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Instead of mirroring his pose, I went for more relaxed. I didn’t take either of the chairs, but instead, braced my hips on the edge of the desk and crossed my ankles casually.
“You wanna explain why you’re here, or you want to keep up this stare-down until one of us has to cave to take a piss?”
I didn’t bother mincing words. “Whatever’s going on with you and Deva Kent, it’s done as of now.”
He rocked back on his heels, a low, humorless chuckle rumbling in his chest. “Is that right?”
“It is.”
“Out of curiosity, why the hell would I ever take an order from you, huh? Aren’t you the guy who’s fucked half the town’s female population and burned out of their beds before the sun even came up the next morning?”
The number was highly exaggerated, but I couldn’t exactly defend myself. Ihadslept around, and even though I made sure each woman I took to bed knew the score, I wasn’t ignorant enough to think I hadn’t hurt more than a couple of them by bailing. I was an asshole, there was no defending my behavior, so I wouldn’t bother. But Deva was different.
“You want to go toe-to-toe for her, that’s fine by me. But you need to know, I’m not backing down. I’ll fight dirty, because she’s worth it. And I have no intention of losing.”
Silence enveloped the room as Holton took the time to absorb everything I’d just said. Then he did something I never in a million years expected. His frame deflated, all the tension that had been swirling around in the room suddenly dissipated.
“Look, man, I’m gonna be straight with you, and that’s sayin’ something because no guy wants to admit what I’m about to admit.” I couldn’t for the life of me guess where he’d been going with that. Then he finished. “Nothing came of that kiss. She’s a sweet girl, gorgeous and funny as hell, so I went there hoping there was something I could build on. There wasn’t. For either of us. It fell flat.”
The relief I felt at his admission was nearly enough to take my knees out from under me. But I locked them tight and held my ground. “You’re kidding me.”
He shrugged. “Wish I was. She’s the total package man. It just wasn’t there.” He leveled me with an icy look after that. “But you fuck this up, you can bet your ass I’m willin’ to make another play. So I suggest you do right by her.”
Oh, I had every intention of doing just that.
Chapter
Twenty-Five
DEVA
I’d been a tangled,twisted mess of emotions all day, and as the clock ticked closer and closer to the time when Laeth usually got home, the knot in the pit of my stomach only grew bigger.
Once Laeth had left this morning, after issuing that ominous yet arousing promise, I’d managed to shower the beer from the previous night off me, and brushed my teeth for a solid five minutes to scour that horrible taste out of my mouth.
Thanks to two cups of coffee and some dry toast, I’d started to feel a little more human. By the time noon rolled around, I’d felt good enough to take Cash to the park for a little time in the sunshine. I truly believed it was good for everyone to spend quality time outdoors, and Cash I did that as often as possible.
After exchanging a few texts, Lyric met up with us on her lunch break from the library, and like the amazing friend she was, she’d brought a bag of assorted pastries and coffee from Hot Java.
“You’re a lifesaver,” I groaned as she took a seat on the bench beside me and handed over one of the large paper cups.
She let out a tinkling giggle. “Rough morning?”
“You could say that,” I grumbled around the lip of my cup before taking a fortifying sip. “I don’t know how you can be so... chipper. How do you not feel like hot, steaming garbage?”
Her head fell back on a laugh, like what I’d just said was utterly hilarious. “You had three beers babe. I figured you’d be a lightweight, but that’s next level.”
I grumbled some not very nice words under my breath and drank down more coffee. “Ooh, listen to you!” Lyric gave me wide eyes. “Those were almost cuss words.”
Since Laeth had pushed me to curse this morning, I’d been feeling the need to let other words pour free. It was like he’d pulled a plug, and all the words I’d been suppressing wanted to come spilling free.
I kept my eyes trained forward, watching as Cash flopped across the seat of a swing on his belly, pushing himself with his feet. He was so cute it was almost too much to bear. The more I got to know him, the more he filled one of the empty spaces in my heart that had been reserved for special people in my life. Until recently, my poor heart had been as empty and lonely as I was, no one to nurture it and fill it up, but I could feel those missing pieces clicking into place, and those holes were growing shallower by the day.
“Something happened this morning,” I confessed in a quiet voice, like I was worried someone could overhear, not that there were a lot of people at the park in the middle of the weekday.
Lyric instantly perked up, twisting her body toward mine and bringing one leg up on the bench. “You sound so ominous.” She sucked in a playful gasp. “Are you breaking up with me?”
I cut my eyes at her, fighting back the smile that wanted to stretch across my lips. “No, ass.”
