“See Uncle, told you, you don’t know nothin’.”
Logan rustled his hand through Gage’s hair, that smile never leaving his face. “Guess not. I really am going to have to go to school with you one of these days.”
“So you can get all the lessons.” Gage dipped his head in a resolute nod.
“Um…where’s…?” Anxiously, I looked around the room.
Logan pressed his palms to the island, his green eyes dancing. “Ran an errand.”
My lips pursed as my attention bounced around, looking for a safe place to land.
Right.
Great.
He’d left me there by myself.
“Yup, Uncle Logan said my dad finally got some so he doesn’t have to be such a d-i-c-k, anymore. What’d he get, anyway, Uncle?” The question twisted Gage’s brow into a knot as he tipped his head back to look up at his uncle who’d moved to stand behind him. Trent’s brother was suppressing laughter as he pressed his lips to Gage’s forehead.
“Seems he got something really special.”
Okay, I took it all back.
Confessing it to my daddy would be way less painful than this.
“Like a new toy?” Gage asked.
Logan laughed as he swept Gage from the stepstool. “Time to eat,” he said instead of answering, effectively diverting the topic, thank God.
Gage squealed when Logan tossed him over his shoulder, the man all easy arrogance as he carried the child over to the little nook by the window and plopped him into a chair.
“This spot’s yours, right here, Miss Murphy! You wanna sit by me? I told you me and my uncle made the best breakfast ever!” He pounded on the spot next to him, and I glanced there, warily, no clue what I was supposed to do.
My purse was upstairs, and my car was impounded, and Trent…I gulped, whirling around when Trent was striding in through the side door where we’d entered from the garage last night.
Black jeans and white tee and stunning face, so gorgeous he hitched my breath.
All that potent power infiltrated the room.
A flashflood.
My knees went weak.
Then confusion had me frowning when I realized he had my pink carry-on slung over his shoulder.
He didn’t slow or explain. He just dropped it by his feet and strode my way.
Purposed.
Those ridiculous boots eating up the floor.
I swore the walls spun when he didn’t slow, just took my face in those big hands and kissed me like none of the questions I’d had this morning counted.
Kissed me hard and desperate and with relief.
I whimpered and sighed, holding onto his wrists and wondering if he knew my heart was at his feet.
Gage giggled. Giggled wild and raucous. “Dad’s got a girlfriend, Dad’s got a girlfriend. It’s Miss Murphy! It’s Miss Murphy!”
In my periphery, I could see that Gage had stood on his chair, and he was pointing at us like the spectacle we were.
Redness flushed, and Trent dropped his forehead to mine, never releasing my cheeks as he sighed. “Gone for one fuckin’ hour, and I already missed you. How’s that, Eden?”
I eased back enough to look between him and my bag. “You…went to my house?”
“You needed clothes, yeah?”
“And you…”
“Let myself in. Had to go in through your bedroom window because that teacher-friend of yours was there, eating doughnuts on your porch while taking about fifteen-thousand selfies of herself.”
He said it like she was the one who was doing something crazy.
“Which getting in, by the way, was way too easy. Going to send someone over there to take care of that today. Make sure no one is getting through that we don’t want in there.”
My head spun, still hung back on the spot where he’d broken into my house. “You just went in and got my things?”
“Yup. So you could sleep. Figured you might be a little worn out this morning.” With that, he traced his fingertips down the angle of my jaw, his eyes flaring. Chills spread, and my lips parted as a bout of desire leapt into my bloodstream.
God. I couldn’t even think straight when I was in his presence.
“We can go back and get the rest of your things this afternoon.”
“Trent…I…I have to go home. I can’t just stay here.”
“Told you last night that I wasn’t going to let you out of my sight until I found whoever did this.” He growled it, so low that only I could hear. “Meant it. I don’t want you anywhere that either me or my brothers aren’t there.”
Flustered, I stared up at him. “I have things I have to do.”
Like clear my head.
“Then I’ll go with you.”
“Are you serious?”
He had me hauled out of the great room and backed to the inside wall of the main living room before I could make sense of the action. His body towered over mine where he had me pinned.
His chest strained with pained, heaving breaths, a torment woven in that I didn’t understand. “Don’t fight me on this, Kitten. Promised to keep you safe.”