Page 125 of What Remains

Oh yeah, she knows. I roll off her to the other side of the bed and drag a hand down my face.

“Be there soon,” Gwen calls as she sits up and hops off the bed. She turns back to me, tilting her head with a self-satisfied smirk. “You’re still hard.”

I don’t need to look to confirm she’s right. I’m painfully aware. “I won’t be fixing my situation anytime soon if you keep staring at my cock.”

She laughs as I stand and adjust myself. The little troublemaker stops in front of me and goes for my waistband. I expect her to check which brand of boxer-briefs I’m wearing. But no, she’s in the mood to absolutely kill me, and has a peek at the problem in question.

My dick twitches in response to her stare.

“Mmm. The gray sweats are nothing but honest.”

I laugh. “And that means?”

She snaps the waistband back in place. “You’re a big boy.”

“Fucking naughty, seriously.” I cup her chin and lean in, catching her tongue with mine. “Please prepare yourself for a swat to the ass in the future for making me impossibly harder than necessary when I need to be dialing this shit down.”

“Don’t tease me with a good time,” she says huskily, then scrunches her nose. “We have to behave now, though, don’t we?”

I frame her cheeks against my rough palms. “Behave together,” I say. “Be scared together.” I swallow. “What else might we do together?”

“Oh”—her lips twitch, another smile threatening—“I can think of a lot of things.”

Reality hits, and I’m about to be a real killjoy as I remember why I hauled ass here in the first place. “Like falling on the sword together?”

She turns her mouth into my palm and kisses me. Trying to distract me again, huh?

“I won’t let you walk out onto the blade with me,” she whispers.

“Funny,” I huff out, my worries back to being mountain-sized again, “I was about to say the same thing.”

CHAPTER 42

Easton

The woman who challenged me not to walk onto the blade with her is now sitting in Griffin’s dining room, dismantling a digital war with her bare hands. Meanwhile, I’m sharing a laptop with Griffin, poring over the 2011 case files, and getting absolutely nowhere.

Mya and Oliver are at one end of the table sharing space meant for one, and Jesse’s seated at the other side behind his own laptop. I have a feeling the only reason Wyatt’s not here is because he can’t be in the same room as his daughter without picking a fight about her safety.

I don’t have an answer to give him yet about my talk with Gwen. And there’s zero chance of me telling him I went to lecture her and left with her under my skin in a way I’ll never shake.

Gwen must feel my eyes on her, because she looks up from her screen. I thought I spoiled the mood with how things ended in the bedroom, but based on the way Miss Trouble is staring at me with her lip between her teeth, I didn’t.

I shut my eyes as memories crash over me.

The warmth of her beneath me on that bed.

How her body responded to my touch.

I can still hear her moans.

And hell, I don’t even want to stress-chew gum while I work, because I don’t want to erase the taste of her.

I shift in my chair, grounding myself, forcing those thoughts out of my head. When I open my eyes, she’s looking at her screen again—thank the Lord—so I do the same.

A few minutes pass, then Carter abruptly stands and decides to hover over my shoulder, so that’s fun. “Anything yet?” he asks with his usual intensity.

Griffin casually twists around to glance at him and answers for both of us. “Nothing since the last time you asked.”