Page 18 of Sergeant O'
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Brian
One look at Jade in nothing but white lace and I forgot how to breathe. My pulse thudded in my ears, and for a second I just stared, drinking her in—long legs, smooth skin, curves that hit me like a punch to the chest.
By the time she bolted, my grin had already settled into place, cocky as ever. It was safer to play it off like a joke. But deep down, I knew the truth: this might be a bad idea.
Adam drove the Cadi into the garage like he lived there, then slipped out of the driver’s seat, strolled toward the button on the wall, and pushed it. The second the door was down, Lainey and I opened the rear passenger doors where we’d been hiding.
They’d managed to get me out of the hospital without anyone noticing. Lainey had gotten in the back seat at the hospital to help me on the ride home, but the second Adam pulled onto our street, I knew there was no chance of me makingit into my house without being mobbed. Neither my house, nor Adam’s, had an attached garage.
Adam had exclaimed, “Get down!”
We did as he commanded, and he drove past our houses, and kept going.
I saw him look in his mirrors before he said, “I don’t think anyone’s following us, but text Jade and ask her to open her garage door, just in case someone’s hiding in her bushes.”
“You think they’d do that?” Lainey asked with her forehead pressed against the back of the passenger seat next to Adam as she typed out a text.
His eyes darted between the mirrors and the road before he replied, “Before yesterday, I would have said, ‘Nah,’ but after the photos they took of us last night without us even knowing, I wouldn’t put it past them.”
“Fuck that,” I said in disgust. “I’m getting out of town.”
“Alan offered his beach cottage to us. I’m sure he’d let you stay there.”
I could handle some time at the beach.
“Sounds like a plan.”
“How are you going to get there?” Lainey asked as we pulled into Jade’s driveway. “You can’t fly yet, and you can’t drive.”
I shrugged because who the fuck was going to stop me from driving? “I’ll figure something out.”
Then I saw Jade standing there in her underwear and all the blood rushed from my head to… other parts of my body.
That’s when I decided I might be in love with her, when my brain was obviously not firing on all cylinders.
Chapter Eight
Jade
I almost tripped over Penny as I dashed down the hall toward my bedroom.
What was I thinking, going into the garage in my underwear?
Obviously, I wasn’t thinking at all.
And stupid Brian with his cocky grin as he looked at me.
Ugh!
I yanked on a pair of grey gym shorts and threw a purple t-shirt over my head. The word “Clemson”—my alma mater—was written in bold orange letters.
With my hand on the doorknob of my bedroom door, I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. My best defense was not to act embarrassed. If Brian knew how mortified I really was, he’d have the upper hand.
There was no way I was letting that happen.
Lainey stood at my kitchen island with Penny winding around her leg while Adam held the door for Brian as he came through using his crutches.
