BooksBarbecue
Back Deception Cove
Chapters (78)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Prologue
  7. One
  8. Two
  9. Three
  10. Four
  11. Five
  12. Six
  13. Seven
  14. Eight
  15. Nine
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Twelve
  19. Thirteen
  20. Fourteen
  21. Fifteen
  22. Sixteen
  23. Seventeen
  24. Eighteen
  25. Nineteen
  26. Twenty
  27. Twenty-One
  28. Twenty-Two
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-Three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. Thirty-Nine
  46. Forty
  47. Forty-One
  48. Forty-Two
  49. Forty-Three
  50. Forty-Four
  51. Forty-Five
  52. Forty-Six
  53. Forty-Seven
  54. Forty-Eight
  55. Forty-Nine
  56. Fifty
  57. Fifty-One
  58. Fifty-Two
  59. Fifty-Three
  60. Fifty-Four
  61. Fifty-Five
  62. Fifty-Six
  63. Fifty-Seven
  64. Fifty-Eight
  65. Fifty-Nine
  66. Sixty
  67. Sixty-One
  68. Sixty-Two
  69. Sixty-Three
  70. Sixty-Four
  71. Sixty-Five
  72. Sixty-Six
  73. Sixty-Seven
  74. Sixty-Eight
  75. Acknowledgments
  76. Discover More
  77. About the Author
  78. Also by Owen Laukkanen

“I don’t want to be alone right now,” she said. “I can’t. So can you just lie back down with me and not make a big deal out of this?”

Burke blinked, like he knew that she knew it really was a big deal. “Sure,” he said. “No problem. No big deal at all.”

He lay back down on the little makeshift bed, edged over to the window, and lifted the thin blanket for Jess to join him. She lay down beside him, turned her back, and rested on her side, facing the stove and the sink, her knees hugged up close to her chest.

Lucy watched them both for a moment or two. Then she grumbled and circled a couple of times and collapsed into a pretzel on the carpeted floor.

Behind Jess, Burke lay still as plywood, and she could tell he was trying not to touch her, trying to give her space. Trying to be polite and decent and accommodating when that’s not what she wanted at all.

“Will you hold me?” she asked without moving.

Burke hesitated again, but then he inched closer to her, slipped his arm under her pillow, and the other around her waist, and Jess snuggled back into him. She tried to think of the last time she’d done this, just been held by someone, and she knew it must have been Ty, but she couldn’t remember. Ty hadn’t been much for cuddling, not toward the end—or maybe that was her fault. After what she’d seen in the valley, after what she’d lost, Jess hadn’t wanted to be close to anyone for a long while.

She suspected Burke hadn’t been this close to a woman for a long, long time either, and she could tell how her proximity was having its effect. She pushed back against him, slipped her legs against his, and she could feel him getting hard against her, and she knew that she should leave now, go back into the fo’c’sle and pretend this had never happened, keep some distance between the two of them so nobody would get hurt. But she didn’t.

She reached back and pulled him closer again, reached around with her arm and found him with her hand, and he groaned a little bit and took her hand, lifted it away. “You don’t want to do that,” he said.

She pressed her butt back against him. “Sure I do,” she said, and she did, and she wanted it to be now, and she wanted it to be Burke.

“No, you don’t,” he said. “I don’t want to take advantage. It wouldn’t be right.”