I snorted and started walking inside.
He stopped me by calling my name.
“Dax.”
I turned to find him standing there, his earbud once again out of his ear.
“Yeah?” I turned.
“Don’t hurt her,” he ordered. “She may be my big sister, but I’ll kick your ass if you so much as make her cry.”
I liked that he’d said it.
“I’m not…”
Derek rolled his eyes. “Sure you’re not.”
With that he turned and walked away, shoving his earbud back into his ear and whistling to a tune that only he could hear.
I turned around and headed back into my house, breaching the entrance of my place and immediately smelling the coffee.
“You have an actual coffee pot,” she said as she looked at me.
She had a donut in one hand, and white powdered sugar all over her breasts.
She also had it all over her lips.
It took everything I had not to lean over and run my tongue along those beautiful lips.
“What?” she asked as she touched her head. “Do I have something in my hai… shit.”
I scrunched up my nose.
“It looks cute all stubbly like that,” I found myself saying. “But no, you don’t have anything in your hair. Or on your head. You have powdered sugar all over your mouth. And your…” I gestured to her boobs.
She looked down at herself and shrugged. “It happens.”
Then she proceeded to continue making a mess. First with the rest of her powdered donut she was eating, and then with a plain glazed one.
Swallowing hard, I gathered up my clothes that were on the bar thanks to my mother doing my laundry yesterday and headed into my room to get dressed.
Once in a clean pair of jeans, a simple white t-shirt, socks, and work boots, I found my concealed carry weapon underneath my pillow and fit it into place in the front of my pants.
Shrugging the t-shirt down into place, I brushed my teeth, washed my face, then slathered some lotion onto my tattoos.
I grinned at the naked girl that Rowen hadn’t even blinked an eye at when she’d seen it.
Then again, she’d probably known about it. Vaguely I remembered her being there that day that my mom had first seen it—then promptly lost her shit.
Needless to say, there wasn’t anyone in our close circle of friends and family that didn’t know about it.
It’d been my first, and at seventeen, and pissed off at my ex-girlfriend for showing my ass all over social media, I’d thought it was a good fuck you.
Especially since Rachelle had hated the woman that I’d gotten tattooed on my arm.
It wasn’t anybody we knew, or anything. Just some random chick that I’d seen in a magazine of Rachelle’s. Rachelle had been reading Cosmo and flipping through the pages, and I’d seen her. When I’d commented that she was pretty, Rachelle had lost her shit and accused me of not liking her.
Needless to say, I’d gone back to find that picture of the woman who was standing in the nude, only two large red, white, and blue stickers covering her areolas.
Then I’d tattooed her onto my arm as a reminder that women were assholes.
Shaking my head out of those morose thoughts, I headed into the kitchen and saw Rowen eating yet another donut. This one chocolate covered.
“Jesus,” I said as I looked at her. “You’re amazing.”
She snorted and patted her belly.
“I’m just a girl with a big appetite,” she said. “And I’m blessed with amazing genes that allow me to eat like shit and not gain weight.”
Rowen was skinny, sure. But she was referring to herself as ‘a stick’ when she was anything but.
She had generous curves, great breasts. Small, but the perfect mouthful.
Not to mention she had legs for days.
Smooth, toned, luscious legs that I would love to have wrapped around…
“Do you want coffee?” she asked.
I shook my head and started toward the cabinet with the coffee cups, pulling down the first one I saw and filling it up.
“That’s literally a blank coffee mug,” she said. “Where does one get a plain, white coffee mug from?”
I brought the mug to my lips and took a cautious sip.
Then I reached for a donut as I said, “The Dollar Store.”
She snickered.
“Nothing wrong with that, I guess.” She hip-checked me. “I’m going to run to the restroom, go lock up my place and be back. If you get done before me, come over.”
I didn’t have to come over.
I met her at the halfway point between her side of the duplex and mine again.
“Ready to ride?”
She nodded once, looking worried now. “I guess so.”
I frowned at her sudden change in demeanor.
“What’s wrong?” I wondered.
She sighed and ran her fingers over her head.
“I…” She licked her lips. “I got a text from Theo while I was in there. He asked if I was around for him to stop by.”
“Theo?” I asked.