”

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