Page 61 of S.O.S. Perk

“Shit Sloane. Your tail end is like ice. We need to take the rest of our exploration inside.”

She lifted her gaze to his, and her eyes immediately filled with renewed and undisguised lust.

“You have the best ideas.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The day hadn’t been long enough.

Their time together had been mind-blowing in all regards. The sex had been off the charts, but the closeness and the cuddling in-between the alternatingly sometimes frenzied and sometimes sweet couplings? Not what Sloane had expected, at all.

She’d felt so damned…comfortable.

Sloane and Perk had even—while feeding each other fruit and cheese as they sat naked on the bed—been playfully discussing whether or not to spend the night in New Hampshire. When Perk’s “school” phone had sounded, that plan had been swept off the table. Jeremy Nelsin had texted saying Perk could come to the house the next morning at ten.

Of course, Perk had responded with an enthusiastic “yes”, because the job always came first,andthis meeting might signal a break in the case.

But…

Their romantic interlude had made an incredible impact on her.

****

Sloane headed home as dark was settling in, and now that there was some distance between her and Perk, she couldn’t help wondering if the day had been an anomaly. She knew second-guessing was never pretty, but that’s where her brain went. She couldn’t help it.

After having been fooled once by a husband who’d said he loved her just the way she was, Sloanehadto question Perk’s true take on her tough persona. The day had been nothing short of magical, but… Could Perk, in the long run, handle her need tobe in charge? Could he stomach her penchant to take the driver’s seat so much of the time?

He’d seemed more than okay with it today, but what if he had second thoughts, or realized that Sloane was just a novelty for him? What if Perk had simply been saying all the things she wanted to hear, but inside he was conducting a Cinderella-like countdown until midnight? And in that case, there would be no glass slipper to save the day.

She worried her lip, incessantly, for most of the trip home, and knew it would be bleeding soon if she didn’t stop. She was getting close to her exit on the highway when her phone rang. Glancing at the screen, Sloane saw Perk’s name. But since she was driving, she had to let it go to voicemail.

For the eight minutes it took for her to leave the interstate, she thought her brain might explode. Was Perk giving her the brush-off already? Had she ruined things somehow?

As soon as she was able, Sloane pulled into the empty parking lot of a box store, stopped the car, and fumbled for her device.

Breathe, Sloane. Breathe, she told herself.

Perk had left a message.

Hitting play before she could scream and toss her phone out the window, she swallowed hard, hearing his voice.

“Hey, Sloane. I just wanted to tell you that today was perfect. Absolutely perfect. And knowing you, I’m sure that all the way home you’ve been going over every detail to see if what we did and said today was real, haven’t you?”

He had her there. She started to put teeth to lip again, and caught herself. Barely.

“So listen up. It was. It is. Real I mean. As real as anything I’ve ever done in my life. And if you think you can talk yourself out of seeing me again because you can’t trust my feelings or yours, forget about it. As soon as this case is wrapped up,I’ll be proving to you that what we have is genuine. There will be no more clandestine meetings. No hiding from anyone. Everything we do will be out in the open where our friends and coworkers will be able to see us. Got it?”

Slow tears leaked from the corner of her eyes as she listened, but she dashed them away.

“Yeah. I’ve got it,” she whispered to no one. “And I’ll try to stop overthinking.”

Right. Like it was that easy. Because there was a big problem here.Besidesher brain and the way it worked overtime. Maybe the largest “what the fuck” of her life.

She was falling for Perk.

Not in the way she had for her ex-husband.Nope.She’d had young stars in her eyes back then, keeping her from seeing exactly who the asshole really was. He’d flattered her; made her feel as if she was his entire world, then after exchanging their vows, he’d immediately wanted to change her.

She didn’t get those vibes from Perk, and she was going in with her eyes wide open this time. What she couldn’t tell—but could anybody, ever—was Perk’s timetable.

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