Page 16 of Breaking Conviction
Is this jackass really gonna try to use my daughter to flirt with me when he knows good and well I just got off the phone with another man?
It was official. All men are pigs.
Naomi rolled her eyes again with a sigh and gave him her most unimpressed look as she answered. “Sorry. I checked. She doesn’t want to speak with you. She doesn’t have time for BS.” Then, for good measure, she tilted her head and twisted her mouth. “Can I take a message?”
Wes’s brow furrowed and he shoved his hand into his pocket. “Can you just let her know I’ve been thinking about her and that I hope she’s doing okay? I’ve been worried, but I didn’t want to overstep.”
Naomi’s breath hitched and she hung up the store’s phone, as if it would cut off the very real conversation that was happening in person. How could he make her feel more with just one question than Dean had the entire time they’d been together? When was the last time Dean askedanythingabout her well-being? Likereallyasked her without being an ass about it? Let alone cared?
Wes was dangerous. If she didn’t get ahead of her feelings, he was liable to ruin what she had. It wasn’t the best relationship, sure, but she’d promised herself to try again with the father of her child. Thea deserved both parents in her life.
A sliver of doubt snuck into her mind, threatening her with the nightmares she’d had ever since Dean had looked her straight in the eyes as he choked her. In her dreams, a demon took over, ready to suck the life out of her and steal her soul.
She shook her head, reminding herself once again of her goal. It’d be the performance of a lifetime, but if ‘fake it ‘til she made it’ benefited Thea, then the least she could do was try one last time. She’d taken Jules’s advice, defined her line, and written it in stone. Her nightmares would never come to life. She wouldn’t let reality get to that point again. This time, if he so much as raised his hand to her, she’d be out, utilizing everything Sasha Saves had to offer.
Phone back in his pocket, Wes stepped forward and placed his hands wide on the opposite side of the counter. He wasn’t leaning over her, at least not crowding her in the way Dean did, but her skin tingled at Wes’s nearness as she imagined his body caging her in.
She wondered if it would feel like freedom.
“No.” The word whispered out of her, as she tried to deny the vision in her head.
She crossed her arms and tried to step farther away until a hanger poked her back, making her jump. This man was a threat to life as she knew it. She didn’t know how to feel about that.
“No, what?” Wes asked, his icy blue eyes freezing her into place.
“Nothing.” She gave him a pointed look. “You’re a troublemaker, Snake, you know that? What’re you doin’ here, anyhow?”
“Troublemaker, huh?” There was a twinkle in his eye that made her stomach flip. “I kinda like that. But please, call me Wes.”
“I think I’ll stick with Snake. Or Trouble. Both are fitting.”
He sucked his teeth before pointing below the counter. “Well, to answer your question: I came to check the security again. Apparently it’s been acting up.”
“Well, why don’t you go do that then?”
He lifted a shoulder with a snort and dipped his head toward whatever he’d been tinkering on behind the counter. “Already did. Seems Nora didn’t think to just press a damn button.”
Naomi walked around to join him behind the counter and looked down at a black box. The light that had been annoyingly flashing red earlier was now a constant green glow.
She straightened again and tightened her crossed arms. “Fine, does that mean you’re done? I’m obviously very busy.” Realizing too late how empty the store was, she instead grabbed a random piece of paper to wave at him and tried to ignore the lilt in her voice. “So I’d like it if we both went on about our business. Nora just left to run a quick errand, leaving me all by myself on my first day and I have inventory I need to set out. So go on and do whatever you need to do and I’ll do the same.”
Snatching the closest pen, she tapped it against her lips as she studied the prop piece of paper, hoping he’d just go away. But she couldn’t get her mind off how her body thrummed under his gaze, how close he was, how his body trembled with desire just like hers did… until she realized his body wasn’t trembling at all. It was shaking with laughter.
She tossed the pen to the counter with a growl and threw up her hand. “What?”
His smile made her belly flip. Good Lord, she was being so rude to him and he was taking everything she threw at him. Why was he even putting up with her shit?
“It’s just—” He muffled another chuckle with his hand.
“What, Snake? What on God’s green earth is so damn funny?”
His face sobered slightly and his eyes heated. His voice dropped low, and desire made her panties damp as he took a step toward her. “It’s Wes.”
Each inch closer to her made her chest tighten until she was afraid she was going to pass out. His smile widened as he got closer and reached for—
—the piece of paper?
He snatched it from under the pen and waved it back at her. “It seems you happen to be ‘very busy’... with the back of a flyer.” He placed the flyer right-side-up on the counter, proving his point.
