Page 76 of Never Pucking Ending

Belle grins at me. Somehow, she’d gotten paint on her cheek. “Maybe I want to. It makes this more exciting.”

I snort. “Sure. You’ve got…” I gesture toward her cheek, then shake my head. Licking my finger, I wipe at the smear with the pad of my thumb but it’s already dry. “How did you get covered in paint?”

It looks like she showered in it.

Belle bites her bottom lip in hesitation, which tells me I’m not going to like the answer. “I may have dumped what was in the tray after almost falling off the ladder.” She bats those eyelashes at me like I’m not supposed to be upset. “But I didn’t fall! Just the paint did.”

As if that makes it better.

I turn and study what she’s gotten done. Only the top half of the walls need to be finished. They’re taped off and the trim is ready to be painted, so I roll my sleeves up and walk over to the ladder still positioned by the window.

“What are you doing?” she asks, following me. “Jesse, you don’t need to help. You’ve got to be exhausted. Your schedule this week has been crazy and don’t think I missed how stiff you were this morning.”

I shoot her a sly grin. “I was very stiff this morning.”

Morning wood is always daily battle, but it’s gotten worse since I’ve been waking up next to Belle in the mornings. She hasn’t stayed in her room since the day I took her to bed, and as much I love her mom, I’m not looking forward to her staying over and breaking our new sleeping arrangements.

Belle rolls her eyes at the implication. “And if memory serves, I helped you out with that.”

That she did. With her hand, then her mouth. I wanted to return the favor, but her mother called as I kissed the hem of her panties. As much as I wanted her to ignore it, I knew she’d been wanting to talk to her and arrange plans for her arrival tomorrow.

I try not thinking about how her mouth felt on me or I’d be walking around with a giant boner. Not that it would matter since Belle covered the windows for privacy. It wouldn’t be hard to put her on the counter and—

Shit. I’m thinking about more than just her going down on me now. I really need to rein those thoughts in, or I’ll be uncomfortable the rest of the day.

“I’ll finish the first coat of paint. You eat. I have a feeling all you’ve had since I left this morning was coffee.”

She scoffs. “That’s not true. I also had a chocolate croissant.”

I pause going up the ladder and eye her. “You aren’t helping your case any.”

She shrugs. “It’s still calories.”

“It’s nothing but sugar, but fine.”

Belle only smiles at me as I get to work painting the areas she couldn’t reach easily. It doesn’t take me long, and it makes me feel better knowing she’s eating.

“You really shouldn’t be climbing when you’re alone,” I tell her, moving the ladder over to the final patch of wall. “If you fall there won’t be anybody to call for help.”

I hear her sigh from behind me like the notion of her getting hurt is preposterous. But we both know she struggles to walk around in sneakers without tripping on shit, so climbing ladders and falling is a likely possibility. “I was fine. No harm, no foul. Plus, you would have realized something was up if I didn’t text you back. And you obviously came here. You would have found me.”

“What if I hadn’t though?” I press, trying to get to see my point. “I’d feel awful if something happened to you and I wasn’t here, Bells.”

She’s quiet for a long stretch of time, so I look over my shoulder at her. Her sandwich is half gone and she’s staring at it with a guilty expression on her face. I recognize the pinched look because she’s given it to me before when she feels guilty over something. Like missing a game or not getting me something at the store.

“Dane would have found me,” she says so quietly it’s almost like she hopes I don’t hear.

Ah. That’s the reason for the look.

“Dane,” I repeat slowly.

She nods once. “He’s coming over to show me the wood he ordered for the shelves. I think he’s starting them next week.”

I don’t feel nearly as jealous hearing his name as I did before, even if I don’t love him being around Belle knowing he’s interested. But I trust her. I do. And I’m not going to turn into an asshole just because she’s hiring a dude who wants to date her.

“If I’d known, I would have gotten an extra sandwich,” is my reply. It doesn’t sound half bad either. Not as tight or irritable as when he’s been brought up before.

Belle sees right through it, laughing. “No, you wouldn’t have.”