Page 13 of The Detective's Secret Santa

Am I really going to do this? Am I really going to seduce Sebastian Fraser?

I nearly chicken out. I don’t see him through the window. Maybe he’s working or taking a nap or in the shower.

The image of Bash completely naked, water dripping down his muscular body, nearly makes me come. I’ve never found shower sex to be all that enjoyable. But something tells me Bash would figure out a way to make it memorable.

I force myself out of my car before I can overthink this and slip inside.

The house is quiet and empty. Only the twinkling lights on the tree suggest someone is home.

The basement.

I leave my coat and boots at the front door. I slip off my sweater, draping it over the back of the sectional, and quietly tiptoe downstairs. I faintly hear a conversation, like a phone call on speaker. My attention’s drawn to Bash’s bedroom door, cracked halfway open.

With a deep breath, I decide to be bold. I shed my tank top and bra and bravely approach his door in only a pair of tights covered by a short red flowing skirt. I spot a Santa hat resting on a recliner. Letting my hair down, I put the hat on.

The conversation is a little louder. Bash talks to someone who’s on speaker phone. I try to tune it out and focus on my breathing. I’ve done some ballsy things before, but this is by far the boldest. With the girls on full display, I prop an arm in the doorway and pop out my hips. Before I reach for the door to push it all the way open, I hear a familiar voice.

“You’ll start on New Year’s Day then.” Not a question from…the mayor?

“Yes.”

“Have you talked to Suzie Watkins? She’s the best realtor in the county. She’ll have you in a new home in no time.”

“She’s showing me a couple houses tomorrow morning.”

Houses? The breath freezes in my lungs. What is Bash saying exactly? Is he moving to Alpine Valley? My head starts to spin. I was fully prepared to have a fun, sexy fling with a man who would be leaving in a few days. But if he’s in town all the time? Invited to who knows how many family dinners because Mom would totally do that.

“Welcome to the force, Detective Fraser.”

My heart pounds in my ears. Detective Fraser. He’s filling Dad’s old spot. One that’s only been temporarily filled since his passing. Why didn’t Bash say anything? I feel suffocated by the secret. Blindsided by news he didn’t think was worth sharing over dinner and tree decorating last night?

The door opens with me still standing like a pinup girl, tits out.

“Brook?” Bash’s expression transitions from shocked to enticed in two seconds flat.

“Detective Fraser?” I narrow my gaze at him, hoping he feels the laser beams I’m shooting at him. It’s my only defense since my fucking nipples have puckered and are reaching for him. Not now. Get your she-wolf under control, Brooklyn!

“You heard then?”

I back away from his doorway, feeling the sudden urge to run. I’m too overwhelmed to process everything. If I sleep with Bash now, knowing he’s not going anywhere, I might do something very stupid like fall all the way in love with him. And where the hell would that leave us?

“I have to go.” I turn and run, abandoning the nonessentials like my bra. I’m desperate to get out of the house. I need to go home. Or for a drive. Or back to Houston. I zip up my coat with nothing underneath and hurry to my car as my Santa hat sails off my head and lands in the snowy yard.

Bash stands on the front porch as I drive away. I curse the gusting wind that threatens to throw my car into a ditch. “We can make it,” I say to the Mustang I have yet to name. I wish Dad had told me what he planned to name his. I wish Dad had told me a lot of things. “It’s all downhill. We just have to tread—”

I slam on my brakes barely in time to avoid ramming a fallen tree. A huge fucking tree blocking the entire road. Seconds later, I see Bash’s truck in my rearview mirror. “What the actual hell?”

He bursts out of his parked truck, making a mad dash to my driver’s side door. I roll down the window only so I can yell at him. “Go away, Bash.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No.” Only my pride. I’m so embarrassed that I threw myself at him like that. If only I’d known he was sticking around, I would never have let anything happen. Not that kiss. Not that fingering in the closet. Not my plan to seduce him. We can’t be a couple. It’s so…wrong. What would Mom think? The town? Dad? I’m such an idiot. Wilma’s probably going to send me an invoice for rent after she hears how much I botched this whole Secret Santa thing.

“Come back to the house, Brook. I’ll explain everything.”

A gust of cold air whooshes into my car, reminding me I have exactly no clothes on under my coat. Mom will find my bra hanging off the back of a recliner downstairs if I don’t go back. I can’t explain why I left a trail of clothes on the way to Bash’s bedroom without incriminating myself.

“I don’t like secrets, Bash.”

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