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“You really didn’t have to come get me,” Deva said on a whisper as I extracted Cash from his car seat and lifted his dead weight against my chest. “You should have just let him sleep and not worried about me.”
I cast a hard look at her over my shoulder that held just enough warning the argument died on her tongue and she curled her lips between her teeth to silence herself.
We walked into the house together, Deva moving to the living room where she started straightening up the mess Cash and I had left, thoughtless males that we were, while I carried my son to bed and tucked him in, making sure he was safe and sound before pressing a kiss to the crown of his head and moving out of the room, pulling the door closed just a crack.
“You don’t have to do that,” I said, stopping at the mouth of the hallway to watch Deva as she carried the drink glasses and discarded trash from the junk food Cash and I had had earlier to the kitchen.
“It’s fine, really,” she insisted, refusing to meet my gaze, and for some irrational reason, that bugged the shit out of me.
“Deva,” I clipped, my tone coming out harder than I’d intended. To look at me now, you’d have never guessed I used to have no problem at all approaching a woman in a bar and starting something up.
My friends used to joke around, calling me a playboy or Mr. One and Done. I’d secretly hated those names. To save face, I’d smiled, pasting on a façade of devil-may-care to hide the truth, when, in reality, I felt like I was drowning. Pretending not to give a shit about your crappy reputation wasn’t exactly easy when the truth was that you fucking hated how people saw you.
Now I was trapped in this house with this woman, and it was like I’d completely forgotten how to talk to the opposite sex.
“Would you look at me please?”
She finally lifted her head from where she was standing at the sink, scrubbing the glass in her hands with a soap-covered sponge. She looked over her shoulder, her gaze glowing more tawny gold under the kitchen lights than green.
“It’s your day off. Stop cleaning. I’ll take care of it.”
“I really don’t—” She cut herself off, curling her lips again at my glower.
She stood motionless, glued to the spot as I crossed the kitchen and stopped less than a foot away from her back.
I was playing with fire and I knew it, but damn if I could make myself stop. I was close enough now that, when I breathed in, expanding my chest, my lungs filled with the delicate scent of roses. It was a fragrance that fit Deva perfectly.
I could have stood there all night and inhaled that smell... but that would be dangerous as hell.
Snapping myself out of the stupor she’d put me in, I reached out to take the glass she was still holding. Our fingers brushed, and that smallest of touches sent a bolt of electricity through my entire goddamn body.
I knew she felt it too when those pouty lips parted on a startled gasp and her eyes went wide and hazy.
She looked up at me, licking her lips nervously as her pulse began to race beneath the delicate ivory skin at her neck.
“Um, Laeth...” Her voice was nothing more than a breathy pant.
“Go to bed, Deva,” I ordered, my own voice was rusty and thick, my whole body locked tight to keep from touching her again. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
I watched her throat move on a swallow. Then, right before my eyes, she blinked, her gaze clearing as reality came slipping back.
She shot to the side, getting out from the tiny space between me and my kitchen sink.
“Um, all-all right. Have a good night. Sleep well.”
And with that, she bolted to her room like the hounds of hell were nipping at her heels.
Chapter
Sixteen
DEVA
I madesure to keep my steps slow and measured so Cash could keep up with me as I moved down the sidewalk. The sun was shining, the blue sky was filled with thick, white cotton ball clouds, and my body thrummed with excitement over where Cash and I were heading.
It was a great day to take a walk, which was a good thing since, despite all of Laeth’s rumblings a couple days earlier, I was still very much without a license. Fortunately, this was a small town, and Laeth only lived blocks away from so many places I could take Cash to keep him active and entertained.
I looked down at the little boy tottering along beside me. “Are you excited, little bug?”
