Page 21 of Hard Luck (Blackstone House)

“I’m not an invalid.”

“Didn’t figure you were, but when I broke my leg, the doc kept telling me to rest it.”

She looked at him curiously. “Was it a bad break?”

“I had some nice metalwork in there for a while. But I was a kid, and it’s easier to bounce back when you’re young.”

“You’re hardly old now. What are you, twenty-nine? Thirty?”

“Twenty-eight.” Cole was tempted to ask Bella her age, but his mom would turn in her grave if he uttered the question. Never ask a woman her age, her weight, or her dating history; those were the rules. “That’s a fancy cast you have.”

“When the doctor offered me one I could wear in the shower, I almost hugged him. It didn’t even cost extra. Apparently, they’re trialling a new type of 3D printer.”

“I had to tape a trash bag over my leg, so you definitely picked the right decade to break a bone. I’ll carry the basket.”

Cole kept pace with her as she hobbled into the store, and it struck him that this should feel more awkward than it did. On Emerald Shores, he’d once made the mistake of spending the night with an instructor working at the dive school, and their conversation had been limited to red-faced hellos and stilted small talk until she left the island.

“What?” Bella asked, turning, and Cole realised he’d stopped near a display of parrot toys.

“Nothing.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, this is just less uncomfortable than I expected.”

Now those pretty brown eyes narrowed. “You expected to meet me again?”

“Expected? No. But I can’t say I didn’t hope I would. You blew my damn mind.”

“So you’re saying you think with your dick?”

A memory flashed into his head, of Bella with her head between his legs, her dark hair falling over his thighs.

“Apparently, around you I do. But I don’t recall hearing any complaints about that when you picked me up in a hotel bar.”

Bella laughed. “I give you an A for effort.”

“An A for effort? How about technique?”

She wrinkled her nose. “A B-plus?”

Before Cole realised what he was doing, he’d backed her up against a stack of economy-sized bags of dog kibble, his body pressed against hers.

“The way you gasped my name says you’re lying.”

“Your stamina could use work. It was barely two a.m. when you passed out.”

“I’ll admit I slept until lunchtime, but in my defence, I’d been having a hellish day until I met you.”

“A hellish day, huh? And yet you were drinking straight cola in the bar. If I have a hellish day, I’m ordering a shot of Jack Daniel’s at least.”

“Until you decided we were crashing a party, I’d been planning to drive home.” Cole pinned her wrists against the bags of kibble, and the crutches fell to the floor. “And I think stamina falls under the effort category, not technique.”

“Are you sure about that? I mean, you tried really hard,” she said, arching into him, and his cock began to stiffen. Totally inappropriate given the location, but he couldn’t tear himself away. “Really, really fucking hard.”

He leaned in closer. “If there’s a next time, I’ll make sure I get some sleep first.”

Her turn to stiffen. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

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