Page 360 of The Winslow Brothers

Truthfully, there’s a whole explanation I could go into about the way we left it at the hospital and how I wasn’t comfortable not making sure she’s okay, but I don’t think that would set us off on the right foot.

And there’s an equally truthful, much simpler answer too. I go with the latter. “I wanted to see you.”

“You wanted to see me?” she asks, and I don’t miss the hint of hope in her voice. As if that reality would make her happy versus upset.

Which only makes me more certain that coming here was the right thing to do.

“Doll, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I always want to see you.”

Rachel’s face melts into total contentment, and before I know it, she’s walking straight through the collection of tables and right into my arms. I lift her up, her feet coming off the floor as she wraps her arms around my shoulders, and I bury my face into her throat. Matilda scatters, and I officially lose track of her for the night. My attention, it seems, is elsewhere.

“I know today was a lot,” I admit into the supple skin there. And I do. At the time, I couldn’t see past the end of my own nose, butnow, I get it. “And I’m sorry for the awkward position I likely put you in, but I’m still glad you were there.”

She exhales a deep breath and then pulls back just enough to touch her mouth to mine. It’s a soft, subtle kiss, so unlike everything we’ve shared before, and I drink it in languidly.

“I’m glad I left the door unlocked,” she whispers against my lips. “But if you don’t mind, I’d really like you to lock it now.”

My laugh is loud in the otherwise empty space, and I set her back down on her feet. I turn around to lock the door, and she doesn’t waste any time grabbing my hand and dragging me toward the back.

I go willingly, my long legs keeping up easily behind her much shorter ones.

“I’ve never been behind the counter before!” I remark excitedly as she takes me around one end and directly by the cabinet thatI know houses my favorite cookies. Though, there are no cookies in sight, and I look at the empty space a little longingly.

“Don’t worry, Ty.” She reads me like a book and giggles. “I have some leftover chocolate chip almond in the back.”

“Really?” I nearly cry, like a kid at Christmas.

She nods, reaching out to grab my hand with both of hers, and pulls me along with a sexy smile on her face. “Uh-huh. And that’s not the only thing.”

“Ohh, I like the sound of this.” I waggle my eyebrows. “What else do you have back here?”

She pulls me around a shiny metal table that’s five or six feet inside the door, and I follow dutifully until we stop on the other side.

“I guess you’ll just have to wait and see,” she replies with a smirk and gestures for me to sit down on a stool, conveniently located behind my legs. I do, and she proceeds to grab a cloth napkin and surprise me by wrapping it around my eyes.

“Blindfolding me?” I ask salaciously. “Day-um, Rach. I sure hope this goes where I think it’s going.”

“Before we get started, what would you say your pain tolerance is?” she asks, and my eyes grow wide beneath the napkin.

“Excuse me?”

“Yourpain tolerance?” she repeats. “High or low? I’m just trying to get a gauge for how far I can take this.”

“Uhhh…” I pause, and it only takes two seconds for her to cackle like an adorable crazy person.

She’s totally fucking with me, and I have no qualms with playing along.

“Do you trust me, Ty?”

“Yes.” I answer without hesitation.

She presses a playful kiss to my lips, and there’s a snicker in her laugh that would probably make a normal guy’s nuts crawl up inside him. Luckily, I’m not a normal guy. I love to play and tease, and I can handle just about anything she throws my way.

My only kryptonite, it seems, is a set of blue balls while she does it. And since we’ve opened the floodgates on sleeping with each other, I don’t have to worry about that anymore.

“By the way,” she adds and kisses me once more. “There’s no pain involved, and thisisgoing somewhere really good.”

Rachel moves around in the kitchen a little, I can tell by the noises to my sides and off in the distance, and then calls out from the back. “I’ll only be a minute. Don’t move. Just need to grab something.”

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