Page 24 of Dirty Grovel

Every sound that carries over to me sparkles with her laugh.

She’s avoided me diligently the whole time.

Which is fair, considering I might be doing a little avoidance of my own.

I can’t afford to make the same mistake again. Even if she didn’t conspire with her ex to bring me down, her connection to him and Paul Lipovsky is still troubling.

She’s a little too close to a few too many people who might be working for my enemies.

Then there’s the question of paternity.

Who is the father of her baby?

If it turns out to be me, then that will, once again, change the nature of my relationship with Sutton. I will have to tolerate her presence in my life, no matter how inconvenient I might find it.

On the upside—I’ll finally have an heir and a reason to put my uncle out of power once and for all.

I’m contemplating that very thing as I walk through the gardens, hunting for a little solitude and clarity.

But as usual, I catch her voice instead. Then a peal of laughter that echoes through the trees.

Like a moth drawn to the light of a flame, I find myself following the sound instead of sprinting away from it.

So much for solitude and clarity.

Sutton’s laughter is coming from Jesse’s cottage. It sits on the mansion’s perimeter, in the middle of the gardens so that she and Teo would be comfortable and have a little privacy at the same time.

As I approach the picket fence that cordons off the cottage from the rest of the property, I’m hit in the face by a smattering of…

… pink bubbles?

What the hell?

“Oops, we got the wrong target, Teo!” Sutton cries, walking out from behind the cottage with a bubble gun in hand.

She descends into giggles as Teo races forward with a bubble contraption of his own, launching a full-scale attack on me.

Bubbles cloud my vision, their soapy scent clinging to the air as they swirl around my head.

“See?” Teo says excitedly. “You have to press down hard. Then you get more bubbles.”

Sutton moves towards the fence and aims her bubble gun at me. “You don’t say…”

I raise my eyebrows. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Her face splits into a mischievous grin. Then she pulls the trigger, sending a firestorm of bubbles hurtling towards me.

“Yes!” Teo cries, more boy than toddler now. “That’s it! You did it.”

“It’s bad manners to attack an unarmed man,” I point out, tousling Teo’s hair. He giggles before placing his bubble gun on the floor.

“That’s true,” Sutton acknowledges. “How about I get you a weapon of your own? You can join us.”

The “yes” is on the tip of my tongue before I stop myself just in time.

Isn’t this exactly what I’m trying to avoid? I need to establish boundaries between myself and Sutton. I need to keep my distance.

I can’t let myself be lured in, seduced by her eyes, her smile, her body, her charm.

---