Chapter 11

11

T he next morning, Noah had the day off. He barely slept a wink, thinking about his evening with Jessa. Shortly after their grinding session, he brought her back to the resort before going home and taking the longest shower of his life.

He couldn’t get enough. He got back in the shower several times during the night. When the cold didn’t work, he resigned to stroking himself until he came. He was convinced he set a world record. Or at least a personal best. He had never come that many times in a night and still remained insatiable.

He knew he needed to see Jessa that night. While he didn’t expect to go all the way with her, he wanted to be prepared.

Noah pushed through the doors of Wintervale’s Country Store and smiled at Felicity, who stood behind the register ringing up a customer. He ducked his head to avoid any other locals who might recognize him and beelined it toward the pharmacy area where he knew the condoms would be located. He peeked around to make sure no one was around before slipping into the aisle and looking at the various options.

He picked up a small three pack and stepped out of the aisle before turning back around and swapping it out for a twenty-five pack. A man couldn’t be too careful. Especially when he had to purchase it from a store where everyone knew him. It was better not to have to come back frequently for more.

He smiled down at it and when he looked up he spotted Rhett, the pharmacist, staring at him with the widest, shit-eating grin ever. Noah rolled his eyes and glanced back toward the front counter where Felicity was still assisting a customer.

Noah planned to go to Felicity to ring his order up, but now that Rhett saw him, there was no reason to let them both know he was purchasing condoms. He walked up to the pharmacy counter and glanced around to find no one else in earshot. Then he set the pack on the counter and raised an eyebrow at Rhett.

“Could you ring me up?”

Rhett smiled. “You don’t need the pharmacist to ring you up for condoms, Noah.”

Noah glared and glanced around. “Dude, keep your voice down. You don’t need to announce it to the entire town.”

Rhett walked over to the counter and punched in the purchase. “Would you like a bag with that?”

Noah glanced around. “Could you put it in one of those brown pharmacy bags?”

“Why are you trying so hard to hide it?”

“Come on, man. You know how it is in this town. Everyone is in everyone else’s business. I don’t need that kind of attention.”

Rhett put the condoms in a brown pharmacy bag and took Noah’s payment before handing the bag over.

Noah thanked him and began walking away before turning around again. “There is some sort of doctor patient confidentiality with this, right? You can’t tell anyone?”

Rhett laughed loudly, drawing the attention of a few other customers. Noah glared at him.

“I’m not your doctor.”

Noah stared at him in annoyance. “Well, you technically rang my purchase up and you’re a pharmacist.”

“Yeah, okay, buddy. Whatever you say.”

Noah rolled his eyes and walked out of the store with Rhett’s laughter following him.

Jessa woke up the next morning and stared at the ceiling. The night before felt like a dream. She had come while dry humping Noah. She pressed the palms of her hands into her eyes.

What was she thinking ?

But she knew what she was thinking. This was the first guy she had felt a real connection to ever , and his cock felt so good beneath her.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” Megan said.

Jessa sat up and looked over to where Megan sat at the desk in the room typing away on her computer.

“Working?” Jessa asked.

Megan nodded. “Yeah, dealing with this employee who keeps showing up late.”

Jessa sighed and swung her legs off the side of the bed and walked to the bathroom. She found it amusing that they were the ones who had to send out emails to employees who showed up late when she and Megan could essentially work whenever they wanted, as long as they clocked their hours.

When she emerged back into the room, she felt much better after having showered. Then she plopped down on the bed and stared at Megan, who was still typing away on her computer.

Megan’s typing slowed until her eyes drifted over the top of the computer and met Jessa’s. “What?”

“I like him.”

Megan smiled and closed the lid of her laptop, leaning forward at the table. “I know. What happened last night?”

“We went back to his place, and he surprised me with nachos for dinner.”

“Whoa. He’s playing hardball!”

“Megan, you know what that does to me. I’ve never had a guy think of ordering dinner ahead of time, and ordering something I love.” Jessa sighed and dropped back onto the bed. “I dry humped him until I came.”

Megan burst out laughing. “Good for you.”

Jessa sat back up. “So pathetic.”

“Oh please. We both know he probably ate it up. Did he look at all annoyed or upset by it?”

“No.”

“Exactly. He was happy to get you off. It was probably a tremendous ego boost. Guys love getting their woman off.”

“Is that what I am now? His woman?”

Megan stood up and walked over to her bed, sitting down and facing Jessa with her legs crossed. “Is that what you want to be?”

Jessa wrung her fingers together in her lap. “Yes. No. I don’t know.”

“So in Jessa-speak, that means, ‘Yes, I want to be his, but I’m scared and don’t know if I can handle it.’ Right?”

Ugh. She knew her far too well. Megan was the first person Jessa had allowed herself to get close to. Growing up, she was never in one place long enough to set down roots and make friends. Any friends she made were pulled out of her life within a year when she moved again. Eventually, she stopped trying. But Megan wormed her way in, and now Jessa didn’t know what she’d do without her. Megan was her voice of reason.

“Stop reading my mind,” Jessa said.

Megan laughed. “Honey, I’ve said this a hundred times and I will say it one hundred more. You need to open yourself up. You never know if you’ll meet the man of your dreams and pass him up to move to the next city. Why not try it?”

Jessa picked at the comforter. “I’m scared.”

“I know. But look around. You said it yourself that you’ve been thinking about settling down, and you thought Wintervale could be that place. I know you don’t know what that’s like, but settling down doesn’t mean you can’t travel. It just means you have somewhere to come home to. People to come home to.”

Jessa knew Megan was right. Part of her worried that if she settled down in one place, she’d end up feeling restless and wanting to leave later. And if she had put down roots, it would be even harder to take off.

An hour later, Jessa pushed the door open to the Dress Me Up boutique and looked around. It was a cute clothing store that contained everything she expected someone in a small town would need. But what Jessa needed was lingerie. She hadn’t been looking for it the last time she was in the store, so she wasn’t sure they even carried it. But out of all the stores in town, this one seemed to be the best bet for finding it.

The last thing Jessa expected to find in Wintervale was a sexy man she actually wanted .

Physically wanted , she reminded herself.

Who was she kidding? She just wanted him. In more ways than one.

She told Megan she was going to get some sexy clothes for the night and would be back later. Megan gave her a knowing smile and stayed behind to catch up on work, something Jessa needed to do when she got back to the resort.

January stood behind the register chatting with someone, and Jessa smiled at her, giving her a small wave.

Jessa moved to the back of the store, quickly scanning to see if they had what she needed, and yes! She beelined it to the small area with various types of lingerie, ranging from silk nighties to lacy scraps. She rifled through them, contemplating what would make her feel sexiest without feeling like she was trying too hard.

She settled on something more middle of the road, a nice lacy pair of underwear and a lacy bra. Both had enough fabric to cover everything, yet were see-through in spots to turn Noah on.

She brought them up to the counter, and January smiled at her.

“Did you find everything okay?” she asked.

Jessa nodded and blushed. Based on how Noah had acted the night before, she knew her buying lingerie could eventually get around town. But she wasn’t a local, so she wasn’t sure how the gossip mill worked in that regard. Nor did she know if January was a gossip.

But January knew Jessa had gone on a date with Noah, and she worried it would get back to him or to other people.

“Yep.”

January rang up the purchase and put them into a bag for Jessa as she paid. Then Jessa thanked her and stepped outside of the boutique and ran straight into Noah.

“Whoa there,” he said, attempting to grab Jessa’s arms to keep her from slipping on the ice.

In true Jessa fashion, her arms flailed much like they had on the mountain, but instead of connecting with Noah’s crotch, she instead flung the contents of her bag on the ground before Noah could steady her.

He looked down and a slow smile spread across his face at the black, lacy lingerie that lay on the sidewalk.

Her face flamed, and she squatted, shoving them back into the bag. She thanked her lucky stars the tissue paper they had been wrapped in fell under them, preventing them from getting dirty. She stood up and blew a strand of hair away from her eyes.

“Hey, Noah. How’s your morning going?”

He smiled and reached out to rub his fingers on the fabric that didn’t quite make it all the way into the bag before tucking it inside. Then he tucked her hair behind her ear before stuffing one hand in his pocket while the other held onto a brown pharmacy bag.

“It’s going well. How is yours?”

“Good.”

She pursed her lips together before tipping her head toward Brewbirds Coffeehouse. “I’m going to grab coffees and breakfast before I head back to the room to work. But, I’ll see you later?”

“Tonight?” he asked.

She nodded, and her face flamed again when his eyes flickered down to the bag in her hand.

“Good. See you soon.”