She shrugged and tried to step back. He wouldn’t let her. “I’m not worried.”
“No?”
“No. I just don’t like the idea of sloppy seconds. You know how it is. Why was your office door locked?” she said before she could stop herself. Damn third beer.
“Was it? I didn’t realize.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“I wasn’t fucking her over my desk, if that’s what you’re asking me.”
That’s exactly what she was asking. There was always the wall, or the floor. The thought disappeared when he brushed his thumb across her jaw. She couldn’t read the look on his face as he studied her, but it turned her insides to mush. Then he kissed her again, a light touch that still managed to make her toes curl. “Candice is an acquaintance. Her brother is a friend of mine. It wasn’t a date. She just showed up, at a loose end. I’ve never slept with her, and I don’t plan to.”
She opened her mouth, then shut it again, jaw flapping like a dying fish.
He grinned. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Alex.”
She hated the relief that washed over her at his words. She also hated that when he left, she wished he’d come back.
Chapter Three
Getting out of bed would be a colossal mistake. Alex knew what was coming, what the day would bring, and was powerless to stop it. Kind of like being tied to the tracks in one of those old black-and-white movies and watching a freight train come barreling toward you full speed. “Helpless” was the word that came to mind. Fucking helpless.
She hadn’t felt like that since her folks died, since she’d been shuttled from one foster home to the next. The funny thing was, it had been Deacon who’d made her believe she wasn’t nothing, that if she vanished into thin air, someone would actually give a crap.
God, she’d needed that.
She’d had no one. No parents. No one who cared, except for Rusty and Piper. She’d spent all her time at her friends’ house. It had been one of those weekends while she was staying with the Wests that things had changed.
Because of her situation, some of the boys had seen her as easy prey. Deacon had found her with one of them behind the garage. He’d had her pinned to the wall. The weasel had kissed her, tried to cop a feel. One minute she’d been trying to fight him off, the next he was gone, laid out flat by a pissed-off Deacon.
After he’d scared the guy away, he’d slung an arm around her shoulders, pulled her in for a hug, and asked if she was okay. He’d been furious, had taken care of her. She’d already been half in love with him by then. But after that, she’d been toast.
Over the next few years, he’d been there for her, had looked out for her—until he went away to college. Then it was like he’d disappeared off the face of the earth. God, how she’d missed him.
Not long after that, he’d gotten himself a preppy business-school girlfriend. Emily had perky tits and a smile to match, and Alex had been forced to suffer every time he came back home, Miss Perky at his side, stuck to him like shit to a blanket.
When she’d turned eighteen and was old enough to leave the foster-care system, Jacob West had invited her to move in with them. She’d been living there a few months when Deke had come home for the summer. She’d been secretly dreading it. Watching him make out with his girlfriend hadn’t been one of her favorite pastimes. But when he’d arrived, he’d been alone. He and Emily had broken up. She’d had no idea what had happened between them, and she hadn’t cared. All she’d cared about was that she had him back. It’d been like old times.
She’d been so happy that summer.
Then one night, when she’d gone to grab a drink, she’d found Deke in the kitchen. For the first time in her life, he didn’t look at her like his sisters’ best friend. There’d been a whole lot of heat in that intense stare and—she’d convinced herself—so much more.
The memory came rushing back unbidden.
“Shit, Alex. Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted to kiss you?”
Her heart hammered behind her ribs. “You have?”
He grabbed her hips and pulled her in flush against him, brushed his thumb over her bottom lip. “I need to know what you taste like.” His fingers flexed on her waist, and she could feel his erection against her stomach. “Can I?”
He’d kissed her. It’d been long and sweet and full of desperate need, and then without a word he’d taken her hand and led her to his room. Convinced that she was part of this amazing family, that Deacon loved her and when he finished college they’d get married and Piper and Rusty would be her sisters for real, she’d followed blindly.