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“You like Dean?” Liam asked.
She felt her cheeks warm again. “Yes.”
Liam tipped his head. “Good. Now, come on. We’ve got work to do. I got a fresh brain delivered this morning.”
“That’s it? I’m not fired?” she asked, rushing to follow him as he turned toward the back of the lab where she knew there was a fridge that was horrifyingly filled with brains.
“You’re not fired,” he said over his shoulder as he strode ahead of her.
“Um, are you going to tell Dean about what I told you?” she asked when Liam stopped in front of the appliance that contained a disturbing number of human brains.
He turned to look at her. “No. But you are.” One dark brow rose in challenge as he stared at her and waited.
The wordsor elsehad been left unspoken but she heard what Liam was really saying. Confess it all to Dean. If she didn’t, her new boss might not be so understanding. Liam could dismiss her at any time for any reason, and not coming clean to Dean after he’d told her to might be a good enough reason.
Well, crud.
Being involved in this research could be the most important thing she’d ever do in her life. She couldn’t risk it.
She swallowed hard and said, “Okay.”
Like it or not, she was going to have to be honest with Dean. And possibly destroy the man’s relationship with his mother.
Susan, Red and Ruby were all going to be so mad at her. Dean would probably hate her for lying. It would all be over between them then, right as it had just begun.
But it—whatever this thing was between them—was ending soon anyway with Dean leaving in just a couple of days. They’d never talked about what would happen after, not that they’d done much talking at all last night.
And her boss hadn’t specifiedwhenshe had to tell Dean. So why couldn’t she wait? Enjoy the remaining time they had together before they said goodbye.
In fact, maybe this was one of those things that would be better delivered after they separated. Perhaps in a nicehandwritten letter he’d receive after he was back on base and had already gotten on with his normal life.
Yeah. That sounded like the perfect plan. Something she’d implement later. Much later.
Right now Liam was coming toward her with a brain in his hands, and that was pretty much all she could think about. That and not vomiting.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Two full days had passed since the first time Dean had been with Tessa. As inbeenwith her. In bed. Naked.
Two days during which, very aware of the ticking clock on their being together, Dean had tried to find any opportunity to spend more time with her while he still had the chance.
Two days during which she went on with her usual daily and very busy life doing things that mostly did not include him.
Between her shifts at Ruby’s, her job at Liam’s and her side gig writing papers whenever she wasn’t at the other two places, Dean was just happy he ranked in the top five for her attention. He took any time he could get and didn’t complain. But he also didn’t have that conversation with her. The talk he’d promised Liam he’d have. The one about her feelings, and his. About maybe giving this long-distance thing a try.
And he definitely had not confessed to Tessa that, for better or worse, he feared he was falling for her.
He glanced at the glowing red numbers on the bedside alarm clock and saw the time. It was officially a new day. Saturday. He was leaving tomorrow. That thought twisted his gut.
It had only been a few days but he’d already gotten used to his place there next to her in her bed. Comfortable even.
She was sleeping, breathing deep and steady next to him in the narrow bed.
She slept hard. He didn’t. At least not here in a bed that barely fit the two of them. And that combination gave him too much time to think and consider. The present. The future. The possible paths between the two.
What it was going to feel like when she wasn’t right down the road from where he was. When he couldn’t spend half the night next to her before sneaking back into his parents’ house before his father’s tee time at the crack of dawn.
Times like this, thoughts like that, made him consider what Liam had said. Tessa was different. Dean’s relationship with her was different. But was that enough?
