Page 35 of Dark ’N’ Deadly

“Who is your stepfather?” The statute of limitations on any offenses the guy had committed had probably long since expired, but he had half a mind to run the guy anyway, just to satisfy his curiosity. And to make sure the bastard didn’t do that to anyone else.

“It doesn’t matter.” Jesse looked away. “He’s out of our lives, and that’s the way we want it. As soon as I can pay you back for what I did, we’re leavin’ and I’m gonna stay with her. If I don’t go to jail, that is. I swear I’m never goin’ back to Alabama. The only way I’d ever go back there is if they drag me back unconscious.”

From the look of disgust on the boy’s face, Eric believed him. After the nightmare he’d just described, who could blame him? “Sounds like your stepdad was even worse than my father, and that’s saying something.”

“Really?” Jesse sat up, although his face contorted as if he were about to throw up.

“You okay?” he asked, about to grab the garbage can in the bathroom for the kid to woof his cookies in, but the moment seemed to have passed.

“Yeah, just a little nauseous.” He swallowed. “What was your father like?”

Eric watched a moment longer, until he was satisfied the kid wouldn’t heave. “A bastard.” The scars on the outside of his body were from injuries sustained in the line of duty, but the ones on the inside were inflicted by his own father.

Jesse leaned forward. “What’d he do to you?”

Tiger laid his head on Eric’s thigh, and he ruffled the dog’s ears, which were soft and warm and full of soothing energy. Great, now I’m thinking like Tess. As far as he was concerned, his K-9 was better than any crystal for alleviating tension.

Not wanting to get into it, he pushed from the bed and headed for the door. Tiger trotted after him. “Let’s just say, I’m never going back there, either.” Just thinking about his dick of a father and how the man had pretty much trashed every aspect of his and his sister’s childhoods pissed him off all over again.

Reliving that part of his life? He’d sooner volunteer for clean-up duty at the firing range, picking up thousands of shell casings one by one, every day, for the rest of his life.

“Wait, Eric?” Jesse stood. “You’re not an assho— I mean, you’re not a jerk like I expected, so I guess it would be all right if you kissed my sister again. As long as you don’t hurt her, and as long as you promise not to take her away from me.”

Great, now he had her brother’s blessing to do precisely what he shouldn’t do—and exactly what he wanted to do most.

He tightened his grip on the knob. “Don’t worry, kid. I don’t plan on kissing her again, and I definitely won’t take her away from you.”

As he yanked open the door, Tess jumped back. Wide green eyes stared up at him, guilt written all over her face.

“Did you get all that?” He should have been annoyed, but she was only looking out for her brother’s interests. That, he understood.

Living through the daily wars between their mother and father had made him protective of his own sister, and he still made a point of butting into her life periodically to make sure she was doing okay.

“Um, no.” She quickly dropped her hand. “I was about to check in on Jesse to see how he was feeling?”

Good recovery. Not good enough.

She had been eavesdropping, and he should have expected nothing less. The woman was intelligent, inquisitive, and as protective of her brother as Eric was of his sister, Maggie. All good qualities in his book. And holy hell, she was still wearing that body-hugging yoga outfit, looking like a turquoise Popsicle that he wanted to lick clean off that amazing little body.

Fuck. Me.

Dream on.

Physical attraction was one thing, and that was abso-fucking-lutely there in spades. What was killing him now was that he liked her more than he could possibly have imagined. When he’d been rubbing that crystal in his fingers, he’d lied to her. More to the goddamn point, he’d been lying to himself. He had felt something, and not just the stirring of his brainless dick. Whatever that something was, he needed to run from it.

“I have to get to the office. I won’t be back until dinner.” He started past her, feeling the warmth radiating from the bare skin of her perfectly smooth arm and shoulder. “There’s a house key for you on the kitchen table. I’ll write down my cell phone number for you. Send me a text so I have yours.”

He practically ran down the hall to his bedroom. Tiger led the way, his tail whipping back and forth. Just before escaping to the solace of his bedroom, he glanced over his shoulder, then stormed inside and slammed the door behind him. Groaning, he leaned back against the door and squeezed his eyes shut.

The look of confusion in her eyes had his gut clenching to the point of pain. He’d been a cold-as-ice dick to her, and without any explanation whatsoever, but it had been necessary. Distance. Total separation—miles of it—was the only cure to what ailed him. Whatever was happening between them couldn’t, because all it took was being in the same room with her, and his common sense went completely to shit.

The air would turn electric, charging with a kaleidoscope of colorful energy that threatened to drive him insane if he didn’t act on his impulses. The only things keeping him in check were the warning flags interwoven between all those colors, driving him away with the force of a tornado.

Because I don’t do commitment.

Yet, here they were. Living in the same house.

He pushed from the door and sat heavily on the bed. No matter his adolescent urges, he needed to keep his mind sharp, and clear of personal baggage, so it stayed on track for the controlled delivery tomorrow.