Billion Dollar Mistake by K.C. Crowne
Chapter 10
SAWYER
Jolene was out before me; her chest rose and fell at a steady pace and soon she was off. She was smiling, which made her look extra adorable. All I wanted to do was watch her sleep, basking in the afterglow of what we’d just done, pleased with how good I’d made her feel.
There hadn’t been any doubt of that. I’d brought her to orgasm three times, and watching her come underneath me, on top of me, had been about the sexiest damn thing I could imagine. It killed me to consider that there was a good chance it’d never happen again.
Jolene rolled to her side, the image of the curve of her hip and the soft roundness of her outline was perfect. I rolled over and wrapped my arm around her middle. Jolene backed into me in her sleep, her body fitting perfectly against mine.
Perfect was definitely the right word. The way she made me feel, the way our bodies fit together, both during sex and after…God, I didn’t know what to think. I’d known there was something special about Jolene, that it would be fun as hell to get her into bed. I hadn’t at all expected the deep contentment that had me in its grips as I laid there with her.
Could she be the one? The question seemed crazy, but Dad had told me you didn’t need much time to know if someone was, well, someone. It was almost too much to be thinking while lying there with someone I’d only just slept with, but damned if I couldn’t shake how I felt.
I pushed that all aside for the time being, instead contenting myself with the moment. Soon, I was drifting off, the same smile on my face.
* * *
It was still dark out when the shrill chime of a phone alarm going off pulled me awake. My eyes shot open, and I looked around, the jarring sound enough to get me right into a wakeful state without the grogginess that I usually felt when getting out of bed.
I wasn’t in my own bedroom – that was the first thing I noticed other than the noise. The walls were a lilac color, the furniture all secondhand but still pretty damn charming.
Oh, and there was the little matter of the insanely gorgeous, naked woman in bed with me.
Jolene. It all came back to me in those first few seconds of being awake. I’d stayed over at Jolene’s after we’d come back to her place and had sex. Images from last night flashed in my mind - her hips grinding on top of me, her face in a tight expression of pleasure as she came, the way she looked in her light blue bra and panties and nothing else. It was enough to make me hard and horny again despite the screeching coming from her alarm.
Jolene groaned and rolled over, fumbling through the pile of clothes on the ground next to the bed. And I couldn’t help but glance in her direction and enjoy the sight of her perfect, heart-shaped ass right in front of me. I wanted her to turn the alarm off and come back over so we could start our day in the right way.
Once she found her phone, she didn’t turn the alarm off. Instead, she checked the screen then brought the phone to her ear and spoke.
“Dr. Jolene McCallister.” She ran her hand through her thick, auburn hair. Jolene looked a little messy, but in a sexy as hell just been screwed kind of way. Her voice was sharp and professional, a perfect contrast to her raw nakedness.
She didn’t say anything at first. I could hear the low chattering of someone on the other line speaking to her.
“Over at Whittman Creek? Are you kidding? No, it’s no problem at all, of course. I’ll be over there in an hour. See you then.”
That was the end of the conversation. She set the phone down on the nightstand and ran her hand through her hair one more time. She was totally naked, either not caring or still so wrapped up in the conversation she’d just had that she wasn’t even thinking about modesty.
“Everything alright?”
Her eyes flashed, as if she’d forgotten that I was there.
“Sawyer, God, I’m sorry – that alarm must’ve scared the hell out of you.”
“Don’t worry about me; I don’t scare easily.”
She smiled, then leaned down and placed a kiss on my lips.
“Good morning,” she said, her voice soft.
“Good morning. I’m guessing that call means we’re not going to be doing any sleeping in.”
“Nice as that sounds, not going to happen. Just got a call from someone over at Whitepeak PD. Said that they found a body near Whittman Creek in Bluff Park.”
It took me a minute to scan my internal Wikipedia on the subject of Whitepeak, but it all came back pretty quickly. “Wait, Bluff Park’s right out of town. You’re telling me they found a body that close to town?”
She grabbed a clean pair of underwear out of her drawer and stepped into them. “Yep. Crazy, huh? And I can’t really say too much, but they’re thinking it looks suspicious. That’s what they need me to figure out.”
It was looking like some morning fun wouldn’t be in the cards – dead bodies found under suspicious circumstances did take precedence over that sort of thing. More than that, I was going to need to get my ass on the road. I rolled over and put my feet on the carpeted floor, something occurring to me as I did.
“Wow, so you just had the wife killing the husband thing, and now you’ve got another possible murder.”
“Well, the murder was a little while back.” She clasped her bra, the same one she’d worn last night, under her breasts, turned it around, then pulled it up. “But still, you’re right – it’s a lot for a sleepy part of the state like ours.”
She zipped around the room, grabbing shoes, a shirt, and a pair of slacks. It was looking about time for me to get moving.
“I’m going to take off,” I said, leaning forward and grabbing my slacks from the ground. “Do you want me to get you some coffee going first?”
She cocked her head to the side in the middle of buttoning her shirt, considering the question.
“You don’t have to do that,” she said.
I pulled on my pants and hopped as I buttoned and zipped them. “I insist. You’re on the way to solve a potential murder – least I can do is take making coffee off your plate.”
She pursed her lips. “Hmm, alright. I’ve got a Keurig; the pods are in the drawer right under it. I take a little almond milk, and when it’s ready, if you don’t mind, put it in the Yeti that’s in the cabinet.”
“Done and done.” I pulled on my socks and grabbed my shirt.
Jolene stopped before stepping into her shoes.
“And make some for yourself, too.”
“Nah, I should hit the road. I’ll grab some on the way back home.”
“Well, at least take a breakfast bar. I feel like a total asshole waking you up so early and then kicking you out.”
“Don’t even worry about, I—” I was about to make a joke about how used to slipping out the door I was after one-night stands – something to lighten the mood. However, making a crack like that with Jolene hardly felt appropriate.
“You what?”
I flashed her a grin. “Don’t worry about it. You get dressed and I’ll get the coffee going.”
“Thanks a ton. And I’m serious about the breakfast bar!”
I winked as I buttoned my shirt on the way out of the bedroom.
Once alone, it hit me just how good of a time I’d had last night. The fact that I’d wanted to stay over, wanted to make the morning last…it was strange, no other way to put it.
In the kitchen I opened the drawer and, sure enough, some Dunkin’ Donuts coffee pods were inside. I popped one in the Keurig and opened the fridge to take out the almond milk. There was nothing else in there but some leftover takeout and a few oranges that had seen better days.
Once the coffee was going, I grabbed one of the breakfast bars from on top of the counter and unwrapped it, downing it in a couple of bites. Jolene arrived at the exact moment I’d finished pouring the coffee into her midnight blue Yeti.
She looked amazing. Despite having only fifteen minutes or so to get ready, Jolene looked so good that I could hardly think straight.
She was in the middle of putting her hair into a simple ponytail when she entered the room, stopping when she noticed the way I was staring at her.
“What?” she asked.
“Just saying, if you wanted to, you know, stick around for another fifteen minutes or so to have something else for breakfast, I wouldn’t mind. Not like that body’s going anywhere, right?”
Jolene let out a snort, gently pushing me out of the way as she went over to grab her Yeti.
“You’re lucky that we live off gallows humor in this business.” Yeti in hand, she raised her eyebrows. “You get something to eat?”
“Got the bar. And you try to grab something a little more than that on the way.”
“I’ll have to wait until after – not the best look to show up to a possible murder scene with a bagel sandwich in my hand.”
Together, we made our way to the front door. Once outside, both of us standing with our keys in hand, we stopped in front of one another. The sun was coming up over the east, a thick band of orange visible on the horizon.
“Last night was fun,” I said. “And not just the naked parts – all of it.”
She smiled. “I feel the same way.”
“Let’s do it again sometime, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Without thinking, I leaned in and planted a kiss on her cheek.
“Good luck with the…” I whistled as I dragged my thumb across my neck.
She laughed and gave me a shove.
“There’s a limit to gallows humor, you know,” she said, wagging her finger as she stepped over to her jeep.
Moments later, I was behind the wheel of my Porsche, pulling out of her driveway and heading east, the sunrise growing brighter and brighter by the second.
I had one question on my mind – could she be the one? Could she be fake marriage material?
