Next to You by Julia Gabriel Page A

his brain didn’t—maybe he didn’t want to want her—but his body had.
    Well, at least he didn’t yell and swear at her this time. That must count as progress, right? She smiled up at the dark ceiling. remembering the way his body had felt against hers, hot and hard.
    And really, he didn’t look as bad as he seemed to think. Not to her. Maybe to the “beautiful people” but Phlox had never been one of them anyway. No one had been more surprised than her that she had ended up running a skin care company. That’s why she called herself the Chief Scientist. That was her interest in the whole enterprise anyway—the science of it all.
    Somewhere along the line science had failed Jared Connor, but there was still art in his face. Phlox saw it. The left side of his face was nearly untouched—classically handsome with a strong jaw, straight nose, and dark dark eyes. Eyes like an abyss. The right side of his face, though, was puckered and rippled, ravaged by burns. Phlox didn’t care. She wasn’t put off by the way he looked.
    She wanted to know how it happened though. And when. It wasn’t recent, she could tell that.
    She thought back to her first day at the house, when she’d wigged out and hurled herself off the back porch. He had carried her inside, washed off her knees, found the first aid kit and covered her bloody scrapes with bandages. He had been gentle, tender even. If he hadn’t wanted her to see his face, why had he bothered doing that?
    Phlox lifted her head, punched at the pillow to fluff it up and let her head fall back onto it. On the other hand, he was technically her employee. There was that. She could already hear Rye squawking over the idiocy of kissing an employee.
    From outside came the sound of a sudden splash. She jumped out of bed and peered out the window toward the pool. Ripples radiated outward in the water. A dark form glided beneath the surface before emerging halfway across the pool. It was Jared on another midnight swim.
    She wasn’t going to just watch from her bedroom this time. She dug her swimsuit out of the bureau drawer and pulled it on. She glanced down at her body. Unfortunately, she didn’t keep any sexy beach-worthy suits at the house in Connecticut, only a black one-piece Speedo. It would have to do.
    She hurried down the stairs and across the back porch. She knew from experience that Jared was liable to disappear in the blink of an eye and she didn’t want that tonight. At the pool’s edge, she saw him approaching the far wall. Just as he tucked under to turn, she dove into the water one lap over. She caught his eye as he turned his head to breathe but she continued on with her lap, waiting to see if he would stay or leave.
    The night air was cool in the mountains, the water cooler still. It felt good to Phlox, the water coursing over muscles that had spent too much time lying in hospital beds over the past year. Above, the moon had tucked itself behind a bank of clouds, leaving Phlox and Jared swimming through water as dark as ink.
    He was waiting for her when she finished her third lap. She glided to a stop next to a pair of well-muscled calves dangling in the water. She looked up at him, sitting on the edge of the pool. His face was barely visible, just glowing eyes and shadows. She felt those eyes on her as she pulled herself out of the water and sat next to him, careful not to touch him. He was skittish, and she would respect that.
    “I guess I owe you another apology,” he offered.
    “You don’t owe me anything, Jared. I’m probably the one who should apologize. I’m not usually that forward with men.”
    “Wealthy beautiful women don’t have to be, in my observation.”
    “I haven’t been wealthy or beautiful for all that long, so I guess I’m still learning.”
    She looked down at their thighs, side by side, and at the dark wet hairs covering his.
    “How did it happen?” he asked. “Your … accident.”
    “It happened here.” She nodded her head