I laughed harshly.
“She goes from a scrawny kid to a pretty girl in the blink of an eye. Not just pretty either. Fucking gorgeous. I don’t know what the fuck I feel.”
“There’s nothing wrong with liking her, Shane.”
Like? That was funny. I didn’t like her. What I felt was far more primal and possessive. It was purely instinctual and it was freaking me the fuck out. I felt like a goddamn caveman, wanting to drag her to my cave.
I just wasn’t exactly sure what I would do with her once I got her there. Look at her, probably. Smell her. Chew on her hair.
I tossed back another shot. I didn’t care about living or dying anyway. I just wanted to numb this out.
The truth was, I was terrified.
Terrified the killer would get her. Terrified I would do something stupid, like fall for the girl. Terrified I would have to actually feel something again.
Feeling anything was a weakness. They could get you if you cared. They could take everything away.
Caring for the kid was one thing. Caring for a very pretty young woman was something else. That had the potential to get real messy, real fast. But one thing was clear. Parker still needed my help.
And I was going to take care of her, come hell or high water.
“I should probably find her someplace else to stay. Another job away from this crazy life. But she can’t be on her own yet. Not with the killer running around, killing club girls and old ladies.”
“Agree on the last part. Not sure about the first.”
“So what do I do?”
“If you kick her out, she’ll be devastated. Mich said the girl is hung up on you.”
“Hung up?”
A crazy sliver of hope started to warm me up from the inside. The kid, the girl, liked me?
“Hero worship or something like that.”
“Me? A fucking hero?”
Mason looked at me with a sad look in his crinkled eyes.
“That’s what she said.”
I cursed and ran my hand through my hair. That was the last thing I wanted to hear. Not because I didn’t care what she thought. I did fucking care.
But if she thought I was a hero, she was going to be really fucking disappointed.
I’d caught the look in Parker’s bright blue eyes when she confessed to me. She did care about me. It wasn’t just an act to have a safe place to live. Maybe she even felt the same attraction I’d been fighting off ever since she’d uttered those three little words. I could still hear them, echoing in the air.
‘I’m a girl.’
But there was a problem with that. Fifty problems. The main one being that she was too young for me, too beautiful, and way too close for me to resist.
I was in no shape to take care of a woman, especially not one as precious as her. I’d destroy her and myself in the process. She definitely had to go.
“You know what’s crazy?” I mused aloud. “For the first split second when she told me she was a girl—no, a woman—I was relieved. Like I’d known the truth all along.”
Mason just stared at me, his brow furrowed.
“Promise me you’ll help keep her safe, Mason.”
He nodded solemnly and held out his glass. I clinked mine with it, sealing our deal.
“I give you my word.”
Chapter Thirteen
Connor
“Oh, my God, he really had no idea?”
She shook her head and met my eye in the dresser mirror. She was messing with her hair, parting it this way and that, driving me crazy as the waves fell over her sexy back. I kept telling her it was always perfect, literally always, but she didn’t believe me.
Her robe slipped down when she turned to look at me over her bare shoulder. My mouth immediately went dry and my cock lurched to attention. Just that innocent patch of silky skin was enough to send me from zero to a thousand in under a millisecond.
That’s right. One bare shoulder turned me into a sex-starved madman. But only her shoulder. Hell, her toes did the same thing to me. The inside of her wrist. Seeing her perfect little seashell ear poke out through her thick, glossy hair.
My wife was the sexiest woman alive, and I never let her forget it.
My cock never let me forget it either.
“Mase said he was miserable about it. Confused.”
I laughed out loud.
“I bet he is,” I said, grinning from ear to ear. “I can’t wait to tell Cain about this. I bet that fucker even cracks a smile.”
“Be nice. He’s smiling a lot more often these days.”
I stood and kissed her shoulder, staring into the mirror as I slipped the robe off. Our eyes caught and held. She still excited me as much as she had the first time. Actually, I was pretty sure it was even more.
My desire for my wife seemed to pick up speed and intensity over time, not the other way around.