My dick finally starts listening to the part of my brain reminding us both how dangerous dating high-powered women is.
Maybe just women in general.
One kiss and a few kind gestures don’t make her any less dangerous to the heart I’m never offering on a chopping block again.
By the time Lucky’s left after dinner, I feel like I have a hangover from the effort it’s taking to fight my attraction to this woman.
The attraction that’s one-sided.
Or if it’s not, it’s on a different page. Singing a different tune.
Definitely not a compatible attraction.
Margot orders me to let her do the dishes since I cooked.
I should go out to the garage just to not be near her, but instead, I linger in the doorway, watching her be domestic.
Lying to myself.
Telling myself that I’m fully back in the game of looking for holes in her story so I can tell Decker what she’s up to before she decides to share herself.
“Something on your mind?” she asks as she scrubs the glass dish that I baked the chicken in.
Entirely too much, in fact. “You do dishes at home too?”
“Yes.”
“Always?”
“If I cook, I clean.”
“You cook?”
She glances over her shoulder at me.
The curl in her hair has tamed this evening, but the dark dye job and the glasses are an oddly effective cover still.
“I’m a human, not a robot,” she says, parroting what she told me outside. “What have you been doing since you left your last job?”
“This and that. It struck me—if you’re here pretending to be someone you’re not, your parents don’t know about the triplets either, do they?”
Her spine stiffens.
It’s subtle enough that I wonder if I’ve imagined it until she looks over at me again.
The blue of the cabinets behind her makes her eyes brighter and prettier. “I don’t like to ruin people—I much prefer to build them up—but I will do what’s necessary to protect the people in my life, and yes, that includes my half brothers. My father would make their lives hell if he knew they exist.”
I shift in the doorway, crossing my arms while she goes back to the dishes. “Why haven’t you told him?”
“I’m sure you can imagine a thousand different scenarios, and whichever you want to settle on for your peace of mind is fine with me.”
“Are we playing poker here? You trying to bluff me?”
“Iwilltell the triplets the truth when it’s time. And then they get to decide what to do with that information. But that time isnot yet.”
Yes, I’m poking her.
But it’s for a good cause.
