Page 68 of Let Me Say It Again

“You mean that there’s trouble in paradise?” she asked as if challenging me.

I didn’t answer. There was no use. I didn’t really know what to say to her. She was clearly in her head about us sleeping together, and I doubted very much there was anything I could do or say to change that.

Then she surprised me by bringing up the whole moving in together thing. “How do you want to handle moving in together? If it’s too difficult, maybe we should hit pause on that. It probably doesn’t matter—”

“It does. It’s not too difficult. In fact, I already have it figured out.”

“Oh,” she breathed and looked down at her feet. “When we’re back home—”

I shook my head. “It’s been arranged. My people are working on it right now. It’ll be done by the time we get home.”

“Your people?” she asked, her attitude fully raging again. “Don’t you think I kind of, you know, need to move my own stuff?”

I’d seen the way Jade operated. I think it was safe to say she had no clue how to pack. “No. They know what they’re doing.”

“What the—”

“Red. Jade,” Mark greeted us first as we approached the table, giving me a clap on the back and her a chaste kiss on the cheek as he did. I wasn’t a huge fan of that, and had it been anyone but Mark, he wouldn’t be walking back to his chair, he’d be fucking limping. “Have a seat. The food should be out soon. It’s family-style today.”

“Thanks,” I said, pulling a chair out for Jade, then taking my own seat next to her.

A few of the guys I’d been introduced to were already seated with their wives and girlfriends, and knowing how Jade wasn’t in the chatty mood with me, I turned to get into conversation with one of them. Meanwhile, I wasn’t deaf, so I found it ironic howshe had no problem talking it up with some of the women on her other side.

I supposed I should’ve been glad that she could turn it on and off like that. This was the home stretch, and we were so close to not raising any red flags this weekend.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Reddington

A long weekendwith Jade turned out to be taxing. Jade moving in here was taxing. My body was pushed to its limit. My mind, even more so. That woman had a certain way about her that sucked me in like she was a goddamn vacuum.

What had I ever been thinking when I’d hired her in the first place? I must’ve been out of my mind.

With tension you could have cut with a knife—before and even after we’d slept together—present the entire weekend, I knew one of the first orders of business I had when we got back was to hit the gym. It was the only way to release some of it. Well, not the only way, but I figured it was as good as the other way and might have actually distracted me from thoughts of Jade for a while.

And it had.

In fact, it felt so good, I proceeded to go on a five-mile run after. Fuck fitness, it was all about clearing my head.

And making my balls sweat.

A lot.

But it was okay because now I was ready to hit the shower and become human again.

The door was closed and the shower running. With one hand on the towel that I had wrapped around my waist, I huffed. Jade had her own bathroom. This was the exact opposite ofit’s a big house, let’s keep running into each other to a minimum.

Unless she wanted me to find her in here. Figured. She couldn’t ask for what she wanted, so I had to read between the damn lines. Lines barely seen by the naked eye, by the way.

When I walked in, my heart hammered in my chest as I watched Jade open the glass-doored shower, her body coming into full focus as water trickled and dripped down it. She was peering down at the mat, her mouth moving. Was she chewing gum? What was it with this woman and gum?

“What the fuck are you doing in here?” I asked, startling her.

Her hand flew to her chest and she stumbled backward. Only, I wasn’t about to let her fall, so I removed my hand from its place on the towel and shot to her at warp speed.

My arm came around her, steadying her against my body. My body that suddenly felt just how drafty it was in here.

“What the hell, Red?” Jade asked, squawking as she pushed me back. “Your pecker is jabbing into me.” Then she scrunched her nose. “And you’re sticky. Why?”

---