Another customer. Just what I needed when I’d had zero clue how to answer the questions of the first guy who came in.
But I guess I was really good at faking my way through.
Pinning an artificial smile to my face, I pushed to standing from where I’d been sitting in front of that dinosaur computer pretending like I was actually going to accomplish something using it.
Then my teeth were actually snapping shut when I saw who came through the door.
Nerves scattered through me on a gust of apprehension.
It was the woman and tiny boy from last night.
The toddler’s hand was in hers, and she was smiling this dazzling, sweet smile, like she’d expected walking through the office door was going to be the highlight of her day.
I itched on my heels.
Maybe it was gawk at the prisoner day.
Only warmth was oozing out of the young woman as she stepped inside, her voice riddled with anticipation. “Oh my gosh, you have to be Brinley.”
Gulping, I struggled to keep that smile pinned to my face. “Yep, that’s me.”
“When I heard you were coming here, I couldn’t wait to meet you.”
I wondered what she’d think if she knew the way Silas had had me pressed against that desk two hours ago.
Because it’d felt…scandalous. Like we’d been two seconds from something splintering between us and igniting into what it absolutely could not.
Or maybe I’d only been projecting, imagining that he was feeling the same insanity I was feeling whenever the man got within a hundred-yard radius of me.
A fool wondering what it would be like if he slipped his hand under my skirt.
Which that right there was the most outrageous, implausible part of it all.
The fact that I would even think it. Allowing even a moment’s entertainment of something that normally sent me into a spiral.
And he just had to be the man I was having those preposterous flashes of fantasies about. Not really afraid of him but afraid of the way he made me feel.
It made me sick.
I knew what this was, though.
It was the clashing of strain and trauma. The memories up against whatever bullshit Dereck had gotten himself into.
That was it and nothing more, and I wasn’t about to allow myself to fall prey to my own weaknesses and insecurities.
It had nothing to do with the fact Silas Mercer was regrettably the hottest man I’d ever seen and had this lure abouthim that kept creeping into my thoughts and whispering across my flesh.
A shiver raced again. I stomped it down into nonexistence where it belonged.
Get your shit together, Brinley.
This guy was married or taken or what the hell ever.
I mean, she was standing right in front of me.
She had that fresh face look. Rich, dark brown hair with matching freckles sprinkled across her cheeks.
Adorable.
