She tilted her head up, a smile on her face and desire in her eyes. “You got it, Chief.”
“Thank you.” I stepped away and held out my hand. “You’re pretty special, Red.” That was as close as I would ever come to telling her that I was falling for her. She came to me without hesitation, and as we walked to my bedroom hand in hand, I tried not to think about how much I was going to miss her when she left.
31
~ Jenny ~
Dylan woke me up early. “Up and at ’em, Red. We have places to go, people to see.”
I pulled my pillow over my head. “Go away, evil man.”
It was his laughter that caught my attention. He’d fallen asleep before me last night, but he’d been restless, tossing and turning so much that I’d almost relocated myself to the couch. I hadn’t because I was afraid he’d wake up and need me.
My pillow was yanked away. “Up, Red. Coffee’s on, breakfast in twenty.”
I opened one eye, peeking at his hot ass as he walked out of the room. As if Dylan’s early morning chirpiness wasn’t bad enough, I got dog-breath licks across my face from Daisy. “You Conrads are the devil’s minions,” I told her, pushing her nose away. She gave me a pitiful whine, making me feel bad about hurting her feelings.
Nineteen minutes later I walked into the kitchen, inhaling the aroma of coffee. “Gimme, gimme, gimme.” I held my arms out, heading for Dylan like a zombie.
He smiled at my silliness, but I noticed it didn’t reach his eyes. His early morning cheerfulness was an act, maybe as much for himself as for me. “What’s the plan for today?”
“First, breakfast.” He put a bowl of cereal and some toast in front of me.
“Do you know whereThe Valley Newsoffice is?” he asked, sitting across from me.
“Yeah, why?”
“I want you to go there this morning. Tell those two women if they’ll hold off on publishing their so-called special edition, that I’ll give them an exclusive interview. I don’t want to go myself so that they don’t try to get me to do an interview right then.”
“No problem. I can do that. Why would you want to talk to them, though?”
“A man I respect above all others told me I need to take the bull by the horns. He’s right. If I’m going to be front-page news, then my side of the story needs to be told, but not until I get a chance to sit down with the mayor.”
“Makes sense, but we need to do more than that.” I popped the last piece of toast into my mouth while Dylan hadn’t done much more than stir his spoon around in his cereal. No surprise that he didn’t have an appetite this morning. “We need to make a list of who we know we can recruit to support you. Autumn and Brian, for sure. Definitely Adam and Connor… What?” He was staring at me with a kind of wonder in his eyes.
He put his hand on his chest, patting himself right over his heart. “Jenny Girl, you slay me.”
“Why?” I whispered. Something like snapping live wires latched around my heart, stealing the air out of my lungs. He didn’t mean he loved me, right? That wasn’t supposed to happen.
“Because you believe in me.”
“Of course I believe in you,” I said, not liking my disappointment that he hadn’t declared his undying love for me. If he had, I’d probably have gone running out of his condo.
He stood, took my hand, and pulled me into his arms. “Thank you.”
When his mouth fused with mine, setting me on fire, I closed my eyes, sinking against him as his tongue invaded my mouth. Everything about this man called to me in the most elemental way. I wanted to climb up him, wrap my legs around his waist, and never let him go. Minutes later he pulled away, leaning his head back and peering down at me. Both of us were breathing hard.
“Have I told you how much I love kissing you?”
I shook my head. “No, you’ve never told me that.”
“How remiss of me.” He trailed his knuckles down my cheek. “I do, you know.”
“I’m pretty fond of kissing you, too.”
“Then we’ll have to do more of it. In the meantime, however, I have that meeting with the mayor in an hour, so I’m going to jump in the shower.” He gave me a wicked grin. “I’d ask you to join me, but then I’d never get to that meeting.”
“Well, darn. How about we make a shower date for tonight?”
