Page 196 of The Grand Duel

“That sounds like a terrible deal,” I tell her as she turns, pushing open the door. I follow her inside.

“Would you rather come shampoo my hair for me, Mr Aldridge?” She chuckles, her eyes lingering on me as she drops down her bag and then walks to her bedroom door. “Thatwouldbe really nice, actually.”

I give her a look, a longing look, aI fucking wishlook. And then I walk to the kitchen and find her kettle, filling it in the sink.

“I won’t be long.”

I make Lissie a cup of tea and then take it to her room. As I place the mug down, I spot a photo on her bedside table.

I already know it’s of her sister and niece before I pick it up and study it. The two of them are on a beach. Jovie’s on her knees, her hair curly and blowing around as she laughs, Willow smiling in the sand as her mother holds her for the picture.

I can’t help but wonder if Lissie took the photo.

The sound of the shower running beyond the closed bathroom door tells me she’s not done yet, and I take the moment to glance around her bedroom, placing the photo back down.

There’s something about being in her space, her presence, that makes something deep down inside of me quiet.

She might not know it, but she’s the exact way she described the girls. Chaos. She doesn’t stop talking unless she’s eating ice cream, or she’s lost in a case, driving me wild with the way she goes up against me. But then I’ll look at her, axe in hand, covered in dirt, and I can’t help but wonder if she existed before the first night I met her in the club. Ridiculous, I know. But the woman feels born and made to slot into my life.

The idea she existed, and I didn’t know it, that she was ever someone else’s to fight with, laugh with, be with—fuck the idea of her with another man.

And yet I can’t give her that.

Sex.

Not for lack of want.

I want her to the point it makes me ache.

But the idea I could fuck it up again, make her feel the way I did in Italy…

I step back from her bed and walk towards the door, knowing being here is stupid and unfair when I can’t give her what I know she wants, knowing I promised not to make her feel that way again.

I’m toying with the both of us and it’s wrong.

“Charlie?”

I pause at the bedroom door, my eyes closing as I contemplate answering.

Go back outside and wait for her to be done.

I swallow, fighting against that part of me that feels the need to make the ground move beneath her feet. “Yeah?” I call out, waiting.

“Can you grab me a towel? They’re in the wooden box at the end of my bed.”

I sigh, torn.Go back outside and wait for her to be done.

I lift the lid of the box and find three folded towels. I take the top one and carry it to the door.

“I’ll leave it outside the door.” I nod, stepping back and away.

“It’s bloody freezing, Charles. Bring it in, you tight-ass.”

“Fucking hell,” I mutter, bending down and picking up the towel. I push on the door with my stomach in knots, the idea that she’s naked under the spray and right there making my mind bend. I keep my head down and reach out blindly with the towel. “Take it,” I tell her.

I hear her chuckle. “What are you doing?”

“Lissie, take it.”