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When she yawned, it hit him how tired she must be from caretaking the three puppies. Plus, she’d been up way earlier than he had, the realization a potent reminder of how she’d found him naked in his bed this morning. The memory made his voice a little rough around the edges. “It’s been a long day, and you’ve been occupied with these furballs the whole time. It’s my turn tonight. Why don’t you head up to bed?”
“I like taking care of them,” she insisted, “even if they don’t sleep through the night yet.” The second big yawn that chased her sentence gave her away.
“Do I need to carry you up there and tuck you in myself?” He’d love it. But it was the baddest of bad ideas considering he didn’t trust himself to find the strength to leave.
“No!” The unavoidable sensual undertones of his offer were akin to striking a match beneath her feet. “I’m going.” She was already skittering away from him and up the stairs when she called over her shoulder, “Good night.”
He sat on the floor with the dogs, stroking them silently until he heard his bedroom door close. “Women.” Darla gave him the side-eye, and he brushed a hand over her cute head. “All the ones who ever wanted me, I didn’t want. And now that I’ve found one I can’t stop thinking about…”
Darla slipped and slid as she tried to climb into his lap. He picked her up, and she immediately curled into a ball of fluff. Moments later, her brothers were jostling to join her, and before Daniel knew it, he had three warm bodies happily snoring against him.
Family. There was nothing like it to heal you—or, as in the case of the other Mavericks’ birth parents, harm you.
He’d learned tonight that Tasha had worked with her family, which was now in the past. But her emotions about it clear
ly weren’t past artifacts, if merely talking about her family could etch that much pain on her face.
Daniel knew from Will, Sebastian, Matt, and Evan’s experiences that dealing with bad things from your past wasn’t easy. On the contrary, it tended to be a long road, one you could walk only with the people who loved you, people you trusted not to use your pain against you.
Secure in the knowledge that nothing could hurt Tasha while she was in his home, he leaned against the beanbag and closed his eyes, soon joining the puppies in their slumber.
* * *
Tasha woke to the sun filling Daniel’s room. The storm had passed during the night, and the morning was glorious. She stretched luxuriously in his big sleigh bed. Though she should have been more insistent that she didn’t need to take his bed, she couldn’t deny that the thick, top-quality mattress was an utterly delicious treat after three months on a blow-up bed.
Daniel had said she should use whatever she wanted, and though she didn’t like to take advantage of his hospitality, she couldn’t resist a shower in his spa-like bathroom.
Nor, on the heels of last night’s almost-kiss that had crept into her dreams, could she resist the fantasy of Daniel in there with her, soaping each other…
No, she couldn’t think like that. Couldn’t allow herself to fall deeper under his spell. Especially now that she’d learned just how difficult his childhood had been—and how hard he’d worked to bring not only himself out of it, but his parents as well.
Daniel deserved to be with a woman just as selfless and good as he was. One who had sound judgment about people, or at the very least, one who hadn’t missed every single sign of wrongdoing her entire life. A woman who’d never walked on the wrong side, the way Tasha had with her family.
After showering and towel-drying her hair, she left it hanging loose to air dry. Finally looking at her watch, she shocked herself. It was eleven o’clock. How had she slept that long? It was unheard of.
But she knew exactly why. With Daniel downstairs, she’d felt safe for the first time in months. She hadn’t missed the wariness that sometimes crept into his eyes, as though it worried him that he couldn’t add up all her pieces into a whole. He was right to be wary, obviously smarter than she by a long shot when it came to not trusting someone completely before you knew enough about them.
At last, she left the bedroom, lured by the scent of freshly brewed coffee. In jeans and a lumberjack shirt, Daniel was all bulging muscles and absolute perfection, freshly showered and his hair still wet. She followed his gaze to the wet footprints on the deck outside and the towel hanging over the rail.
“Did you wash up in the lake?” She shivered just imagining it. The water was cold.
He ran a hand through his hair, already starting to curl as it dried. “It’s a refreshing way to wake up.”
His smile threatened to knock her to her knees, as did the image of him jumping naked into the lake. But she needed to be stronger than her hormones and her desires.
In the great room, he’d set plates on the long plank between two sawhorses, normally his workbench but now doubling as a dining table. “Ready for pancakes and eggs?”
“You don’t even have a full kitchen in yet,” she said. “How can you make pancakes and eggs?”
“You can do anything on a barbecue. It’s just another gas flame.”
He was too good. Too sweet. Too everything. Weakness stole over her again—the need to stay, the desire to trust him with all her secrets.
But what would he say once he learned that her whole life was a lie? If he knew her family were criminals? And that she’d played a part—no matter how unwitting—in swindling all those people?
She’d already overstayed her welcome, but she couldn’t simply hightail it out of here first thing in the morning. Not after he’d been so gracious about letting her stay the night and cooking for her—and not when her furry little charges were snuffling around inside their crate.
She was glad she could mask her emotions for Daniel by training her attention on the puppies. “How are you guys doing this morning?” Kneeling beside them, she reached inside the box to pick up Darla. The little puppy began to lick her fingers. “You’re just the sweetest thing.”
