Page 63 of Inked Devotion

I rolled my eyes, picked up the hose again, and began watering the new plants. “You know that’s what I say to you. You don’t need to do everything on your own.”

“I don’t. Seriously. Right?”

“It’s nice to do things for you. That it feels like you could use help with things. So just take this as a gift, and take a look at the new beauty.”

“It’s gorgeous, Benjamin. Thank you.” She looked down at herself, and then me. “We are a complete mess.”

“Pretty much. I was almost done and was going to head home and shower.”

She bit her lip, then looked down my body again. I could practically feel the heat off her gaze. “What do you say we shower here? And we make something to eat for dinner? Maybe we can come up with some plans.”

I didn’t want to let it bother me that the excuse she would use for the two of us being together was plans alone. As if we couldn’t just be with one another without having to have an excuse. Or maybe I was just thinking too hard.

“You know what, a shower would be nice. And dinner.”

“Perfect,” she said, and gestured towards the garage. “I’m going to go bring a few things inside. Do you need help out here?”

“I’ve got it,” I answered, shaking my head. “I’ll see you in a second.”

She bit her lip, smiled at me, and then walked inside.

I wasn’t grumpy, but I was overthinking things. I needed to take things as they came and not to make trouble where there wasn’t. That’s what my brothers would say, so that was what I would do.

I finished watering the plants, put away my tools, and walked into the house through the garage. Brenna was nowhere to be seen, but I heard her singing to herself from the back of the house. She sounded better than she had, and she had told me this morning that she had been able to keep some of the soup down from the night before.

I had to count that as progress because I didn’t like seeing her sick.

I followed her voice, wondering if the shower invite had been a true invite or just an instruction.

Brenna was in the bathroom, just stripping off her shirt when I walked in. She froze, her hands above her head, her lace-clad breasts right there in front of me, and I couldn’t help but look.

“I wasn’t very clear earlier about the whole shower thing.”

I met her gaze. “We need to get clean,” I teased, not thinking about anything serious. That would just make things too complicated.

Even though the voice in the back of my head told me they were complicated. But we were just playing pretend at this point. At least that’s what it felt like.

And I didn’t want to think anymore. Thinking hurt, and I was afraid of what I would come up with if I truly let myself get through everything in my head.

I moved forward and gently pulled the shirt off her arms up over my head, brushed my lips to hers, and she groaned, wrapping her body around me.

“You are dirty.”

“And you taste like frosting,” I muttered. I bit her lip, and she groaned.

“Keeping things down?”

Smooth, Benjamin. Smooth.

She made a face. “Yes, but that’s not sexy talk.”

“Not everything that we talk about has to be sexy, Brenna.” I didn’t know why I was harping on this, and when she gave me a weird look, I pushed that aside.

“Sorry, but are you keeping things down?”

“For twenty-four hours so far. I’m counting that as a win. Now, I seriously need a shower.”

“We can do that.”

---