Pure Wicked (Wicked Lovers #9.5)(25)
Author: Shayla Black

A fond smile crawled across his face. After her shitty evening with her family, he’d kept her awake more often than not before she’d had to slip out to work. She’d still put in almost a twelve-hour day and confronted her ex head on. His girl had smarts, stamina, and spine.

Well, she wasn’t his, like, forever. But his for another day.

He’d love to wake Bristol and prove exactly how much he appreciated her, in every way he could show her. But right now, she needed sleep. If he intended to spend half the night inside her again—and he did—she’d need it. Along with some food. Then he’d have to figure out how to persuade her to let him stay for a while. He’d slip away for Ryan’s service and try to avoid the press. The rest of the time, he’d spend with Bristol. That made him smile. And bonus, he would be around to fend off Hayden the half-wit. Win-win.

After pressing a light kiss to her forehead, Jesse headed downstairs again to the restaurant’s kitchen. Hands on hips, he surveyed the room. It looked as if a bomb had gone off. He sighed. He was no expert with this stuff, but it couldn’t be impossible to clean. It would also save poor exhausted Bristol a whole lot of effort and allow her to spend the rest of the evening with him.

As he filled the sink with soapy water and dumped all the dirty utensils inside, the events of the past few days rolled through his head. Oddly, despite the fact that his career was in turmoil, his life upside down, and his surroundings unfamiliar, he felt completely centered. Thoughts of Bristol circled, dive-bombed. She was the reason for his Zen attitude. She amazed him. She inspired him.

A melody shot across his brain. It kind of reminded him of her—pretty, haunting, somewhat unexpected. He hummed it as he cleaned a few attachments from the standing mixer and set them out to dry. He moved onto spoons and baking pans, scouring them clean. As he wiped down the counters and display cases, Jesse realized that, despite all the crap in his life, he was smiling. Bristol did that for him. The song rolling around in his head made him kind of happy, too.

With his grin widening, he plucked his phone from his pocket and started recording the music in his head. For the first time in weeks, maybe years, he felt almost happy.

Chapter Five

Bristol awoke well after dark. She sat up with a start and found herself alone in the rumpled queen-size bed. A glance at the clock confirmed it was nearly two a.m. She’d slept ten hours. Holy cow, she never did that. Jamie had worn her out the night before, and she’d fallen into an exhausted slumber. But at least she was up early for work.

OMG, work! She’d neglected to make sure he’d locked the front door. In fact, she didn’t hear any signs of him prowling around her apartment. Was he even still here?

The thought that he might have left without saying good-bye upset her way more than it should.

Scrambling out of bed, Bristol pulled on a pair of shorts and righted the towel turban on her head, vaguely wondering how bad her hair would look once she removed it. She shoved the thought aside and stumbled down the hall.

In the living room, she found Jamie. She breathed a little sigh of relief when she spotted him on her sofa with a pair of buds shoved into his ears, his phone in hand, and a notepad and pen perched on his thigh. He looked deep in thought, and she wondered what had him concentrating so intently.

When he caught sight of her, he clicked off the phone, closed the cover of the notepad, and shoved everything onto the table in a heap. “Hey, how are you feeling?”

“Kind of groggy, but otherwise all right. You hanging out? Everything okay?”

“Yeah. It’s cool.”

She didn’t quite believe that since he gave off the vibe that she’d interrupted something. But he didn’t look guilty, more like distracted. “Did Hayden give you a hard time yesterday?”

“What makes you think I’d let him?” He scoffed. “I told the little asswipe to back down. He suggested that I fuck off but I declined. It took restraint to let him walk out the door undamaged, but I let him because I didn’t think mopping the floor with his face would help your situation.”

Bristol didn’t have much doubt that Jamie could have. “Nonviolence was probably the better choice. Sorry I crashed on you. I was beat.”

He shrugged as if it was no big deal. “It’s fine. You needed sleep.”

Yeah, but the fact that he’d hung around waiting for her to wake up both embarrassed and excited her. Since he didn’t have a job right now, it was possible he had no place else to go. Or maybe he just liked her and wanted to spend more time together. That wasn’t good for her fling thing, but she’d end it soon. Any minute now… “Sorry.”