Page 44 of Outlaw Ridge: Hayes

Sadly, it didn’t smell like him. She would have liked that. But instead it had the scent of fresh laundry detergent. However, her disappointment came to a quick halt when Hayes had her lie back on the bed, and he eased onto the mattress right beside her.

Yes, no disappointment about that.

“We finally end up in bed together, and nothing’s probably going to happen.Probably?” she repeated like a question.

“Nothing’s happening other than you’re going to get some rest,” he assured her, but he brushed a kiss on the top of her head.

That kiss gave her hope that there could be more. Much more. And she turned her head to look up at him.

Just as he looked down at her.

She didn’t see what she wanted in his eyes. No heat. But she thought she saw plenty of regret.

Jemma was dead sure he was mentally beating himself up because she’d gotten injured. But she knew it could have been a hell of a lot worse. One inch higher, and the bullet would have gone into neck, and she’d be dead.

Before he could voice that regret, Jemma lifted herself up so she could kiss him. Not a reassuring peck on the head but something long and deep. Something she could sink right into.

Something to put some heat in his eyes.

Hayes didn’t pull back. Didn’t stop her. In fact, he did some deepening of his own, and along with being able to enjoy his scent, she got to savor his incredible taste.

She adjusted her body, moving closer to him. Or rather trying. But now he did stop, and he looked down at her with something else in his eyes.

A whole lot of need for her.

Need that he was obviously going to put on hold.

“Rest,” he muttered, tucking her head against his shoulder.

Jemma wanted to protest that, wanted to keep on kissing him. Heck, she wanted to have sex with him.

But her body had a different notion about this.

She could already feel the fog creeping into her head. It was lessening the pain but causing the predicted drowsiness. Jemma had no choice but to just go with it. She closed her eyes and let the meds claim her.

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Chapter Fourteen

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Hayes had waited until he was certain Jemma was asleep before he made a quick trip to his room to get his tablet so he could access all the reports that had come in when he’d been at the hospital with Jemma. He hadn’t been able to focus on them there. Way too much going on in his head.

Like how damn close he’d come to losing her.

But now that she was sleeping and wasn’t in as much pain, his mind was settled just enough that he could focus on work.

He hoped.

Still, parts of his brain did indeed want to dwell on the close call of this latest attack. Dwell, too, on how it would have crushed him to pieces if Jemma’s injuries had been more serious. Or even fatal. No, he didn’t want those thoughts in his head so he had to force them aside and not make any comparisons to Jemma and the other two women he’d lost in his life.

Jemma was alive, period.

And he could make sure she stayed that way by finding the killer and stopping him or her before they struck again.

Hayes eased back into a sitting position on the bed next to Jemma, and he pulled up the report on Hailey’s body, studyingthe photos of the damage to her skull. The ME believed it was a single blow with a blunt object, and since it was located on the left side of her head, her attacker had likely been right-handed and facing the person who’d ended her short life.

Was that Cordelia or Brooks?

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