Chapter 38

A little before 7 am the next morning, Brent came home from the fire station. He called out as he came in the front door. “Emma? I’m back.”

He didn’t get an answer and a moment later he saw why.

Emma was lying asleep on his couch, her back facing the room with Bruiser swaddled in his blanket and tucked securely between her chest and the sofa cushions. She was sleeping quietly; Bruiser was making snoring sounds reminiscent of a chain saw at idle in his living room.

He walked quietly up to her so as not to disturb her (though if Bruiser didn’t wake her, nothing would) and sat down on the love-seat nearby.

Emma’s t-shirt had ridden up while she slept and exposed all of her stomach and most of one boob. He was able to see then that she hadn’t worn a bra to his house; he had no way of knowing of the distractions she had had to contend with while trying to head to his house.

His instinct told him to pull down her shirt, but he realized that if he did, and she awoke, it could easily be misconstrued as sexual assault. And that would be bad.

Instead, he went and got another blanket (human sized) from his bedroom and used that to cover her. Should she awaken, there would be no misunderstanding. As it happened though, she didn’t even stir.

He sat and watched her sleep for a good five minutes before it dawned on him how fucking creepy that was. That made him go into the kitchen and start a pot of coffee.

He didn’t know what she ate, so he decided to just make a bunch of breakfast foods; he was used to cooking at the fire house and rather enjoyed it.

Emma stirred a little while later. It took her a minute to remember where she was. Then she realized that she was being motor-boated by the tiny snout which had wedged itself between her boobs and was snoring away. Ever so carefully, she pulled the blanket off of her (how had it gotten there?) and slid away from the pup.

In the next moments, she discovered many things. #1, she could smell coffee and hear sounds coming from the kitchen, so Brent must be home. #2, the blanket must have come from him. #3, she had had a boob showing when she exited the blanket. Had he seen?

She walked groggily into the kitchen.

“Good morning, Miss Russell!” Brent said cheerily. Emma yawned.

“Emma, please. Good morning to you, too,” she said as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

“Right, I’m sorry. Emma. Would you like some breakfast?” he asked as he slid some scrambled eggs from a pan to a plate on the table. Next to it on the table were some bacon, toast, and fruit salad.

“Oh, uh, sure. I’d love some,” she said. She tugged on the bottom of her t-shirt to be sure it was all the way down as she sat at the table. How could she have forgotten to where a bra? While his back was to her, she subtly used her fingers to check to see if her nipples were poking through the t-shirt. And they were. Brent didn’t show any signs of noticing though.