Oddly enough, she didn’t, though she had no clue why that was. Hell, anytime a guy wanted to spend more than one night at her place had always made her panic. And she honestly couldn’t remember if she had ever slept with a guy in his bed. If she had, it hadn’t been memorable.
Yet here she was, still at Baz’s, wearing one of his button-downs and nothing more after they’d spent the entire night together. Some of it had even been to sleep.
His arms relaxed, his hands sliding down her backside. Cool air caressed her thighs when he planted them on the backs of her legs then moved them up to her ass.
“Say yes, and I’ll do that thing you like.”
“What thing’s that?” she asked, because yes, he could most definitely bribe her with sex.
He held her gaze, smiled. “Say yes, JJ.”
With a sigh, JJ went against every single one of her rules.
She said yes.
And that thing with his tongue … Heaven help her … so totally worth it.
***“Well, you have to admit, Travis holds true to his word,” Reese told Brantley as they stood inside the new conference room in the barn later that afternoon.
“That he does.” Brantley walked over to the wall, tapped a button. “Question is, did he come up with the fancy electronic system or was that somethin’ JJ finagled out of him?”
“My money’s on JJ.”
“I resemble that remark,” JJ called out from the stairs.
Reese looked up, watched as she strolled down.
He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but there was something different about JJ. It was in the way she moved, her smile, even her eyes. She looked … happy.
“For the record, Trey helped me install it,” she said, stepping into the room with a coffee mug in her hand.
“Did they get in your way?” Brantley asked. “The construction crew?”
JJ shook her head. “They kicked ass over the weekend. I worked from home most of the time, so no, they weren’t a bother. I was impressed at how fast they worked.”
“Travis has some serious pull,” Reese noted. “So what does this fancy system do?”
“I had it set up so it’s easy to transfer any call directly in here from any of our phones. That way, if you’re off somewhere and you need us, we’re all in one place.” She pointed to another switch. “I also talked to a guy at Sniper 1 Security. He showed me how to set up the comms to the phones so there’s a direct link anywhere in this building.”
“The comms came in?” Brantley looked like a kid on Christmas.
“Yeah. FedEx package arrived yesterday mornin’.” She looked at Reese. “I called your brother to let him know we received and that we were super grateful.”
“And the computer setup?” Brantley asked, nodding in the direction of the large monitor sitting on the credenza against the wall.
“That was on the governor’s dime.” She smiled brightly.
“And he knows about that?”
“He does. Gave me full approval.” She seemed very proud of herself. “I think Rhonda’s startin’ to like me.”
“Speakin’ of the governor…” Brantley turned to face them. “He wants the five of us in his office this afternoon.”
Oh, shit. Reese didn’t like the sound of that.
“It’s not bad,” Brantley promised, but he didn’t elaborate as to what it was the governor did want.
Reese figured it could be any number of things. Considering what had happened in Dallas…
He pushed the thought away because he needed to stop seeing those women in his mind, the horror that had been inflicted upon them. It pained him still, and he’d never been more grateful to have Brantley than he was right then. The man had been his anchor last night, holding him together, giving him exactly what he needed.
“Where’s Baz?” Brantley asked as he headed out of the conference room.
“He went to talk to a guy he knows for one of the positions.”
“Police officer?” Reese inquired.
“No. At least, I don’t think so.” She shrugged a shoulder.
“If we’re lucky, we’ll get the next few days off,” Brantley told JJ. “But keep your phone on you. We get a call, we’re on.”
She nodded. “Did you happen to check out your new offices?”
Brantley frowned, glanced over at Reese.
Reese did his best not to give anything away. He knew what JJ was referring to because he’d been upstairs to check on the progress already. When they’d come in the house last night, he’d smelled fresh paint, knew they’d been hard at work. What he hadn’t expected was for it to be finished. The only thing they had left to do was get the deck installed. According to Travis’s email, that would be handled next week starting on Monday. Evidently not even the almighty Travis Walker could work miracles when it came to enough time in the day.
JJ laughed. “He really doesn’t go anywhere but the bedroom and the kitchen, huh?”
