Billionaire Bear Shifters A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset - Brittany White Page 0,108

still stay as they were... even if she fantasized about him at night once the children were asleep.

Milk and applesauce, Jessie thought, as she locked another suite door. Don’t forget.

“One more hour... ”

Jessie was a hard worker and had always been wired that way. But sometimes the day was simply too long and arduous and she would take a break for a few minutes outside of her regular fifteen-minute scheduled breaks. They were such small amounts of time and yet she was used to constantly being in motion doing something. Even when she’d shared her apartment, she had seldom sat down and curled up with a book like she’d told Cody she so enjoyed. She was always cleaning or puttering around or going for a jog. She was a mover, a doer. Relaxing sometimes made her feel guilty.

But her feet were sore by the end of the day. She was close to falling asleep standing up. So she took her extraneous five-minute break in the form of leaving just a few minutes early this time, hoping that when her time card was run through the computer for payroll, no one would be mad.

Jessie clocked out, brought herself a and ducked into the lobby to rest for a few minutes before making her way home. Nobody who worked the front desk would care that she’d left just a few minutes early. She plopped down into one of the overstuffed striped easy chairs for waiting guests and sighed heavily, popping open her soda and taking a sip. The desk clerk recognized her and tossed her a wave and Jessie nodded back.

She couldn’t help keeping her eye out for Cody on the off chance he happened to be lingering in the lobby. He was often around at this time. She liked to think it was so he could catch her on her way home. They often chatted for a few minutes. But it was more likely to happen.

Jessie saw Cody before he noticed her. She bit her lip and sipped her soda, a greeting on the tip of her tongue. He was leaning on the front desk and holding a book as he chatted with the desk clerk.

It gave her a nice view of the back of him. A very nice view. He filled out the dark wash jeans he wore in the kitchen just right...

“Hey, Jess.” He turned around and saw her and Jessie blinked, feeling caught out. She swallowed and she was about to get to her feet, though they were so sore, she needed new shoes, it seemed like an impossible task. “Nah, don’t get up.”

“I should get home,” she said, sighing. She winced and whispered, “I may have taken off a few minutes early. Just a few.”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Cody said, chuckling. He leaned on her chair and there was something casual and easy about it that she liked. “Hey, I was hoping I’d run into you. I got something for you.”

He smiled and handed her a book. It was a pristine hardback edition of The Age of Innocence. “It’s from our guest library. I mean maybe you’ve read it before, but I just thought-”

“No!” She found herself blushing and she touched her cheeks with the back of one hand to cool them, the book in her other hand. Cody was still hanging onto it and their fingers brushed. When he leaned in a little she could smell his bear scent and it made her dizzy. “I haven’t read it. I’ve heard of it.”

“I thought I’d pick up a paperback copy,” he said, shrugging, watching her furtively. “We could talk about it. If you want.”

A private little book club just for the two of them. She swallowed, her stupid crush threatening to swallow her whole. “Yeah, that sounds great.” Reluctantly, Jessie did get to her feet and she couldn’t but groan just a little. She was exhausted right down to her bones. “Sometimes I wonder if I can... ”

She’d begun to speak without realizing it and she looked up at Cody with a jerk of her head. She had to be more careful, she thought. She couldn’t slip. She couldn’t open up, even if Cody was a lovely man, she even liked him when he was cranky and acted more like a bear than any bear shifter she’d met before.

“What?” Cody said softly. “Are you okay?”

He took her hand as she leaned heavily on the chair and the touch was so comforting, it made her want to fall