Alex found it strange—why couldn't this wait until morning? It wasn't like his shoulder was going to fall off in the next eight hours. But he figured arguing would take longer than the checkup itself, so after doing a quick sweep of the ground floor to ensure everything was locked down, he headed up the stairs.
Only Jess's door was slightly ajar, a thin sliver of warm light spilling into the dark hallway.
He pushed it open and stepped inside. Jess was already standing up from the bed. She pointed a finger at the edge of the mattress. "Sit. Shirt off."
While Alex sat down and obediently pulled his t-shirt over his head, wincing slightly as the fabric tugged at the bandage, Jess walked to the door. With a practiced, silent motion, she pushed it shut and turned the lock. Click.
She walked back over, her expression professional. She peeled back the adhesive, checking the suture line with a critical eye. "Hmm. No inflammation. The redness is gone."
She examined it longer than usual, her fingers lingering on the skin around the wound. Curious about the delay, Alex turned his head slightly to look at her.
It was a mistake.
Jess was leaning over him to get a better angle. The oversized t-shirt she was wearing, loose and stretched at the neck, sagged forward. Alex found himself with a direct, unobstructed view down the front of her shirt, right into the deep curve of her cleavage.
His brain stalled. He quickly snapped his head back forward, staring rigidly at the wall, his ears burning.
Jess saw the movement. She saw the flush creeping up his neck. A small, predatory grin touched her lips.
"Good news," she said, her voice smooth. "I can take the threads out tomorrow."
"Great. That's... that's good," Alex stammered, relieved. He placed his hands on his knees to stand up. "Thanks, Jess. I'll see you in the—"
He didn't get to finish. As he tried to rise, Jess placed both hands on his good shoulder and pushed. Hard.
Caught off guard, Alex flopped back onto the mattress. Before he could recover, Jess moved. In one fluid motion, she climbed onto the bed and mounted his lap, her knees bracketing his hips, her arms looping loosely around his neck.
"There is one more thing I want to check," she said teasingly, her face inches from his.
Alex's brain short-circuited. The feeling of her weight, the heat of her thighs against his, the scent of her soap—it was sensory overload for a guy with zero experience. He couldn't make a sound.
Seeing him frozen, fueled Jess's confidence. She leaned in, tilting her head to kiss him.
At the last second, panic overrode instinct. Alex jerked his head to the side. Her lips brushed his cheek instead.
"Jess... you shouldn't do this," he choked out, his voice tight.
Jess pulled back slightly, an eyebrow raised in genuine annoyance. "Why? Are you and Alice together or something? Because from where I'm sitting, it really doesn't look like it."
Alex turned his head back, eyes wide. "No! We're not! It's not that!"
"Then what?" Jess interrupted, pressing closer. "Am I not pretty enough? Am I not your type? Is that it?"
"No!" Alex forgot what he wanted to say, stammering frantically. "You... you are really beautiful! Really! But still... I..."
"But still what?" Jess was getting annoyed for real now. She let out a huff of frustration and started a mini-monologue, her voice dropping to a husky whisper.
"If I'm beautiful, and you're not taken, then I don't see the problem, Alex. I am really attracted to you. You're strong, you're kind, you're dependable... and you're very good-looking."
She traced a finger down his chest. "Look, I had quite an... active life before this whole outbreak." She added quickly, "Don't misinterpret that, I wasn't sleeping around with everyone. But I have needs. And after being chased by man-eating creatures, getting tied to a chair for days by creeps, and watching people die... I was stressed. Incredibly stressed."
She leaned her forehead against his. "But now? We're here. It's safe. You made it safe. I'm relaxed. I feel like I'm finally back to a normal rhythm, and my body... my body remembers what it needs. I need physical comfort, Alex." She scoffed lightly. "And it certainly doesn't help hearing Mark and Jenna going at it every other night."
Alex listened to her piece, his mind reeling. Logically, he didn't know how to react. This was outside his calculations.
But his body knew exactly how to react.
Jess felt it. The undeniable hardness pressing against her thigh. She smirked, a victorious glint in her eyes.
"See?" she whispered, shifting her hips intentionally. "Your little brother is much more honest than you are."
She leaned forward, locking her arms tightly behind his neck, clutching him close. This time, when she kissed him, he didn't turn away.
It was one-sided for a moment, Jess pouring her frustration and desire into him. Then, something in Alex snapped. The dam broke. He couldn't hold back anymore.
He "attacked" back.
He kissed her with a clumsy, starving intensity. His hands, which had been hovering uncertainly, slammed onto her waist, then began to wander, exploring the curves of her body with a desperate hunger.
A satisfied grin formed against his lips on the doctor's face. Finally.
Alex moved. He stood up from the edge of the bed, effortlessly lifting Jess with him as her legs wrapped tighter around his waist. He walked her backward until her back hit the wall next to the door with a soft thud. He pressed her there, never breaking the kiss, devouring her as she clawed at his back.
He freed one hand, blindly slapping the wall until he found the switch.
Click. The room plunged into darkness.
He walked back to the bed and "slammed" her down onto the mattress, following her down instantly. In the dark, hands fumbled with waistbands and hemlines as they started to undress each other greedily.
As the sun started to rise, painting the room in soft grays and blues, Alex's eyes shot open. It was the same time as every other morning, his internal clock ignoring the wild, exhausting marathon of the night before.
He tried to sit up, but a weight held him down. Jess was draped all over him, her arm thrown across his chest, her leg hooked over his, her face buried in the crook of his neck. She was sleeping deeply, a soft smile on her face.
Alex froze, the memories of the last eight hours flooding back in vivid, heat-inducing detail. He swallowed hard, carefully peeling her arm off him and sliding out from under her leg. He managed to scrape her off without waking her, quickly gathering his clothes and slipping out of the room like a ghost.
He went through his morning chores—the milking, the feeding, the mucking out—with practiced ease. His hands knew what to do, but there wasn't much clarity behind his eyes. His mind was completely elsewhere, replaying the feel of her skin, the sounds she made, the surprising aggression she had shown. He was operating on autopilot.
When he was done and went back inside, the smell of coffee hit him. Alice was up, as had become her routine, already at the stove.
"Morning," she said brightly, not turning around as she flipped a pancake. She poured him a mug of black coffee and set it on the island.
Alex sat down, staring into the dark liquid. Alice tried to make small talk about the garden and the weather, but Alex's answers were short, monosyllabic, and absent-minded.
Alice paused, wiping her hands on her apron. She leaned closer, searching his face. "Alex? Did you... did you not sleep well or something? You seem out of it."
Alex flinched visibly, like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "No! It's not that!" he said, a little too quickly, a little too loudly. "Nothing is wrong. Just... thinking about the fence."
Alice didn't believe him for a second—he was a terrible liar—but seeing his panic, she didn't press him. "Okay," she said slowly, turning back to the stove.
Soon, the others started coming down. It was evident to everyone that Alex was deep in thought, his brow furrowed as he stared at a spot on the wall.
Then, footsteps came down the stairs.
Jess entered the kitchen. She was yawning, stretching her arms high, but she looked unmistakably... radiant. The tension that had carried in her shoulders for weeks was gone. Her hair was messy in a deliberate, sexy way, and her skin seemed to glow. Her whole demeanor was looser, more relaxed, and infinitely more lively.
"Good morning, everyone!" she chirped, her voice a satisfied purr. She was much more talkative and approachable than the prickly doctor of yesterday.
She walked past the island where Alex was sitting. She didn't stop, but as she passed behind him, she trailed her hand along his shoulders, her fingers digging in slightly, a possessive, intimate gesture.
Alex shivered, his shoulders hiking up, his face flushing.
Jess just kept walking to the coffee pot, a confident, self-satisfied smile playing on her lips.
The room went silent. Jenna and Mark exchanged a wide-eyed look across the table. Oh, damn, their eyes said.
Mina, who had just walked in, saw the touch. Her jaw dropped. Her expression crumpled, looking exactly like a kitten whose tail had just been stepped on—a mix of shock, pain, and indignation.
Alice didn't see the touch, as she was plating the food, but she felt the shift in the air. She turned around, placing the platter of pancakes on the table. As she did, she locked eyes with Jess.
Jess took a sip of her coffee, smiling over the rim of the mug. It wasn't a friendly smile; it was a victor's smile.
Alice's eyes narrowed. You could almost see the sparks flying between them in the charged silence.
Breakfast passed in a blur. Afterward, as the others scattered to get ready for their chores, Mina stayed behind to help Alice with the dishes.
Alice scrubbed a plate with a little more force than necessary, a slight frown marring her forehead.
"Mina," she said, her voice low. "Maybe... maybe you were right after all. The Doc... I think she really is after Alex."
Mina stopped drying a bowl. She looked at her sister, genuinely wondering if the smartest girl in university was actually a bit of a dum-dum when it came to romance.
"After him?" Mina whispered harshly, leaning in. "Sis, look at her face! Look at that grin! She's not after him anymore." She shook her head, exasperated. "I am quite sure she already did something. One does not have such a self-satisfied grin for no reason. You need to wake up!"
The rest of the day was an exercise in awkward evasion for Alex.
Alice, determined to maintain her momentum from the previous night, tried to stick close to him. When he went to the utility shed to grab some tools, she was right there, asking if he needed a flashlight. When he headed toward the garden to check a valve, she was a step behind him, offering water.
Alex, his mind still reeling from the night's activities and the lingering scent of Jess's perfume that he swore was stuck to his skin, couldn't handle the "domestic wife" energy right now. It made the guilt itch under his skin.
"Alice, you should... you should rest your ankle," he said, backing away toward the house. "I need to... check the roof gutters. On the third floor. It's a ladder job. Safety regulations. You can't come up."
He spent the next three hours unnecessarily cleaning pristine gutters, simply because it was the one place Alice couldn't physically hover.
However, he couldn't avoid the ground floor forever.
Lunch was a minefield. Every time Jess passed him to get salt or a napkin, she didn't just walk by; she drifted into his space.
"Excuse me, Alex," she murmured, her voice dropping to a soft, husky register that only he could hear. As she squeezed past his chair, her hand trailed lazily across his back, her fingers grazing the nape of his neck.
Alex jolted so hard his knee hit the table, rattling the silverware. "Ah! Static... static shock," he lied poorly, rubbing his neck and staring intently at his sandwich.
Jess just chuckled, a low, throaty sound, and sat down, looking incredibly pleased with herself. Alice watched the exchange, her knuckles white as she gripped her fork.
By the time dinner rolled around, Alex looked like a man who had run a marathon. The emotional whiplash of Alice's tender care and Jess's covert, electric touches had drained him.
He shoveled his food down in record time.
"I'm... I'm done," Alex announced, standing up abruptly while everyone else was still eating. "I'm exhausted. I'm going to turn in early tonight. Don't wait up."
"But it's only eight o'clock," Mark noted, checking his watch.
"Big day tomorrow," Alex muttered, avoiding eye contact with everyone, especially the two women flanking the table. "Night."
He practically fled up the stairs, the lock of his bedroom door clicking shut seconds later.
A silence settled over the table.
"Is it just me," Jenna asked, breaking the quiet, "or is he acting... weird?" She turned her attention to Jess. "And you... you seem different, too. Much more... friendly. Did something happen? You look like you're in a really good mood compared to yesterday."
Jess took a slow, savored bite of her dinner. She looked at Jenna, then slid her gaze briefly to Alice. A mischievous, confident smile curled her lips.
"Nothing important," Jess said lightly, shrugging. "I just realized... I really like it here. I decided I should stop being so closed off and finally... open up."
There was a double meaning in her tone that Mark and Jenna missed, but it hit Alice like a physical blow. That smile didn't look friendly; it looked predatory. It looked like a scoreboard.
Later that night, Alice sat on the edge of her bed, staring at the wall. The house was silent, but her mind was loud.
She replayed the day. The way Alex flinched. The way he couldn't look her in the eye. And mostly, the way Jess moved—with the loose, languid grace of a satisfied cat.
Alice gripped her duvet, her eyebrows knitting together in a frown. It wasn't sadness she felt this time. It was a hot, prickly heat in her chest.
"She did it," Alice mumbled to herself, her voice thick with unexpected irritation. "She really did something."
She glared at the ceiling, imagining the room above hers.
"Maybe..." she whispered, her resolve hardening into something steelier than before. "Maybe being the 'good girl' isn't going to be enough."