Page 26 of One Kind Soul

He held up his hand, three fingers extended. “Three times.”

“Yes. Three times.” She grabbed his fingers then repositioned so they were clasping hands. “Trust me. I thoroughly enjoyed myself last night.” She gestured to the bed. “I don’t know about you, but I slept wonderfully.”

“Me too.”

“Okay. So we agree last night was not wrong.” She let her free hand cup his jaw and tip his head up. “Not at all.”

“I suppose I can understand not wanting Tessa to know. She’ll probably freak out, especially because she explicitly told me not to flirt with you.”

“Technically, I didn’t give you a choice. I kissed you first. Remember?” She nudged him to his back and climbed onto his lap. Boy, did he wish he hadn’t put his underwear and sweats back on.

“Oh, I remember, Nixen. I remember in vivid detail.”

“So I don’t need to remind you then? Okay.” She inched back, but he grabbed her around the waist, keeping her in place.

“Remind? No. Re-kiss? Yes.” He caught her lips with his and his anger quickly dissipated. How could anyone stay angry at Nicole when she kissed like this?

Her fingers dug at his waistband and the promise of more than kissing was issued.

Then his phone vibrated.

He was tempted to ignore it, but Nicole grabbed it. “It’s Donovan. You’d better answer.” She slid off his lap and went through the adjoining door they’d kept open all night.

“Hey,” he said after tapping his screen.

“Tessa talked to Nicole,” Donovan said. “So I figured I’d better be brotherly and check on you. Are you still in one piece?”

“I am. Some pieces are stitched back together, but it’s on my leg so I won’t look like a monster as your best man this weekend. Don’t worry.”

“It’s your face I’m worried about. Did you get that mess fixed while you were at the hospital?”

“Ha, ha. Very funny, Big Brother. Wait until you see the bright green suit I’m wearing to the wedding instead of the black one you told me to wear. No one will even notice you and Tessa.”

“You’re wearing the black suit. Landon, Jackson, and I will wrestle you into it if necessary.”

“As if you three could take me.”

Donovan puffed out a chuckle. “You are freakishly strong from all that farm work.”

“And don’t you forget it.”

“Fine. So your truck didn’t survive?”

“No. I’m going to pop over to the mechanic where it was towed before we leave. I have some stuff in the glove compartment I need. My epinephrine, for example.”

“Yeah. It would suck to be stung by a bee without it.”

“Not much risk of a bee sting in a hotel room, but yeah. All I need is to escape death by a van crushing me then blow up from a bee sting instead.”

“Not a pretty picture,” Donovan said. “Okay, we’ll be there soon. How is Nicole?”

At first, Christian panicked as if his brother somehow knew he’d had his dick inside Nicole. Multiple times. He got a sense of how Nicole must have felt talking to Tessa. He understood now. He did. Telling Donovan that he and Nicole had spent the night together didn’t seem like a smart idea. Not when this weekend coming up was supposed to be about Tessa and Donovan getting married and living happily ever after. He didn’t want to overshadow that joy with news that was sure to get them buzzing.

“She’s fine. We’re both ready to get to Vermont though.”

“I’ll bet,” his brother said. “All right. See you in a bit.”

They hung up and Christian tossed his phone onto the bed like Nicole had.