Page 47 of Roads Behind Us
I couldn’t bring myself to wake Athena; she had cross country and school in the morning. And I assumed the locked third bedroom had been Bax’s and Candy’s before she died.
The room he’d been sleeping in before I woke him couldn’t have been a married couple’s room. It looked pretty barren and undecorated. Besides the bed and the side table, there was a hardback dining chair in one corner with a pair of dirty cowboy boots set on the seat, a dresser with three open drawers and clothes falling out, and not one picture on the wall or any kind of personal decoration.
“Bax?”
“Sorry,” he said, shaking his head like he was trying to shake away a thought. “It’s uh, the room’s not… There’s a lot of junk in there and it’s not really set up for guests. I forgot.”
“Okay. Then I’ll sleep in here with you tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll get that bear spray, and do you have a shotgun around here I can keep at the cabin?”
“Bear spray’s a better bet, but yeah, I’ll show you how to use the gun tomorrow in case of emergency.”
I scoffed. “I know how to use a shotgun, Bax. You can’t be surprised by that, and I wouldn’t aim to actually shoot the bear. I’d fire into the air or nearby or whatever. But if it comes down to me versus a grizzly, the grumbly bitch is goin’ down.”
He laughed. “You’re right. I’m not surprised. It’s in a locked safe in my closet. I’ll get it out in the mornin’.”
“Thanks.”
“But I mean, you’re welcome to stay here, too, not just tonight… if you want to.”
“I do want to. The cabin’s nice, but yeah, I’m kinda freaked out. I can’t really sleep with all the nature noises. But I don’t know if it’s a good idea. Athena’s down the hall, and?—”
And if I stay, I might take advantage of you. I’ll try not to, but the heat comin’ off your body right now might just lure me in. I can’t make any promises.
“I want you to try,” he whispered.
“What?”
He rolled onto his side, pushed up on an elbow, and propped his head in his hand. “You said you’ll try not to take advantage of me, but I want you to.”
“I thought I said that in my head.”
“You do that a lot,” he murmured. “Say things out loud that you mean to leave unsaid.”
“I do?”
“Yeah. It’s cute. Plus, I kinda like knowin’ what you’re really thinkin’.”
How long had I been doing that? Dozens of inappropriate inner thoughts ran through my head, and I winced when I realized I had no clue if I’d actually said them out loud.
His gaze burned the side of my face, but I was actively trying to avoid it. This time, I made sure my inner diatribe didn’t leak out: You work for his brother. Get a grip, dammit!
“Athena asked me today if I was plannin’ to take you on a date.”
Whoa. “She did?” I pushed up on my elbow, too, and we were face to face. “What’d you say?”
“I didn’t really answer.”
Pulling Bax’s blanket up higher to cover my chest because I suddenly felt exposed even though I was fully dressed in leggings and a sweatshirt, I said. “I’m not much of a dater.”
“You and me both,” he said. “But this”—he lifted his hand to my hip and slid it down the outside of my thigh, then tugged the blanket down and slipped that hand between my legs—“this I can do.”
My hand reached out slowly—of its own volition, thank you very much—and I watched with fascination as it slid over his hip where his sweats had dipped a bit, and then lower over his smooth abs. They tensed when I touched. Bax held his breath, and my mouth watered. All it would take was one slip of a finger beneath his waistband, and the night could take a turn. “If I didn’t work for your brother?—”
“You do, I know.”
“Yeah, but if I didn’t and if I didn’t live a whole day’s drive away, would you ask me out?” Searching the burning blue of his eyes, my hand moved in slow motion over his skin. “I mean, like, are you… available for that?”
“Available? I’m not seein’ anybody.” He moved closer, inching his hand slowly up my inner thigh, slipping closer to the wetness his nearness, the sound of his voice, and the heat from his skin had caused.
