Page 37 of My One and Only

“Get your ass in there and take care of business, Pierce,” she said, easing him past the door, then pulling it closed behind him.

A few minutes later, after washing his hands, he held onto the sink, then the towel bar and grabbed for the doorknob. When he pulled the door open, Jo was waiting for him.

“C’mon, guy with a massive headache. Let’s get you back to bed.”

He’d rather Jo think about a different massive body part, but he was not in any condition for sexy games.

A couple minutes later, he was back in his bed. Jo headed for the door. “Sleep well,” she said as she exited his room.

“Jo?”he said, and she stopped and looked back at him.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.” He swallowed. “I mean that very sincerely.”

“You’re welcome, Cam. Get some sleep.” She walked away but didn’t close the door. Probably a bodyguard rule. No closed doors. But before he could ask her if that was true, his eyes drifted closed and he fell asleep.

The next time he woke up, sunlight poured into his room through the crack in the window curtains, and his head didn’t feel like it was about to fall off his neck. He must have slept all night.

He sat up in bed slowly, and his head didn’t pound. Definite progress.

He slid off the bed and stood up, standing for a moment to see what would happen. Nothing. So he walked slowly toward the bathroom, pleased when the movement didn’t send hammers crashing down on his head. The headache was still there, but the pain was muted. Instead of screaming at him, it whispered in his ear. ‘Take it easy. Don’t move too fast. Walk slowly.’

After he finished in the bathroom, he pulled out clean clothes and got dressed. Slid on socks and shoes, then made his way down the hall and into the living room. He was thrilled that he didn’t need to brace himself on the wall this time.

He walked more slowly than usual, but he was under his own power. Didn’t need a prop.

When he reached the living room, he saw Jo sitting on the couch, wearing what looked like flannel pajamas. Where the hell had she gotten those? She’d found a pillow, a sheet and a blanket in the hall closet and made herself a bed.

She looked all tousled and rumpled, as if she’d done more than sleep on that couch. She’d taken off her bra, because the tight points of her nipples pressed against the flannel.

He jerked his head to the side and took a deep breath. God, Jo’s tight nipples were the last thing he needed to see. He took another deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to block out the mental pictures of him and Jo, curled around each other. Him touching her breasts and those stiff nipples.

Some things couldn’t be unseen.

Clearing his throat, he focused on Jo’s eyes and struggled to sound normal. “You could have slept in one of the bedrooms,” he said, swallowing the roughness in his voice.

She’d been looking at her phone, and she jerked her head up to look at him as she slid the phone into a pocket. “Figured this was easiest last night.”

“Where’d you get the pajamas?”he asked.

“After you were asleep, I called my mom and had her bring over my stuff,” Jo said easily. “I’ll be staying here instead of at her house, and I’m not going to wear the same clothes every day.”

“Yeah? What did your mom think?”he asked.

Jo smiled. “You know my mom. She had a million questions. I told her I’d explain everything later. She wasn’t happy, and she’s going to sulk. But I have my stuff, so I’m good.”

Her gaze swept over him, and his skin shivered as if she’d actually touched him. Shocked by the way blood rushed to his groin, he shifted his feet. This reaction to her was going to make the next couple of weeks really awkward.

“Good,” he said, his voice sharp. Too hard. “You can put your stuff in the guest room. That’s where you’ll be sleeping from now on.” He gestured at the couch. “You can’t get a good night’s sleep on a couch.”

“It was a hell of a lot better than some of the places I’ve slept,” she said. Then she nodded at him. “Glad you managed to get dressed. That’s a good sign. How do you feel?”

“Almost human,” he said. “I’m going to go into the office today, after we drop Fiona off at school.”

“Your mom’s taking her to school,” Jo said. “We’ll pick her up. Get there early so I can talk to the principal about precautions to keep her safe.”

“Okay.” He glanced out the window toward his parents’ house, hoping to see Fiona in the kitchen window. “My mom loves taking Fiona to school and picking her up.”

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