Tangled Web: A Small Town Romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 6) by Giulia Lagomarsino (an ebook reader txt) 📕

at me. “Should I be afraid that I’ll die in a deadly accident?” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Too soon?”

“Just a little.”

When we walked into the house, I tossed my keys on the table by the door. I could tell Andrew felt just as awkward as I did. I knew I wanted him here, but how did we transition from Hey, you put me in jail because you thought I was a killer to Hey, you want to have sex?

“Eric really got a lot done on the place,” Andrew said, clearing his throat uncomfortably. “I mean, up until he stopped because he thought you were a serial killer.”

I nodded, shoving my hands in my back pockets. “Well, rightfully so. If I get convicted, how would he get paid?”

“Right, and then there’s the whole fact that when you’re in prison, it’s a lot harder to tell him what you want done with the house.”

I nodded again. “Yeah, and phone calls aren’t exactly handed out like candy.”

He chuckled slightly. “Right.” We stood in silence for a moment before he pointed up at the ceiling. “He really got a lot of work done around here. I like the crown molding.”

“It’s a favorite of mine too.”

He huffed out a laugh, staring at the floor. “There’s no easy transition here, is there?”

“No, there’s really not. Do you want to go into the living room? We could get a fire going.”

He nodded in relief. “Right, that sounds good. Just like old times.”

“I’ll just get the matches,” I said, turning to go, but then stopped and turned around. “To start the fire. Not to burn the house down around you,” I clarified.

He smirked at me. “Yeah, I kind of figured that.”

“Well, just thought I’d make sure.”

I headed toward the kitchen where I kept the spare matches. I was pretty sure there were plenty by the fireplace, but I needed a minute to myself. I hadn’t expected things to be this awkward. I thought we would just pick up where we left off, but it turned out that keeping so many secrets from each other really put a damper on our relationship.

I grabbed the spares and headed back for the living room, laughing when I saw the fire was already started.

“There were matches in here.”

I nodded and tossed them on the table, then sat down on the couch. “So…”

“So,” he responded. “What’s the anklet like?”

“It’s okay. I mean, I can’t really wear skinny jeans. And wearing socks is kind of difficult.”

“Hey, if you get it off by summer, you can just wear flip-flops.”

“It’s nice to know I have options.”

“You know, I could even cut off the chains between a pair of handcuffs and you could wear one cuff on each wrist as bracelets.”

I grinned. “Are you trying to get out of buying me jewelry?”

“No, I just wanted something that would match.”

“Ha, ha,” I said with a smile on my face.

“So, how do we do this?” Andrew said, shifting to the couch beside me. He rested his hand on my knee, but it was…weird.

“Well, in jail, I wasn’t really asked what I wanted.”

He stared at me horrified. “Oh my God, did someone—“

I burst out laughing, shaking my head. “No, I’m just joking. I told you, my cellmate was…gender fluid or something.”

“What does that even mean?”

“I guess that depends. Do you want to talk about whether the person in the cell with me was a man or a woman, or do you want to have sex?”

“Sex,” he said quickly. “I mean, if you want to, of course.”

“What I really want is a shower.”

“Right.” He pulled his hand back and nodded. “You should do that and I’ll…stay here.”

“Or you could join me.”

“I could do that too.”

“And you could stop looking at me like you’re scared to death.”

“I’m not scared,” he said defensively.

“You know, it all makes sense now, all those times you jerked away from me. You thought I was going to kill you, didn’t you?”

He tried to look offended, but it didn’t come off very well. “Well, the way you wielded that axe was very convincing.”

I stood and took his hand, leading him out of the room. “I just have one question. What reason did you think I had to kill you?”

“Well, I hadn’t exactly worked that part out yet.”

“You know, you’re not the best PI.”

We started climbing the stairs, and I grinned when I felt his gaze on my ass.

“I’m really more of a hacker. I told Barty that. I wasn’t sure what he expected me to find.”

“All he needed you to find was something that would cause reasonable doubt that Arlen died naturally.”

“And I handed it right to him.”

We stopped outside the bathroom and I ran my hands up his shirt. “Don’t worry about it too much. It was time this whole thing stopped.”

“Really? Just like that? You’re not going to try and—“

“Kill you?”

“Well, I wasn’t going to say it, but…”

“Mhmm. How about we stop talking about jail and Arlen and anything related to you thinking I was going to kill you, and we get naked instead?”

He swallowed hard and nodded. “I think that’s a wise decision.”

“I thought you might agree,” I grinned.

I pulled my shirt over my head and then took off my bra. His eyes were glued to my chest, but when I pulled down my pants, that’s when things got really interesting. He shucked his pants so fast that he almost fell over. Then his shirt was flying off and he was kissing me hard, pressing me against the wall. I could feel his erection digging into my stomach as he cupped my jaw and possessed me. I was panting hard by the time he pulled back, barely able to function as I stared at the lust in his eyes.

I got the shower started and checked the temperature, about to step in when he placed his hand on my arm. I looked at him in confusion as he knelt beside me, cupping my ankle in his hands. I thought he was