Why…was he so good to them…? Because it wasn’t just Skya… The man cooked for him, he always asked how he was doing, he’d listened… Severo seemed to go out of his way to do things that the man knew would make Seri happy… He seemed to…
Seri licked his suddenly dry lips.
Stop it, Seri, he told himself. Severo was a friend, that was all. That’s all it could be. And that is what the man said he wanted. So Seri couldn’t go there. He wouldn’t even let the thoughts develop further, because after all this was said and done…they’d go their separate ways. Seri could tell now…that it was going to hurt walking away from him, even if he didn’t let himself dream of things he shouldn’t. Likely, he was just mistaken in his feelings anyway.
Someone treating him nicely didn’t mean anything. Besides…he had nothing to offer. A single father, no job, no money, with a psychotic stalker out somewhere waiting to find him. Severo was better off staying far, far away.
“Come play with us on the slide!” Severo yelled with a laugh as he got off the swing and pulled Skya out of his coat.
“Ah, Dah-Dah!” Skya giggled.
Pushing his thoughts far away, he got up with a happy sigh and met the two at the slide.
“Bottle time!” Severo announced happily, spinning with the bottle in his hand to show Skya. When a yawn forced its way out, he added, “And then maybe a nap.”
The baby let out a happy high-pitched squeal. Waving her little arms, she reached out. Just as he was about to hand it over, there was the sound of a small burst, followed by the fire alarms going off.
“What the fuck?!” he gasped. Scooping Skya out of the high chair, he ran into the hallway in time to see Seri rushing out of his room coughing. The man quickly slammed the door closed on a smoke-filled room.
“What did you do?!” he yelled.
“Turn the alarm off! Everything is fine!” Seri rasped, coughing a few more times. “Minor chemical mishap. It’s fine. The smoke will clear out on its own. I set the ventilation to filter. It’s not toxic. It’s just best to not breathe it in…uh…there’s no fire…”
“Everything is not fine! There is smoke—that is the opposite of fine.”
“I was startled by Skya’s squeal and just added too much solvent, which caused an unwanted chemical reaction.”
Severo stared.
“It’s fine,” Seri said firmly.
“Fuck!” Skya squealed.
The Nymph’s jaw dropped.
“Oh…” Severo winced. “I…”
“You…” Seri growled.
A shiver went down his spine, right to his libido, his cock twitching at the growled word. Which was wrong in so many ways. He really needed to get his shit together.Seri looking at me like he’s about to strangle me should not be a turn on, he told himself.
“Fuck!” Skya giggled again.
“YOU!”
“Oh shit!” Severo ran for his life, Skya giggling as if nothing was happening.
Seri cleared his throat,and held out the ice pack to Severo. “I’m sorry. You can stop using my daughter as a shield. I'm not going to hit you again…”
The man glanced up at him, brow raised. Severo was currently sitting on the couch, clutching Skya to his chest. “You didn’t hit me that hard. I don’t think I even have a mark…”
“I shouldn’t have hit you at all…” Seri plopped down next to him and covered his face with his hands, murmuring, “I shouldn’t have used violence at all… Maybe I got used to lashing out at Preston… I don’t want to be like that.”
“Seri, you had every reason to lash out at Preston. The man was holding you captive. You threw a plastic bowl at me. Which wouldn’t have been in range to be thrown if I had put it away after washing it this morning. But you didn’t throw it very hard, even if your aim was dead on. No big deal. I’m not hurt.”
“I could have hit Skya…”
“You didn’t. Was that the best response? No. But you can work on it. There is time. Maybe you did get used to reacting without thinking much. It’s not really your fault. You were in a stressful, highly volatile situation. Don’t like what you did this morning? Then make sure you don’t do it again.”
