Page 12 of Make Me Stay

This time, I gave him a once-over and lingered at his very hard cock before meeting his gaze with a smile. “Good luck at the Durham and Burnette house.”

“Be ready at two.”

My smile faded.“What’s at two?”

“We’ll try out that desk.” He whistled as he sauntered out the door.

“Oh, boy.” I collapsed back in my chair.

What had I done?

Chapter5

Kai

“What is up with you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re putting that plate in upside down.”

I focused on the outlet I was installing and swore. “Sorry, distracted.” I pulled it out and checked to make sure I hadn’t grounded it wrong. All I needed was for Sully to come in and double check and see such a stupid mistake. But at least that part wasn’t wrong.

“Got something going on?”

I’m going to go rail your sister on our lunch break.

“Nah, just didn’t get much sleep last night.” I slipped off the screw and scraped the freshly painted wall.For fuck’s sake. Maybe I should bail on the whole idea. But those big midnight eyes giving me the challenge had ignited something in me I hadn’t felt in a long ass time. I never lacked female attention, but there was something about Lexi that had always tugged at me.

The first time it happened was at her graduation party, I’d shown up with Wyatt to raid the food before we escaped to the lake for day drinking on our buddy’s boat. Being a poor twenty-one-year-old, I had no business noticing her in the first place. Beyond the fact that she was Wyatt’s little sister, she was freshly eighteen.

I’d checked myself, but not before giving her curvy body a once-over.

Pissed at myself, I’d tried to forget her.

It was much easier to do when I had Indigo Valley in my rearview mirror. It had been five years since I’d seen her and instead of killing the need, now it was a firestorm in my blood. All because she’d given me the green light.

I finished sanding out my mistake and repainted the wall.

Mrs. Durham had been a quick pitstop and the Burnetts’ remodel would take another day. We’d mudded the new drywall and needed to let it dry overnight then we’d be back to finish up their add-on with the new windows that had come in.

At least I had an excuse to go back to the warehouse. And I knew Wyatt had to go across town for a dentist appointment. The fact that I was using that window to see Lexi made my gut roil. Wyatt was protective of her, and I was not worthy in the least.

But it didn’t really matter—she only wanted me for one thing.

I rubbed my chest with my fist. The need was a messy mix of guilt and something else that didn’t make sense. I was the king of no-strings relationships. The fact that Lexi saw that in me should make this easier.

I shook off the annoyance and wrapped my brushes for use the next day. We tarped our gear. After lunch, we’d have to do more framing out, which meant sweaty work out in the back.

After I got sweaty with Lex.

God, I was a bastard.

Wyatt seemed just as distracted. He kept checking his phone, then scraping his fingers through his paint-splattered hair.

“You good, man?”

Wyatt glanced at me as he climbed into his truck. “Yeah.” He tapped his fingers on his wheel, and I knew something was stewing.

---