Page 45 of At First Flight
He fastens the belt with an audible click, his knuckles grazing my ribs, the heat of his skin seeping through cotton and reason. My breath hitches. Not enough to be obvious, but just enough for me to know this isn’t just him being polite.
It’s him noticing me. All of me.
And dammit, I notice him, too.
His face is inches from mine now, his mouth just a tilt away. Those piercing eyes flick to mine, and for a second,just a beat, it feels like the rest of the world fades away. Like he could kiss me right here in this quiet pocket of space between hesitation and temptation, and I wouldn’t stop him. I’m supposed to be professional. Steady. A woman in control. But every time he touches me, every time he looks at me like that, that carefully built wall of resolve starts to wobble, brick by shaky brick.
Dean doesn’t say a word as he slowly pulls back, his hand lingering for a second longer than necessary on the curve of my shoulder before he closes the door with a soft click. And I’m left there, heart thundering, pulse a slow and steady ache in places I swore I’d locked down.
In a moment, he’s behind the wheel, flashing that smirk of his that I was beginning to grow extremely fond of as he starts the SUV. The grin was dangerous, but when he unleashes a full smile, I squirm in my seat as I realize how full-on hazardous the man is to my health.
Everything about Dean shouts at me to throw caution to the wind and give in to temptation.
I’m just not sure if I’m willing to take another risk.
Chapter Ten – Dean
The drive back to my house is quiet. Even the kids are so tuckered out they’re not asking for endless baths or stories like usual. Lila stares out the window as the sky shifts from oranges and reds to navy. From the corner of my eye, I take her in, the way she sighs every so often, and how a small lock of hair keeps tickling her beneath her chin, and she tries to brush it away.
I was so close to kissing her when we left her family’s home. Not just because I want to press my lips against hers more than my last breath but because she allowed me to be a part of something so sacred. Despite the less-than-warm welcome from her brothers, her mother, father, and sister took me in immediately. Her brothers eventually warmed up.
God, does she know how lucky she has it?
“Eyes on the road, Mr. Harrington,” she demands with an edge of teasing as she catches me glancing at her. Apparently, I’m not as discreet as I think.
“Sorry.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course,” I say, while internally I’m bracing myself for whatever flaw Lila will point out. With my own family, that’s what I’m used to.
“Earlier, you thanked me for sharing my family with you. What…um…did you mean by that?”
Shrugging, I twist my hands on the steering wheel, the leather easing some of the ache in my fingers as I clench unknowingly.
“It’s not worth reading too much into, Lila. I was simply thanking you for letting me be a part of your family tonight. Once we arrived, you could have told me to turn around, but you didn’t.”
“It was just dinner, and you’re the one who set it up.”
“Yeah, but it still breaks that boss/employee category we find ourselves in.” Lila mumbles something under her breath, so I continue. “Before you, the only glimpse I had at seeing a semi-normal family was with my friend, Talon. And even his family is considerably fucked up by societal standards, except for his grandma GiGi. But when he married Rory, I got to see how a family could be. Her family is large like yours, and they have dysfunctional moments like we all do, but there is a lot of love there, too. The first time I met them, I knew that was what I wanted out of life. It was everything I never had.”
“Dean,” she says, reaching out to rest her hand on my arm. The warmth of her palm immediately soothes my racing pulse. It’s not often I open up to people, but something about Lila has me telling her everything.
“It’s okay. I know what I’m missing out on, but that doesn’t mean I can’t hope for it for the future, especially for those two,” I add, my gaze flicking up to the rearview mirror to glance at the two kids barely able to keep their eyes open.
Soon, we’re back at the house, the porch lights shining on either side of the door like little beacons in the night. Off in the distance, the white, green, and red lights from boats and docks shimmer their reflections on the bay. Any sort of tension I carried with me after dinner instantly melts away.
Just as I’m getting out of the vehicle, I feel my phone buzzing in my pocket. Grabbing the device, I read the name flashing on the screen as my heart pounds. It’s the PI I havelooking into the Hoolihans. He’s doing me a favor after I invested in his daughter’s company. Not that I needed quid pro quo. She had a solid business plan, and her idea is already creating waves in the tech world. But I’m not too prideful to call in a favor when it’s needed.
“I need to take this,” I say to Lila. “Can you grab the kids?”
“Of course.”
I watch her lean into the car and undo the seat belt holding Evelyn in her seat. Oliver scrambles out of his and then rushes up the porch steps and into the house.
“Talk to me,” I say without a smidgen of a greeting.
“Well, hello to you, too,” Mike says as he chuckles like a man who’s smoked one too many packs of cigarettes in his life.
