Page 58 of Shadow Dance

I pull back, looking at her. “I am loyal to you.”

She palms my cheek, rubbing her thumb over my stubble. “You promise?”

I know better than to promise her anything when she doesn’t even know who I really am. And yet, I find myself nodding, pulled into the turbulent sea of her stormy eyes. “I promise.”

“I knowhe got these for security, but I always feel like he’s watching me,” Maeve says, glancing at the camera in the corner of the kitchen. “Guess it’s like my grandmother says, ‘suspicion haunts the guilty mind.’”

Chuckling, I join her at the counter and open the security app Callum had me download when I took over surveillance for his property. “Let me show you something.” Navigating to the kitchen feed, I click around and turn the phone toward her. “What do you see?”

She looks down at it, curiosity and then confusion clouding her features as she watches herself move around the kitchen—alone. I’m nowhere in sight. “It’s me, but … this was the other night, right?”

I nod. “This is what he would see if he logged on right now.”

Her eyes flash to mine. “How?”

“I have my ways,” I say. “It’s easy to manipulate stuff like this.”

She shakes her head, incredulous. “You can do this to any of the cameras?”

“I can, and I have.” I slide my hand around her hip and pull her closer. “We wouldn’t want him seeing you running out of the guest house in a bikini. At night. When we were the only ones home.”

The apples of her cheeks flush, and she ducks her head. “That was really stupid of me. God, I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“I put the patio’s feed on a loop, so it never shows anything,” I assure her.

“I guess I really can trust you, then,” she says, resting her head on my chest.

I chuckle darkly. “I better be able to trust you, too, because if Cal knew I was fucking around with his cameras, he’d do bad things to me.”

“Fucking around with his girl, too,” she says, looking at my mouth.

“Are you?” Pressing her against the counter, I kiss her long and hard. “His girl?”

“No,” she whispers, looping her hands around my neck. “Not anymore.”

I sweep my tongue into her mouth, claiming her without words. Her breath hitches, but she melts into the kiss, her fingers tangling in my hair. There’s a desperate edge to our embrace, an understanding that we both crave more than just this.

My hands roam her curves, caressing her hips and sliding up to cup her breasts through the thin fabric of her top. She arches into my touch, a soft moan escaping her lips as I rub my thumbs over her nipples. The heat between us builds and builds, our kisses getting deep and horny and sloppy like we’re gonna do something about it when I know we can’t.

Breaking away, I trail my mouth along her jaw and down the graceful column of her neck. She tilts her head back, giving me better access as I suck her sensitive skin, careful not to mark her. I want more, so much more, but it’s just too risky.

I pull back, trying to calm the frenzy inside. “We should probably chill out.”

“Yeah.” She opens her eyes, giving me a small nod. “We should.”

“Give me something to do.”

Biting back a smile, she directs me to a bowl of potatoes. “Can you peel these?”

“You’re a good cook,”I say as I finish my second helping of roasted chicken and garlic mashed potatoes.

“I’m all right,” she says with a grin. “I enjoy it when I’m in the mood.”

“Me too. My mom worked a lot, so I learned to cook pretty young.”

“What’s your favorite thing to make?” she asks.

“Mm, good question.” I take a sip of water, thinking about it. “Probably mofongo. My grandma taught me that one.”

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