Page 144 of Sloane

“You scared me,” she whispered.

“I’m sorry. I just wanted to see if you needed any help before I asked a favor.”

“What’s the favor?” she said as she walked toward the stairs in the garage that led up to her apartment.

“I was hoping you’d sit in the hydrotherapy tub with me.”

“Why didn’t you ask Ryan or Craig?”

“They wanted to get home. I didn’t want to ask them to babysit me. But I thought you might be up to getting in and relaxing with me.”

She didn’t say anything until she reached the top of the stairs, then she looked down at me as she pushed her door open.

“Maybe we should wait until morning, when everyone’s awake.”

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to fall asleep. I’m pretty sore.”

“Did you take any ibuprofen?”

“Yeah. But I think a good soak in warm water would help a lot.”

She stared at me for what felt like ten minutes but was probably only a few seconds until she said, “Fine. But you will keep your hands and your lips to yourself.”

“Understood.”

But I may have had my fingers crossed when I agreed to her conditions.

****

Ashley

I chastised myself the entire time I changed into my swimsuit. I had absolutely no business sitting in a tub full of warm water with that man alone at ten o’clock at night under a full moon.

I was just asking for trouble.

Yet not once did I consider changing my mind.

And the butterflies I’d been praying for with Jeff were taking flight in my stomach now.

“Your daddy is going to be my undoing,” I whispered to Millie before kissing her softly, turning on her monitor, and quietly closing the door.

With my towel wrapped around me, I crept down the stairs and plucked the baby monitor off the kitchen counter before heading outside to where the hydrotherapy tub was.

Sloane waved from his bedroom, then shut the lights off and came out his slider using his walker. He’d removed his prosthetic and was wearing nothing but a pair of swim trunks.

In the moonlight I could see the twisted flesh along his left side, while his right side looked like it always had. The contrast was a reminder of the hell he’d endured.

But his chest was still broad and the dragon tribal tattoo along his right shoulder and arm seemed to trace his muscles. His rippled abs I’d once drooled over seemed to have developed deeper ridges and his Adonis belt was more pronounced than ever. I remembered licking those V-lines, followed by other things, and my nipples stood at full attention at the memory.

Looking at him now, even with his injuries, there was no denying he was a sexy man who pushed every hormonal button in my body.

Remember when I got that box of unopened letters? I tried reminding myself. How devastated I was? And how he never responded when I wrote him about Millie?

Although, if I were honest with myself, I’d already forgiven him about Millie. I couldn’t harbor that ill will if we were going to raise our daughter together.

The other stuff, though. I needed to cling to that with all my might or I was headed straight for heartbreak all over again. And I didn’t have the time nor the energy to deal with that.

I slid the cover off the tub and turned the lights and jets on, then positioned myself to help him up the stairs leading to the warm water.

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