My face muscles twitched with the effort of composure. Finally, I collected myself enough to breathe deeply and wiped the tears from my cheeks.
“I’m never going to forget that for as long as I live,” I vowed.
“I’m here to entertain.” He had his back to the wall, one leg bent to his chest, the other leg sprawled out in front. He watched me like he thought I was the funny one. He looked half-asleep and wholly adorable. “If you ever tell anybody I screamed like that, they’ll never find your body,” he said, his tone dead serious.
“Five minutes ago, that might have scared me.” I grinned across the short distance between us. “But that was before I heard you yelp.”
He shook his head and then rested it back against the wall. The action jostled the small statue on the table and it fell over the edge, hitting his leg.
He jumped again and without a sound, clutched his hand to his chest. He glared at me, his face braced for my reaction.
I was lost to another fit of laughter.
Chapter 20
You aren’t alone.
Devlin
Kim’s eyes had heavy shadows under them, and she could hardly hold up her head. Her skin was so pale it looked like it might shatter if kissed. The last few minutes had really taken it out of her.
“Why aren’t you sleeping?” I asked.
She made a face where she scrunched up her nose and lips. Thunder crashed and her whole body tensed.
“Are you afraid of the storm?”
“I’m not afraid,” she said. “I just couldn’t sleep through it.” She yawned. “Then you scared me.”
“I scared you?” I asked in a flat, sarcastic tone. “I live here. You were the one wandering around setting off the security cameras.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Security cameras?”
“Yes. But don’t worry, they’re only set when we’re sleeping or not home. They’re motion activated.”
Her eyes widened. “They weren’t going during the SWS meeting, were they?”
I kept my face blank and watched her. No. They hadn’t been recording, but now I sort of wished that they had been. What had those women been cackling about? At least the bathroom incident happened after that. I shuddered to think what they would have thought of the eyeful that Kim got.
Finally, after a minute of letting her sweat it out, I said. “No. Privacy and all that.”
“Right. Of course.” She let out a breath and looked so boneless she might need carrying up to her room.
The image of her asleep in my arms again tightened my chest with something like longing. I recalled holding her like that before, how trusting and innocent she’d been in her sleep. It was a far cry from her uncontrollable giggling a minute ago, or the Kim that challenged Wes at dinner.
“Hey, remember when you morphed into a praying mantis and yelled like one of those screaming goats?”
“I remember.” I flared my nostrils.
“Good times.” She yawned again.
“Praying mantis?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “When you jumped. Your arms sort of tucked up like this.” She mimicked what I thought looked a lot more like a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
“It was a real hoot,” I said flatly.
After a minute, she sighed and looked around. “I’d be scared all the time if I lived in this big house all alone.”
