Page 9 of Clever Deceit

He scoffed and rolled his eyes, telling me exactly what he thought about that. But as he turned, I saw the quirk of his mouth and the slight flush across his cheeks that told me that he didn't mind it as much as he wanted me to think he did.

In fact, I was willing to bet that he actually liked the idea of someone looking out for him. From the little he'd told me, he hadn't had much in the way of affection or protection when he was a kid, and I was betting that me implying I cared enough to want to protect him to was doing more for his ego than anything else ever had.

I grinned at the thought, picked up my own stack of boxes, and trailed after him, making a list in my head of the things we still needed to move.

***

“I THINK THAT'S IT,” I said, looking around the newly crowded living room in my mother's house.

It hadn't looked like that much in the house. But now that it was here, stacked up against all the things my mother already had...

It was going to be a crowded couple of weeks.

And I was going to love every second of it.

I slid my hand into Warren's and looked up at him. “Want to unpack now or do it later?”

“Later,” he said immediately. “Right now, I want a shower. And then a nap. That was a lot of work for this old man.”

I snorted with laughter at that. “Old is right. You're what, forty-five? Fifty?”

He turned before I could get out of the way and sprang at me, his hands already going to my ribs and tickling me mercilessly. “I'll show you old, young lady.”

I shrieked and made to run, surprised at this suddenly playful side of him, but he wrapped his arms around me and held me tight, his face against my neck, and I grew suddenly still. What was this? First he'd been like a little kid, all threats and tickle fights, and now he was holding me like he never planned to let me go.

A sudden cough from the other end of the room interrupted the moment, and we both straightened and looked toward the door into the kitchen, where my mother was watching us with her eyebrows raised. “If you two could take a break from your lovefest to help me outside, that would be great.”

“Outside? Where are you going? You know you can't drive on your own.” My mother's body had been broken in several places when she got into the crash, and she was still wheelchair bound. If she thought she was going to hop into her car and go for a drive, she had another thing coming.

Not that I would have complained about time alone with Warren.

She gave me a deeply jaded look. “I know I can't drive, daughter. That's why your aunt is coming to pick me up. I thought you two might like some time alone to unpack.”

Her words held a world of unsaid commentary, and I felt myself blushing at the thought of what she thought we were going to be doing.

In her house.

With her knowledge.

“Mom,” I groaned. Can we not—”

“Talk about it?” she asked breezily. “I'd rather not. Which is why I'm going out. You two are welcome to take my room, though. Warren would never fit into that tiny bed in your room, and it's not as though I'm using the one in my room.”

I started to protest because now we were going to be sleeping in my mother's bed, but before I could say anything, she'd motioned for Warren to wheel her out of the house, and he was stepping forward and getting behind her.

And then I was watching him push her out of the house, my fingers already itching to grab his hand and take him upstairs to the bedroom.

Because as long as my mother wasn't going to be here...

***

AS IT TURNED OUT, WE did more sleeping than anything else. We stumbled upstairs, grasping at each other and giggling at the idea that we were going to be sleeping in my mother's bedroom, and when we saw the bed, we fell into it gratefully. Warren stretched out and sighed with deep appreciation.

“Your mom's bed is so much nicer than mine.”

I snuggled down next to him and let him wrap his arms around me. “Even nicer with you in it.”

“Mmm,” he said. “There are so many things I want to do with you right now. But I think I want to close my eyes for a little bit first.”