Page 12 of Burning Truth

Severn watched the rear-view mirror for tails, but he saw nothing. Addie was a good driver, not too fast and not too slow. She drove intelligently, which he appreciated. Columbus drivers weren’t always the most polite or competent. She headed toward the west side, and when she finally pulled up in front of a small split level, he was pleasantly surprised. For some reason, he thought she’d be in an apartment or condo somewhere downtown, with a bunch of people around. It was dark, but the house looked well kept, with summer flowers swaying in the flower beds out front.

Unfortunately, there was zero security. The garage door rolled up, and she pulled inside. Grabbing his bag, he locked his truck in the driveway and slipped into the garage before she could close the overhead garage door. She looked surprised, then a little put off that he’d followed her in. Grabbing her items from the passenger seat, she bumped the car door shut with her hip, then padded in tennis shoes to the door leading into the kitchen. Severn watched as she pushed it open. It hadn’t even been locked.

They were going to have to talk about security.

“I, uh, guess you can take the guest room,” she said, glancing at him as he came into the kitchen behind her. “There are towels in the linen closet in the bathroom. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen. I’m going to go shower off and change.”

Severn didn’t mind that she’d been short with him. They were in an awkward situation, and she was being forced to accept a stranger in her home, in addition to everything else that was going on.

He listened as she headed upstairs, where he assumed the bedrooms were, then he started snooping. It was his nature to familiarize himself with the area he was in, and he did that thoroughly in her home. By the time he was done, he’d found her favorite place to sit on the couch, where she paid her bills and banked her money, and where she kept her treasured items. The only place he hadn’t explored was her bedroom, because she was in there.

Probably naked.

He shook his head, aggravated at himself. Yes, the woman was beautiful and kind and had a voice that made him think of sex, but he had a job to do.

Severn dropped his bag in the room next to hers. It had the spare bed in it. The third bedroom had been made into an office, and he took a moment to glance through the pics she had on her wall. There were several of Addie on a collage board with black ribbons strung across the surface diagonally. They all looked to be college pictures. There were a few old concert tickets. There was another collage board that seemed to be family. From what he could tell, she had two sisters and a brother, as well as parents that seemed to be still deeply in love. There was a large family portrait on one wall, and they were all making funny faces or doing something strange. One little boy had his glasseson upside down. It made him smile in response, and ache for something he’d never experienced before.

“What are you doing in here?”

Severn cringed a little at the angry voice. She’d managed to sneak up on him. Maybe hehadoverstepped his bounds. As soon as he turned, though, he lost track of what he was saying. Addie Kingston was a true beauty. It was one thing to see her dressed and made up on screen. Makeup could do wonders with the proper application. Without makeup, though... that was when you really could see the innate beauty of a woman.

Addie had the most beautiful skin he thought he’d ever seen on a woman. It was one thing he noticed about people, their skin, because his was so terrible anymore. Hers was smooth, incredibly pale and damned near flawless. Her nose was completely straight, tipping up slightly at the end. And her shining eyes looked huge in her freshly washed face. She reminded him of the storybook pictures of Snow White.

Right now, though, Snow White was more than a little angry. Her deep pink lips were pursed with annoyance.

“I was exploring. It’s what I do.”

“That doesn’t mean you can just do whatever you want to,” she snapped, crossing her arms over her ZZ Top t-shirt.

Heavy metal? Really?

“This has been a lot to take in, and I’m not used to people in my house, let alone in my private areas. And now you’re snooping through my stuff?”

Severn felt a twinge of remorse. She really had been through a lot recently, and no matter what her manager said, he thought there was danger around her. And she would know that. She would feel that, instinctively. “I apologize. I actually did need to know the specifics of your house, but I was caught by the pictures in here.”

Her delicate jaw was still clamped, her arms crossed protectively across her chest.

“It looks like you come from a large family,” he said, trying to draw her out.

“I do.”

“You’re very lucky,” he said, and he realized he meant it. Not everyone had that.

“I know I am,” she said, her voice softening just a little. “Did you find your room?”

“I did. Thank you.” He took a step toward her. “Addie, I know this is an awkward situation, and I’ll do my best to make it as painless as possible, but it won’t always be.”

“I know,” she sighed, looking down at her bare toes. Her hair fell forward, shielding her face, and he wanted to reach out and tuck the dark curls behind her ears. “It’s awkward as fuck,” she laughed.

Since he’d carried her and felt her lush form against his chest, he’d wanted to touch her more, to see if he responded the same way again. He had no business even thinking about getting involved with someone.

Involved. He never got ‘involved’. He had hookups to satisfy his base urges. And then they went their own way. Nobody would want to stay with him for any length of time.

The inclination to touch her was there, though, and he needed tonotwant to touch her. He was just about to turn away when she reached out and plucked at the shoulder of his shirt. “We should really look at this.”

“It’s fine,” he said, voice rough. He didn’t want her fingers on him if he could avoid it.

Her bright eyes flashed and she planted her hands on her hips. “If you’re going to be sitting on my furniture and moving around my house, the blood needs to be gone. Go shower and I’ll look at it when you come out.”

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