Page 64 of Finding His Redemption

“You still there?” he asked softly.

“Mm-hm.” She couldn’t quite form words yet, her mind still floating in the afterglow.

“I didn’t plan for that to happen.” He sounded almost apologetic.

She smiled into the darkness. “Neither did I. But I’m glad it did.”

“Me too.” The simple admission seemed to cost him, emotion turning his voice into a raw rasp. “I’m sorry if I got too… dirty.”

“Don’t apologize.” Nessie rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling. “I liked all of it. Especially the dirty parts.”

In the hush that followed, she started to giggle, half delirium, half disbelief. “I can’t believe we just did that.”

Jax’s laugh rumbled through the phone, softer now. She imagined him shirtless, sweat cooling, hair a mess. Her stomach fluttered all over again.

“You should get some sleep,” he said gently.

“So should you.”

But neither made a move to end the call. Instead, they lay in silence, connected by nothing but their breathing and the invisible thread that had been drawing them together since that first morning on Ridge Road.

“Nessie?” he said after a long while.

“Hmm?”

“I’m coming over tomorrow to help Ghost install those cameras.”

She smiled, warmth spreading through her chest. “I want to see you again.”

“Good.” His relief was palpable. “Now go to sleep.”

“Stay on the line?” she asked softly. “Just until I fall asleep?”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he promised.

And he didn’t. He stayed on the line, his breathing a steady rhythm in her ear, until sleep claimed her at last.

When she woke the next morning, the call had ended, but a text waited on her screen:

Sleep well?

She smiled and typed back:

Better than I have in years.

His response came immediately:

That makes two of us.

She hugged the phone to her chest, feeling like a teenager with her first crush. But this was no crush. This was something more profound, more dangerous. Something that could hurt them both if they weren’t careful.

But as she rose to wake Oliver and start her day, she realized the crawling sensation between her shoulder blades was gone.

chapter

eighteen

The bellabove the door chimed, and Jax felt every eye in the bakery turn toward him. It had only been a day since he was last here helping Ghost install cameras, and he hadn’t planned on coming back so soon. Hadn’t planned much of anything when he’d asked Jonah to drop him off in town. He just knew he needed to see Nessie’s face again, hear her voice.

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