Page 32 of After All

“Because it was on mysquad carbehind your house, and I was still in uniform.”

Yeah, he had been. That had added to all the heat. “You were off-duty,” she said with a little smile she couldn’t hide.

He narrowed his eyes. “Trouble. Capital T.”

“Who is making you meatloaf for dinner.”

Those narrowed eyes went dark again. “Is that right?”

“I’ll meet you on…” She looked around and pointed at the counter next to his fridge. “That counter, at six p.m. Bring your appetite.” Then she winked and headed into the living room.

“You’re not going to help me back to the couch?” he called after her.

“You made it in there just fine on your own,” she called back.

She looked around the living room. She didn’t know what exactly she was going to do now. Her body was still humming from the orgasm, but it seemed clear she was the only one who was going to be getting that special treatment at the moment. Until tonight. He wasn’t leaving that kitchen twice in one day without taking his pants off. She giggled at that. If “normal” couples got busy in the kitchen fifty percent of the time they went in there, she could maybe be more normal than she thought.

Scott followed her a moment later and she turned. But before she could say something smart-ass or flirtatious—like “thanks for the orgasm”—she got a good look at his face. He was in pain.

She frowned, moving across the room. “You need to rest.”

He shot her a grin. “Trust me, I feel like my time’s been well spent.”

That grin. Almost made her forget what they’d been talking about. But she couldn’t help replaying what had gone down in the kitchen. He hadn’t used his leg, so…this had to be just general healing pain. Right? But probably a good thing she hadn’t gotten his pants off.

She put his free arm around her shoulder, helping him to the couch. Or pretending to. No way could she actually help this big guy move around. But it made her feel better to try. “So that’s really why you wouldn’t go all the way with me,” she said. “Your leg.”

She knew that wasn’t it. Scott would absolutely want to “make up for” her not having an orgasm the first time they’d been together.

“Go all the way?” he repeated as he lowered himself, with Peyton’s pretend help, onto the couch. “Is this seventh grade?”

She smiled. “So that’s why you didn’tfuck meright then and there?”

He groaned. “You’re right. Let’s use ‘go all the way’. Or we could just not talk about it at all.”

She laughed. “Me saying ‘fuck’ bothers you?”

He shifted to get comfortable on the cushion. “Makes me want to do it, Peyton.”

She froze for a second. Him using her name like that always did it to her. “Is that right?” she said, resuming her sassy attitude rather than letting on that she wanted to hear him saying her name like that, over and over again, every day.

He gave her a lazy look. “It’s not the only thing that makes me want to do it, of course. But yeah, hearing you say ‘fuck me’? Instant hard-on.”

She felt her grin break free. This Scott, this teasing-about-sex Scott, definitely did it for her.

But then she again noted the look of fatigue around his eyes and the little grimace when he moved his leg. He was hurt. She was here to help.

She leaned over and helped him rotate so he was lying along the length of the sofa, his leg propped up on the opposite arm. She went to the bedroom for more pillows and got one behind his head and two under his leg. Then she grabbed the bag of supplies from the coffee table, shook out a pain pill and went to grab a glass of water. She handed both over and watched him swallow them without complaint.

“You can ask for the pain pills, you know,” she said. “I’ll watch the time, but I’m not giving them unless you ask. There’s no problem with becoming dependent if you’re using the recommended dose as needed, but if you think you can get by with just ibuprofen, that’s probably a better way to go.”

He looked up at her with surprise. “How do you know all of that?”

Crap. She could lie. Say she got it from her nursing classes. Or even from watchingGrey’s AnatomyorER, her two favorite shows in the universe. But she sighed and confessed, “I looked it up last night when I got home. I also watched a couple of YouTube videos about dressing changes. Just so you know.”

He coughed, but if he felt like smiling, he hid it. “YouTube videos?”

She crossed her arms, knowing she looked defensive. And feeling defensive. “I want to be sure I do it right.”

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