Page 45 of The Brave and the Reckless (Bravetown #1)

“Good,” I gasped, only referring to the fact that he had clearly panicked just as much as me, and sex seemed like a safe change of topic right now.

He slowly moved back and forth, teasing my muscles until they relaxed enough for him to add a second finger. I shuddered under the perfect strain, letting the feel of him engulf my every thought.

“You should know that I have a to-do list, too, princess.”

“Oh yeah, cowboy?”

I leveraged myself against his shoulders, so I could tip my hips against his hand. Each move stirred the crushing current of my orgasms back up after it had quieted only an hour or two ago. This felt good. Sex was easy.

“I’m going to make you come in every room of this house.”

I gasped a laugh because that to-do list was ridiculous– and it sounded perfect. My laugh turned into a moan when he pushed down to his knuckles and curled his fingers. He hit that sweet spot. My pussy clenched around him, and I dropped my forehead against his.

“Okay,” I whimpered and closed my eyes, trying to piece together words through the blood rushing in my ears, “that could take a while. Do you have a specific plan?”

“No,” his breath mixed with mine, our lips skimming but not closing to a kiss, “I just want to replace every awful memory of this place with good ones. I want to walk into every room and be reminded of how prettily you fall apart for me.”

He wanted to make memories with me? In his family home? That was not the kind of plan you made with a summer fling.

He caught me off-guard. My eyes flew open and my grasp on him slipped.

Still mid-thrust, the momentum shot my right arm forward over the top of his shoulder.

Before I could react, my hand collided with the edge of the windowsill.

The wood bit into my palm. I should have been able to use that to my advantage, grab the windowsill and catch myself– but my wrists weren’t made for that kind of support.

Instead, my upper palm caught but the heel of my hand still jutted forward and bent my wrist at an unnatural angle.

The back of my hand slanted toward my arm.

Pain shot through my wrist. And then the heel of my hand finally collided with the wall under the windowsill, breaking my momentum.

“Ah, fuck!” I yanked my arm back, cradling it to my chest.

“Shit. Are you okay?” Noah’s hands wrapped around my middle, just a moment too late to steady me.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I grumbled as the immediate strain ebbed into a thickly pulsing pain. This had to be the stupidest way anyone had ever sprained their wrist. Barreled into a sex injury by fear of commitment.

“Let me see,” he said and tried to reach for my arm.

“Noah,” I shrieked and leaned back, “your fingers are covered in… well… us.”

He hesitated, hand still mid-air. His index and middle finger glistened with the remnants of my arousal and his previous orgasm.

“Fair enough.” He awkwardly reached across with his other hand, and I just groaned and turned away from it. I didn’t need to be babied. If he didn’t know about my stupid issues with my tissues, we’d be laughing right now, and having silly sex. “Esra, at least let me see if you need an ice pack.”

“I’m fine,” I sighed and lifted the sprained wrist up to his eye level. It was maybe swelling up, minimally, but if I had to make an educated guess, the pain would mostly be gone within three days. Sooner if I wrapped it up nice and tight.

Noah leaned forward and brushed his lips over the inside of the wrist. “Kiss to make it better,” he said with a small smile.

A cynical part of me wanted to roll my eyes and tell him to move on, but there was something so genuine and soft about the moment that my heart beat loud enough to drown out everything else. He was comforting me in the simplest way.

“Again,” I whispered.

Noah complied. He carefully closed his lips over my pulse point.

My chest seized as it tried to contain the wild beating in my ribcage.

“Again.”

Noah smiled and kissed the inside of my palm, and every bit of pain dissipated from my body. All I felt was my heart fluttering like a hummingbird.

Oh .

Oh no.

That wasn’t supposed to happen.

When Renee cited me in for a talk, I’d expected her to introduce me to my replacement, but nobody but her waited in her office for me.

I wasn’t entirely sure how all the online things were going.

Lucas was very good at only keeping me in the loop on the positive feedback we got.

That included people now actually submitting their fanfic snippets and even writing little scenes for us to act out.

It was fun to engage with people like that.

We were all playing make-believe in the same little universe.

But there might be just as many negative comments, and I’d have no idea.

“I want to talk to you about two things today,” Renee said, gesturing for me to sit, “but I know it’s scary when the boss calls you in, so let me reassure you that your job is safe.”

“Okay…” I drew the word out. That wasn’t reassuring at all. That meant there were two issues other than finding a new Annie Lou.

I glanced down at my bare wrist. I’d only worn my brace around the house the last two days, and the sprain hadn’t impacted the shows, so I doubted this was one of her reasons.

“Let’s start with the harder one.” She cleared her throat and tilted her head, watching me intently.

“I thought it might be easier to talk to me than to a stranger in HR, but I’ve never had to deal with something like this, so please excuse my directness.

Are you being pressured into a relationship that you may not feel comfortable with? ”

“What?” My mouth fell open. Surely, she couldn’t mean…

“There are security cameras in all our rides. Most people don’t realize that they run even when the park is technically closed. I did my monthly spot-check, and, well… ”

Oh shit. I felt the color drain from my face. All the blood rushed to my heart, making it beat a thousand miles a minute.

“I am so sorry, Renee. I… I have…”

She held up a hand to silence me. “If this is a consensual relationship, we can discuss next steps. There’s no problem with employees dating, but we’d have to figure out some consequences for the…

indiscretion. I mean, beyond your responsibility to represent Bravetown as a family-friendly environment at all times when you’re in the park, there’s also the very improper use of park machinery that I didn’t think we’d ever actually have to include in the employee guidebook.

Even if so, my money would have been on the spouting fountain, I mean…

” She cut herself off and took a deep breath.

“Look, I am aware that there are some difficulties between you and Noah. He’s older and he’s more experienced at the park.

I’d be a fool to disregard a certain power imbalance there.

I haven’t reviewed the full footage, of course, but what I saw did make me want to talk to you. ”

“Right,” I breathed. The footage where he practically tackled me into a cage, tied me to it with his belt and made me come until I couldn’t get out a single word.

That footage. The very same night he told me he wanted all my ghost children to be happy and I could practically feel my ovaries fist-fighting my birth control. “Could you delete that video?”

“Are you sure? If you want, I can delete it from our servers but give you a copy if you change your mind.”

“Yes, I’m sure.” I nodded. “Noah and I… we haven’t told anyone, but we have been seeing each other.”

It was the first time I’d admitted anything like this out loud. And while it was the most non-committal phrasing I could come up with, my silly heart still bounced around in my chest.

“All right then.” Renee nodded, a smile playing across her lips and relief sagging through her shoulders. She liked Noah, I realized, and she had still given me a chance to speak up. “I’ll schedule a meeting for next week, with Noah and HR this time, so we can figure out how to handle this.”

“Could you hold off for a day? I want to talk to Noah in person first. We were obviously sneaking around because we aren’t ready for people to know about us. I’m seeing him tonight at Sinan’s birthday party, so I’ll talk to him then.”

“Of course.”

“Thank you.”

“The other thing …”

The other thing boiled down to our online videos doing well.

Not just ours, but the ones guests had captured over the last week, when Noah kept crashing my meet and greets.

I knew he did it because I’d been facing some rude visitors.

It worked. Once he was beside me, people weren’t so bold as to ask insulting questions.

And Ace Ryder was such a shameless flirt, people were eating it up.

Somehow the small fact that Ace was now flirting with Annie before the show had drowned out many hate comments.

It wasn’t about my stunt skills anymore or whether or not Annie was an archaic damsel in distress.

It was about his hands around my waist and the way his face was right next to mine when he growled threats at me.

Renee wanted to know if I was comfortable expanding on that and making it a permanent staple in the park. Thanks to the aforementioned indiscretion , she hadn’t wanted to suggest anything before she was sure that Noah and I were on good terms.

I told her I needed to think about it.

Noah and I were on good terms. At least I thought so. But I wasn’t sure I was comfortable with anything permanent right now… though I was even less sure if I could stomach leaving Bravetown at the end of summer season only to see Ace flirt with another Annie via a shaky phone video.