Page 34 of Hero Next Door
Boyfriend? To threaten him?
Was I hallucinating? Why didn’t any of this make sense?
Then, a split second later, Gordon was gone, flying through the air and crashing into the door, and Dev was standing in front of me, his back to me and his body shielding me from the man I’d once called boyfriend.
“Get out,” Dev growled.
Gordon looked up at him, looking like he was on the verge of arguing, and Dev took a menacing step forward.
“I catch you around here again, I’m not going to bother to give you a warning. You got me?” he asked coldly. “I said get out, and I mean now. Not later.”
He must have looked like he was actually ready to kill Gordon, because Dear Old Gordy didn’t hesitate. He jumped up, gathered himself, and dashed quickly through the door, tripping on the hole in the porch on the way out. Seconds later, I heard the growl of his bike and then skidding tires on the dirt as he left as quickly as he could.
I watched the door, my brain trying desperately to catch up with my body, which was filled with adrenaline and ready to run screaming up the stairs. Dev turned to me before I could do anything like that and looked at me with such tenderness that I almost melted on the spot. He brought a hand up to my cheek and ran his fingertips across my skin, and I leaned into the touch.
I couldn’t help it. I’d just seen a man I never wanted to see again and remembered things I thought I’d locked in a box deep in my subconscious. The touch of someone who wasn’t going to hurt me, someone who actually cared about me, felt like the most wonderful thing in the world.
“Are you okay?” he asked quietly.
I shook myself, trying to regain control of whatever self-discipline I’d once had. “I’m okay,” I said, though my voice was shaky and hoarse. “Just...surprised.”
He huffed out a gentle laugh at the understatement, and his hand grew firmer on my cheek. I looked up at him, my gaze still sort of hazy with shock, and realized that he was looking at me with more affection and tenderness than anyone had ever directed at me before. He was looking at me like...
His gaze flitted to my lips and then back to my eyes, and before I knew what was going on he was leaning down and brushing his lips across mine, the action so simple and light that I thought I might be dreaming it at first.
Then he threaded his hands through my hair and deepened the kiss. Bolts of lightning shot through me, and I knew I wasn’t dreaming this at all.
I wasn’t dreaming any of it. This was actually happening, and all the sparks I’d noticed between the two of us had been real.
He pulled back and stared at me, his eyes searching mine for... what? What was he looking for? What was he asking me right now? My blood was singing in my veins and my breath was coming short, my body lit up like I’d never felt before, and I was starting to understand what people meant when they said they were in love.
But he was looking at me like he was trying to find a reason for what had just happened. A reason beyond the tension that had been building between us since the moment we met again.
I opened my mouth to ask what he was looking for... and he spun away and left, the door closing sharply behind him and his truck peeling out of the driveway moments later.
CHAPTER19
Parker
Ididn’t eat dinner. I also didn’t throw anything out. I went through the kitchen to make sure the stove was off and anything that needed refrigerated was, in fact, in the refrigerator.
Then I went upstairs and went directly to bed. Though I turned off my phone first, just to keep myself from calling anyone.
Like Dev.
Who had just kissed me and then turned around and walked out of the house without so much as an ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’
* * *
I woke up remembering everything that had happened to me, and feeling it all the way down to my bones. I’d dreamt about Gordon’s hands around my throat and his face shoved close to mine, his gravelly voice telling me to keep my boyfriend away from him.
And my body had spent much of the night remembering Dev’s reaction. His strength as he threw Gordon away from me, and the tenderness in his fingers as he caressed my cheek. The deep light in his eyes when he bent down to kiss me.
The sparks at that touch. The feel of floating and sinking into something at the same time. And the realization that this was what people meant when they said they were falling in love.
I woke up, however, knowing that he hadn’t stuck around after that to discuss it with me. Instead, he’d turned and walked out like he’d just made the biggest mistake of his life.
I kept my heart very carefully quiet as I got up, had a shower, and then went downstairs to make some breakfast. I didn’t look at my feelings while I cooked, and I drank far too much hot chocolate to keep myself busy. Instead of thinking about Dev, I wrote out a schedule for the day, trying to remember what contractors were supposed to be here and what I could in the house on my own
