Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Dean
“Sorry it’s not much,” I said as I put a plate in front of her. I’d thrown together some sandwiches for dinner, just from the meager supplies in the fridge.
“Looks good to me.”
“Want to eat on the deck? There’s a picnic table.”
Keira cast a pointed glance around. “Seeing as you have nowhere to sit in here, that makes the deck an ideal option.”
Her sarcasm had been out in full force, not giving me a break for a single minute, but if anything, that reassured me. She wouldn’t be snarking so much if she were traumatized after the car chase.
I’d take an angry Keira over a sad, silent one.
We sat side by side on the picnic bench, looking out at the starry night sky instead of at each other.
It was chilly, but not too bad. I wasn’t worried about our security here either.
Great thing about fifty acres. You could put motion-activated cameras in the key directions and set them up with phone notifications.
While I’d been making dinner, Keira had called her mom, Stephie, and Brynn to let them all know she wouldn’t be home tonight, in case they’d planned to stop by her place. She’d assured them everything was fine. Just needed a change of scenery.
That was one way to put it.
She’d kept the call with Brynn nice and short, clearly avoiding Brynn’s questions about what the heck was really going on. Brynn had no idea what we’d been up to today, but she had keen instincts and knew something was up. Keira and I would need to get our stories together.
I just wished I knew how Keira was really handling things. What she was thinking. Aside from the pissed off at Dean part. That, I had down.
Suddenly, she gasped.
I leaped up to standing, my plate clattering and the last few potato chips flying to the ground. My hand was on her before I knew what I was doing.
“What is it?” I asked. “You okay?”
“Uh.” She blinked up at me. “Remembered something. Didn’t mean to startle you.”
My hand slid around to the back of her neck.
With her soft skin under my palm, it made me think of how I’d held her after the car chase.
How she’d leaned into me. I knew she hadn’t forgiven me for the ways I’d screwed up before, but in that moment in my truck, with her head on my shoulder, I’d wanted to pretend.
I carefully lifted my hand away from her. Sat back down, straddling the bench to face her. “Sorry. Did I hurt you?”
“I’m not that delicate.” Her tone said she was annoyed at me, once again.
“You remembered something?”
“The ring the man was wearing today. I remembered where I’d seen it before. It was the night of the shooting. The same roadhouse where I argued with Donny Phelan.”
“Someone else was wearing a ring like that?”
“Yes. There was a man sitting next to me at the bar that night. Beard, pale blue eyes. He offered to buy me a drink.”
“Did you say yes?” The question came out far more accusatory than I’d intended.
She tilted her head. “If I did, what’s it to you?”
As if I had the slightest right to be jealous. We hadn’t even talked about whether or not she was seeing anyone.
But if she had a boyfriend, and the guy hadn’t been hanging around her house, getting in my face when I suddenly showed up back in her life, then what the hell was wrong with him?
I cleared my throat. “Nothing at all. Just trying to get a clear picture of what happened.”
She frowned at me another few seconds. “I did not accept a drink from the man. I didn’t think anything was off about him, though.
He seemed…fine. Wish I’d asked for his name.
” Her eyes moved to the darkness beyond the house, as if she was remembering.
“How could it be a coincidence, though? Seeing someone else with that same ring today at Phelan’s house.
Then someone in a demon mask chasing us and trying to run us off the road. ”
“I agree. It has to be connected.”
“We have to find out how.”
I was relieved she’d said we. She wasn’t kicking me off this investigation. “We will,” I said. “We make a good team.”
“Don’t try to butter me up, Reynolds.”
“What? I mean it.” I shrugged. “It would help if your arm wasn’t in a sling, and you could lift more than two pounds. But you have other talents. You’ve got a real set of balls, Deputy Marsh. Strolling around Donny Phelan’s house like you owned the place.”
“You were mad when I left for the bathroom. I saw the look on your face.”
“Maybe. But I was wrong. Because of you, we have a new lead.”
She lifted her chin. “Thank you for acknowledging that.”
“My pleasure.”
We took the dishes back inside, and I rinsed them off. Keira lingered on the single rickety stool at the kitchen island, checking her phone.
When I finished, she set her device down. “We should probably talk about how this is going to go tonight,” she said.
My brain leaped straight to dirty places. “I’m sorry?”
Keira’s eyes couldn’t quite meet mine. “The one-bed situation, Dean. There’s no couch. Nowhere else to sleep.”
“Oh. Oh. Right. No, the bed’s yours. I should’ve mentioned that already.”
“I’m not kicking you out of your room and making you sleep on the ground.”
Was she saying she’d share the bed with me?
My cock twitched just from thinking about it. I was such an asshole.
“I don’t sleep in there anyway. I have a bedroll in one of the upstairs rooms. That’s all I need.”
“You sleep on the floor when there’s a bed all set up?” she asked incredulously. “Why else would you finish the bedroom?”
“You said it yourself. There’s a lot about me that doesn’t make sense.”
She sighed, shaking her head. “And I should just start taking your word for things.”
I walked her down the hall, pausing before we reached the bedroom door. The lamp was still on from earlier, and in the tight confines of the hallway, Keira’s floral scent was intoxicating.
She was right here. In my house. Still couldn’t get over that.
“Feel free to shower,” I said. “Use whatever of mine that you want. I’m sorry you don’t have your own stuff here.”
“I’ll make do. Just don’t expect me to look pretty.”
“Like you’re ever anything else.”
“I wasn’t fishing for a compliment.”
“I wasn’t trying to flatter you. It’s just the truth. You’re beautiful.”
She glanced away.
“I mean it.” My hand lifted, fingers caressing her chin and making her look at me.
Fuck, what was I doing?
I was pushing too far, given the awkward one-bed conversation we’d just had. But I couldn’t help it. We’d been spending a lot of time together, I was all kinds of riled up from our narrow escape, and for the first time in maybe ever, we were about to sleep under the same roof.
Then, to my shock, Keira rose on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to my cheek.
Nerve endings ignited all over my body. When she pulled back, there was less than an inch between us. A single step, and I could fit our bodies together like we’d been on that dance floor two years ago. When I’d told her I was leaving, even though my heart had been telling me with every beat, Stay.
“Thanks for letting me crash here tonight,” she said. “And for the fancy driving earlier. You saved us.”
“Any time. Goodnight, Keira.”
“Night.”
Keira went into the bathroom, so I took the opportunity to grab some clothes for her. In case she wanted to change.
After rushing upstairs and taking several long minutes to decide what to grab for her, I jogged back down. She was still in the bathroom.
I set the small stack of clothes on the dresser, glancing around one last time at the bedroom. A room I hadn’t slept in once, yet it had been the first part of this house I’d finished.
Why? Fuck if I knew.
But now Keira was here, and she had a nice place to sleep. And maybe that was answer enough to the mysteries inside my brain. It was for her. Everything I did, no matter how contradictory.
It was all for her.
While Keira finished up in the bathroom, I tidied up the kitchen. I heard her emerge. Then the click of the bedroom door latch closing.
Go upstairs, I told myself.
But I didn’t.
Instead, I quietly padded over to the hallway again. Stared at the closed bedroom door. Like a damn creeper. One question was suddenly wearing a groove inside my mind.
I was pretty sure she’d wanted me two years ago. Did she still?
Make that two questions: if she did want me, could I allow anything to happen between us?
I stood there and put my palm flat on the smooth wood surface, wanting so fucking bad to be inside that room with her.
What if I told her how much she really meant to me? How much it drove me crazy to think of her with anyone else. Would she let me kiss her? Would she kiss me back?
I imagined walking inside. Lifting her gently into my arms. Lowering her to the bed and slowly undressing her, being careful of her injuries.
Way too fast, my fantasy turned filthy instead of sweet.
I imagined Keira telling me she needed me, and then I’d strip down, freeing my cock.
My tongue would work its way down her body, inch by inch, until I got a taste of all her hidden places.
I’d thrust myself inside her, going slow. What I’d wanted for so long.
Shit, we would be so good. And so unforgivably wrong at the same time.
She was never supposed to be yours.
Finally, I forced myself to back up and turned away.