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A girl with dark, sparkling eyes, silky hair, and the softest hands. A girl he’d come so close to ruining everything with on Sunday night.
He swallowed hard, putting down the knife and clenching his hands around the edges of the box. Ever since he’d been a kid, this place had been a second home to him. The Leung house had become a third. Arthur, Han, and everyone else in their family trusted him. How would they look at him if they found out he was having wildly inappropriate thoughts about the youngest member of their family?
What would happen if he got with Zoe for real? Even if everyone accepted it… if it didn’t work out, if their relationship hit the rocks or went down in flames…
Arthur and Han cared about him. Deeply. But at the end of the day, faced with the decision, they’d choose their flesh and blood over some stray they’d taken in.
Acting on his attraction to Zoe was a nonstarter. It couldn’t happen.
So why couldn’t he stop thinking about it?
Even a couple of days later, he could feel her skin, smell the sweet scent of her wrapping around him and turning him inside out. In the driveway of the Leung house—right where he and Han used to hang out when they were kids, when Zoe wasliterallya kid—he’d been inches from kissing her. The moment they’d shared kept playing in his head on repeat, and all he could think was, what if those lights hadn’t gone on? What if Zoe and Han’s mom hadn’t caught him ready to claim those soft, rose-colored lips?
When would he have stopped?
How much would he have risked?
He shook his head. Fury burned in his chest, almost as hot as his arousal whenever he let his mind drift back to that almost-kiss. He was an idiot to be even thinking about it, much less actively imagining it.
So why was he torturing himself like this?
And why was Arthur just sitting there instead of trying to get him to talk?
“Okay, fine,” he exploded. He glared at Arthur. Patient bastard had always been good at waiting him out until he finally told on himself. “Let’s say there is a particular lady in question.”
Arthur set aside the inventory sheet he’d been working on and gave Devin his full attention. “Okay.”
“But it’s a terrible idea.”
“Most love usually is,” Arthur said with a sly smile.
Devin shook his head, gesturing wildly with his hands. “Like, natural disaster kind of terrible.”
Arthur just raised his brows.
“Okay, fine, maybe not that bad, but bad. It would cause big problems.”
“What sort of problems are we talking about? Legal trouble?”
“No.” Though a half dozen years ago, it would have.
“Work trouble?”
“No.”
“Then…?”
Devin cast about for a second before landing on “Her family.”
Of which Arthur was a member. This was so messed up.
“I can’t believe they wouldn’t approve of you.”
“It’s more complicated than that.” Devin raked a hand through his hair. “But they’d have good reason to think it’s a bad idea.”
The Leungs had welcomed Devin with open arms. Here at Harvest Home, Arthur had taken Devin under his wing. As Han’s best friend, Devin had free run of the Leung house. Sleepovers, afternoon hangouts. They trusted him.
Hantrusted him. Han, who was so obsessed with keeping his family safe and secure. He’d always been protective of his baby sister. How many times had he confided in Devin about wanting to basically go check Zoe into a convent?
