“Don't call yourself old,” she sniffles and then laughs. “It's creepy.”
My smile gets a little warmer and that panic flares again, but I push it down. What's the big deal? So I like this girl slightly more than usual. Oh well. Come hell or high water, when my brother gets back into town, I am done. Outtie. Back to Vegas and bye-bye Brooke.
“Come on. I'll take you upstairs.” I stand up and help her to her feet. When she stumbles in her heels and falls into my arms, I feel this warmth ride over me, this contentment, like this girl is supposed to be something more than usual. More than a mistake or a quick fuck or a friend.
But that's dumb. And I don't believe in fate and feelings and bullshit.
Eight days and this is done. Permanently.
I'm so exhausted from work and from … Zayden, that I forget that the kids have school. Around noon, I wake up in a panic and flip over in search of my phone.
Only to find Zayden's bare back instead.
He's laying next to me with no shirt, no pants, just a pair of black briefs, his legs tangled around a pillow, one arm above his head and the other thrown out across the rumpled surface of the bed. Like this, he looks innocent and peaceful.
Last night, he was anything but.
I wrap my arms around my body and suck in several deep breaths, realizing as I do that I'm wearing his shirt, the one that says I'd Pierce the Fuck Outta You. There's a questionable stain on the front of it that I pick at with my nail, my cheeks flushing with red heat. When I'd walked into that door a few short hours ago, I'd been determined I was going to tell the bastard no. But then he walked towards me in that dark living room, and I just wanted somebody to be on my side, to stand with me, look at me, hold me.
Ugh.
That was so stupid, but … kind of wonderful, too.
I blink away the sudden influx of memories. The kids. Shit.
School.
School!
I shake Zayden's shoulder and he groans.
“The kids have class,” I tell him as I climb out of bed and grab two handfuls of sheet, jerking them away from him. The motion's enough to jar him out of sleep for a second. He looks up at me and blinks slowly a couple of times before his mouth curves into a smile that makes me go weak in the knees.
Oh.
Or maybe I'm already weak in the knees. I feel sore and sated between my thighs, but the muscles feel stretched, tight, unused to that particular sort of stretch. I clutch the rumpled white sheets to my chest and squeeze my legs together tight.
“Zayden.”
He sits up and rubs at the shaved side of his head.
“What's up?” he mumbles as he looks up at me in the early morning sunshine, blinking away the fog in his brain. As soon as his eyes clear, I catch this weird glimpse flickering across his pale green irises. It looks a little something like fear, but he blinks once more and it's gone. “What's the emergency?”
“The kids have school,” I say as I search around for my phone. “I have school.”
“Hey, Smarty-Pants. Relax yourself, chickie.”
I raise my brows as I glance over my shoulder at him, realizing as his gaze drops that my ass is bare beneath the fabric of this t-shirt. Crap. I spin and tuck the sheets tighter around my body.
“I already took the kids to school,” he tells me as he tosses a pair of thumbs-up in my direction. “For the next seven days, you have got yourself the best damn nanny this side of the Mason-Dixon line, baby.”
I blow out a long breath and my hair flutters uselessly in front of my face. I keep searching for my phone and then pause as Zayden holds up his. I tiptoe forward to squint at the screen when I realize I've slept in my contacts on accident. Damn. I groan and rub at my eyes, realizing that the sticky, dry feeling is from more than just lack of sleep.
“If I don't hurry, I'll be late,” I say as I struggle into the bathroom with the wad of sheets trailing behind me. “There's no way I'm going to be late on my second week. It's not happening.” I let the white tangle of cloth fall to the floor and strip the shirt over my head before I realize that Zayden's followed me into the bathroom.
Before I can say a word about it, he's stepping up behind me, his hands coming around to cup both my breasts in firm, colorful grips. The sight of that … of his tattooed fingers curled around me like that, really does make my knees go weak. I almost collapse, but Zayden catches me, holding me up with an arm around the waist.
The feeling of his tight arm muscles pressed into my side makes me remember last night, how he held me up as I crumbled, using his strength to finish us both off before he let go. I make a little sound in my throat when he slides his thumbs across my nipples and purrs in my ear.