She waited for the hammer to fall.
Something went dark in his eyes, but it didn’t look as if he was about to toss her aside. “Pepper.”
“Jack?”
He closed the distance between them. Staring down at her intently. “I thought you fell down a hill.”
“I did,” she insisted, “right after Adam was a jackass and stormed in and demanded they get their grubby paws off me.”
Even thinking back made her cheeks heat up. She’d worked for simply ages to convince the guys she really was interested in trying out the two-at-once thing. Thus her distracted march in the dark when Adam screwed things up so royally.
“Done a lot of threesomes, have you?” Jack asked. Every word carefully enunciated, his body utterly still as if he were waiting for the opportune moment to pounce on his prey.
It wasn’t judgment in his tone, for which Pepper was very grateful, but there was something there that made her tread warily. She curled her arms around his waist so she could rest her forehead against his chest, speaking her confession toward the floor.
“I never have, but the idea intrigued me. And I thought I’d worked out all the angles. Made sure it was safe, even while I had a little fun. But I guess I wasn’t as good a judge of character as I thought. And it was such a disaster that I want to forget the entire thing. Some fantasies aren’t meant to be experienced, I guess.”
Jack’s fingers buried in her hair, his thumb stroking back and forth in a caress that seemed to envelop her entire body. “Sounds as if this Adam is a complete jackass. That type is sometimes hard to spot.”
She nodded, suddenly aware she was sweaty and stinky and still wearing her running gear. Everything about the last fifteen minutes felt unclean. Everything, that was, except Jack and how he’d treated her. She lifted her gaze to meet his, smoothing a hand along his strong, chiseled jaw, the short bristles of his five o’clock shadow scratching the palm of her hand. “I’m glad you’re not mad at me.”
“Nothing to be mad about.”
He stood at attention, though, every muscle braced as if ready for an attacker to strike at any moment. Pepper was okay with the bit of awkwardness. She got it—he’d had a shock. Hopefully he’d get over it quickly, but there wasn’t much she could do at this point except wait and see.
She lifted up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his neck. “I need a shower.”
An unexpected hum of approval rumbled under her lips. “I’m good with soap, if you need a hand,” Jack offered.
He didn’t wait for an answer, simply lifted her into the air as if she weighed nothing. He carried her to the teeny bathroom off her bedroom, then proceeded to show her exactly how good he was with soap and bubbles.
Chapter Eleven
“Oh my God, he didn’t.”
Pepper whirled away from Suz, snatching up the fluffy robe she’d momentarily discarded to rinse off after their time in the sauna. “Hey, no touching the tushie.”
The other woman simply snickered, slipping her own robe around her ample figure and knotting the belt at the front. “I doubt that’s what you said to Jack yesterday. Not if that bite mark on your ass means anything.”
“Someone bit Pepper on the butt?” Lynn asked. “Well, not someone. It’s pretty obvious we know whose teeth have been where.”
Borderline giggling ensued as Pepper drew herself up as regally as possible and ignored the raunchy comments that continued to fly as the four of them made their way back into the private spa room Suz had arranged.
It had been an incredible night. Especially on the heels of what could have been a complete disaster. Pepper had gone online and poked again at the Facebook page, pleased to discover the damning comments about her were gone. Still, it was the Internet. Somewhere out there she expected a screenshot or two were still floating around, but at least Jack was right about one thing. The people who mattered didn’t give a damn./p>
Three of whom she’d just spent the past hour and a half with, getting massaged and mud-bathed and reveling in all kinds of decadence. Kendra and Pepper had been equally hesitant when they’d heard what was planned for the night, but Lynn and Suz had been so insistent and sincere about wanting to treat them it was impossible to not let the older women pick up the charges for the extravagant evening of luxury.
Pepper crawled into the cushiony easy chair and willingly obeyed the spa woman’s command to stick her feet into the bucket of warm, sudsy water. She glanced in the massive mirror across from her, pleased beyond measure to finally see her natural hair color again. One of the women at the spa had magically stripped all the black dye away, leaving Pepper’s hair unbelievably soft and sparkling with highlights. It had been a long time since she’d last let the red show, but after a couple very subtle comments from Jack, she’d realized it was time.