On the Steamy Side - Louisa Edwards [47]
“Fair enough.”
Lilah breathed out a sigh of relief, oddly tinged with disappointment she didn’t want to analyze. “So you’ll respect my wishes?”
“Oh, I respect you,” Devon said, one corner of his mouth kicking up in a way that sent shivers cascading down Lilah’s spine.
He leaned closer. His voice was pure, unadulterated wickedness breathed into her ear. “But just so we’re clear? I have every intention of doing my damnedest to seduce you, charm you, and woo you until all you want is to be under me again. In the shower, in my bed, on my kitchen floor—I’m not through with you yet, Lilah Jane. And I don’t think you’re through with me, either. Not by a long shot.”
They stared at each other for a long moment until a discreet knock at the restaurant’s locked door startled Devon out of it.
“The car’s here,” he told her. “Can you get Tucker?”
Paolo opened the rear passenger door and came forward to help Lilah negotiate the sleeping child into the car while Devon locked the restaurant behind them.
Jingling the keys in his pocket, Devon stood on the restaurant steps, reluctant to turn around. What if he’d scared her off? What if he’d pushed too hard and she was even now handing Tucker over to Paolo and walking away?
Man up, Devon.
The surge of happiness and relief he felt when he turned to find her already situated in the car, his sleeping son’s head in her lap, compelled Devon to confront the fact that he was already counting on Lilah’s presence too much. And for too many reasons.
Yes, he wanted her, and while the scope of that desire was unexpected, the physical desire itself was familiar and un-threatening. Devon had wanted—and gotten—many women before Lilah, and he was sure there’d be many after her.
What troubled him as he approached the sleek, black car was the extent to which his heart warmed and swelled at the sight of Lilah Jane cradling Tucker’s small body against hers.
They looked safe and happy together, a pretty picture by anyone’s standards, and Devon almost couldn’t bear to get in the car with them and spoil it.
His presence, he felt obscurely, would taint the picture somehow.
And that’s when he realized that as much as Tucker might hate and fear his father, Devon was just as scared of his own kid.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The interior of the car smelled just as she remembered it from the night before, like leather and money. The backseat was roomier than it seemed like it should be for anything other than a minivan; there was room for Tucker to curl up next to Lilah and snuffle back into sleep.
Beside her, Devon radiated heat. Lilah tried not to squirm. His thigh wasn’t actually touching hers, she knew. The bench seat was wide enough that there was ample room for everyone. Still, every hair on her body seemed to stand at attention.
Devon wanted her. For more than a single night. He wanted her enough to risk having her walk out on him and leave him alone with his son—an eventuality Devon was clearly keen to avoid.
Too keen.
Keeping her voice low and even, Lilah broke the silence gripping the car. “Not that I mind carrying Tucker, technically it’s probably in the job description, but is there a reason you didn’t want to? Because the way you keep him at arm’s length is starting to make me feel like a wet hen. As in ‘madder than a.’ ”
A muscle ticced in Devon’s chiseled jaw. It was the only sign he gave that he’d even heard her, and if she hadn’t been watching for it she’d have missed it.
Lilah wondered if she were truly prepared to be fired twice in one night. A soft sigh from Tucker as the dead weight of his head put her leg to sleep helped make up her mind.
“I swear. If it weren’t for the fact that I know deep down you want your son to stay with you, I’d have headed for the subway and taken Tucker to Grant’s apartment, boss man.”
Devon snorted at that. “Sure. My deep-down, carefully masked goodness—and the fact that you have no desire to be arrested for kidnapping.