Page 69 of Deacon

He gets up, belt still hanging open. “I think I need a smoke.”

Sex like that has me considering acquiring a few vices too. I lean against the wall, arms crossed over my chest. He takes a bent cigarette out of his pants pocket, puts it straight, and lights up. There’s a long silence before he exhales and gives me a stare that makes my stomach flutter.

“I don’t want to go, but I got to,” he says.

“Where are you going?” I ask softly.

“To see your stepfather.”

All the butterflies in my belly go cold and die out. “Why’re you talking to Aiden?”

He sighs. “I haven’t really brought it up, but I think we got a land dispute coming down the pipes and heading straight for us.”

I wrack my mind. Is this the reason Bittern’s been out surveying the land? Is there some kind of property line issue with the farm?

“Why?” I say.

He studies me for a second. Then, he takes a drag.

“Nothing you need to worry about. I got it handled,” he says. “But given that I’m being summoned to some kind of mediation with him and I got to have my lawyer there, I’d say it’s good he doesn’t know I’m coming in his stepdaughter on the regular.”

“Deacon,” I gasp.

He gives me that halfway grin. “What? Like it isn’t true.”

I narrow my eyes. “What does summoned mean in this context?”

“It means I got a letter from his fuckass lawyer with a date I have to show up,” he says, like it doesn’t matter much to him.

“When is that?”

He flips his hand, showing his worn leather watch. “About forty minutes from now.”

It scares me that he’s talking to Aiden. He doesn’t know my family, and I don’t want him to. Arms still around my body, I turn and walk up the alley and go inside. It takes a second, but he comes in through the back door.

“What’s the matter, sweetheart?” he says.

I turn, chewing my lip. “Aiden’s not…nice. You shouldn’t be talking to him.”

“I know he’s not nice,” he says. “We’re talking legal shit, not trying to be friends. What’s really wrong?”

I go behind the cash register and start counting out the money for the night. He thinks I’m ignoring him, I know, but I just need a second to figure out what I feel. He leans on the countertop, his eyes searing the top of my head.

“Come on, talk to me,” he says, voice low.

“I just…I’ve never known Aiden to go up against somebody and lose,” I say.

I stack the ones in a pile next to the fives. I wish he wasn’t so damn charming. It might make staying away easier. The last thing I need is to get tangled up with a man Aiden’s got it out for.

“Hey, hey, sweetheart, look at me.” His voice is all gentle and rumbly, and it’s making it hard to keep a wall up.

Reluctantly, I obey, looking right into those dark eyes, a crease through his forehead. It occurs to me that if anybody can take on Aiden, it’s probably Deacon. He’s got an inch or two on him, and he’s broader in the shoulders.

“Don’t you worry about me,” he says.

I stare at him, gears turning in my head.

Maybe the reason my mother married Aiden was because he had some muscle on her drunk of a father. There’s a practicality in getting with a man who, no matter his character, can punch an asshole in the jaw, especially if there’s an asshole around who needs it.

---