Page 13 of Stripped Bare

“Is he staying there or heading back here later?”she asked, pulling her hair into a high ponytail.She reached for the moisturizer on her counter and rubbed it on her face.

“I told him we’d call him this afternoon and let him know if we needed him to come back or not,” Shep said, and she noticed something in his eyes that had her pulse picking up.

“What else?”she queried.

“I’ve made another call to a friend, and they’re willing to offer what help they can,” Shep answered.

“So why am I getting an uncertain vibe from you?”Stace asked.

Shep sighed and turned to move back into the bedroom, so she followed him.

“Ally has a gift some people don’t understand,” Shep offered.

A woman.One of importance, Stace guessed, based on the way he said her name.What gift did she have that would help them?

“Okay,” she replied when he didn’t offer anything else.“What kind of gift?Is she psychic or something?”

“She is.Before you scoff, I’ve seen her abilities firsthand.Ally’s been able to help both the police and our group with several cases,” Shep said.“With all the dead ends we’ve encountered, I didn’t see the harm in giving her a call.”

She kept her gaze on him, seeing past his frown to the uncomfortable way he didn’t meet her eyes this time.That was a huge tell for a man who demanded it in every other circumstance.

“Is she your girlfriend?A past girlfriend?”she asked, her stomach clenching.He’d told her that he was single, and she didn’t see him as a man who’d be unfaithful.

“No,” he answered immediately.“Ally’s a friend, and she’s engaged to my best friend, Blake Summers.He’s the fire marshal in Legacy.”

“But?”Stace prompted when he didn’t finish what she felt was a still open sentence.

He sighed and ran his fingers through his wet hair.He reached for his boxer briefs and dropped his towel before pulling them up his legs.

“We have a close relationship,” he admitted.

“How close?”she asked, still unsure what he was getting at.She took his lead though and started pulling clothes from her drawers and closet and began dressing.

“Blake and I have been friends longer than either of us has known Ally,” Shep said.“It was almost love at first sight for Blake, ignited by a lot of lust.”

“And you lusted for her, too?”she asked.

“I thought I did,” Shep answered and sighed again, his fingers working through his hair once more.Stace had to hide a grin.Obviously, he wasn’t sure how she’d take what he had to tell her.Which meant she was more than just sex for him, or it wouldn’t matter to him.He seemed to care what she thought.

“Did you have sex with her?With both of them?”she asked.

“No.Nothing like that,” he answered.“But had the opportunity been there, I might have, and I would have ruined a great friendship.She never had eyes for anyone but Blake.”

“But you wanted her,” she said, reading it so clearly in his eyes.

“No,” he denied, and she barely held in the scoff tickling her throat.“Listen to me.I don’t lie, Stace.Ever.I thought I wanted her, and maybe, Ally saw it before me, but I realized I didn’t.I wanted what she and Blake had.”

“What are you trying to say?”she demanded.“Not to read too much into how well you’ve fucked me?”

He gripped her arms and pulled her close before she finished the last word.“Fucked?Is that all we’ve done?”

“It’s been what, Shep, two days,” she replied.“Not even that yet.What do you want from me?”

“I’d like to think I was more than a good fuck,” he said.

He was.Incredible.Magnificent.The best sex of her life.Everything she wanted at exactly the wrong time.“I’ve got a lot going on right now.”

“And you feel guilty for having me, being with me, while your sister is still missing,” he replied.

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