Page 89 of The Admiral's Daughter

I know she’s not referring to the sex, but the relationship. I nod and then instantly blush.

“Oh my God, look at her,” Boot cackles. “River Dawson is actually blushing. The apocalypse is nigh.”

“Shut it,” I mutter, but I’m grinning despite myself.

“She’s gone soft,” Cheddar says with mock sadness. “Our cocky fuckboi has been tamed.”

“I haven’t been tamed. I’ve been—”

“Pussy-whipped?” Kit offers helpfully.

“Fuck off, all of you.”

“Called it,” Cheddar sings. “I told you someone would come along and knock that obnoxious ass straight to the floor.”

“Yeah, yeah. You were right, congratulations, now can I go for a shower?”

“Go, wash off the stank of super sex.” Boot laughs. I give them all the finger.

There is less chaos as I head to get cleaned up. I’ve come down from the high of the day and feel exhausted. I’ll be heading to bed as soon as I’m clean, even if thereare still plenty of hours in the day. Tomorrow I’m back on duty, and even though I’d love to see Cleo before then, we can’t risk it. I wouldn’t be capable of anything remotely sexy anyway, and there’s no chance I’m risking falling asleep on her mid-shag.

The water soothes my aching muscles, and my heavily-scented shower gel masks the smell of smoke to some degree. I’ve just stepped out of the cubicle feeling a million times better when my day gets significantly worse.

“Grey,” I say as levelly as possible.

She looks at me with piercing eyes. “What are you playing at?” she growls.

Sighing, I drop my towel and begin drying off. “Want to elaborate?”

“You know what I’m talking about,” she seethes with quiet rage.

“I think I should be asking you that, Grey.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, and trust me you better think twice before reporting anything youthinkyou may have seen.”

The girls were right, she’s going on the offensive.

“Grey, what you get up to is your business, but you can’t be stupid enough to think it can last. If it wasn’t mewho walked in on you, it would’ve been someone else. Are you ready for the fallout?”

She takes a step towards me, but I don’t move. Grey doesn’t intimidate me in the slightest, not physically anyway.

“Like you’re one to talk,” she replies with a knowing smirk.

“Whatever, Grey. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Just remember when this blows up and Benson leaves you in the dirt to save his own skin, you could have stopped it from happening.”

“Nothing is going to happen because no one will find out. Especially not from you,” she spits. “Because if you decide to report me, you bet your arse I’ll show the brass exactly who you are, River Dawson.”

“Oh yeah, and who is that?”

“A fuckboi who’s nailing the admiral’s daughter. I wonder how that will go down.”

Licking my lips, I give myself a second to get my rising temperature under control. “Sure, Grey. Whatever you say.”

She laughs and takes another step towards me. Her voice drops low and her eyes sparkle with satisfaction. “Thething is, Dawson, you’ve only got your word about me and Benson, whereas I’ve got proof.”

“Fuck off.” I laugh.

Her grin gets bigger. “Hmmm. You and Cleo do like to text an awful lot, huh?”