Page 45 of The Air You Breathe

“Uh—yeah she is amazing,” I said, adding some sugar to my tea thinking I would have loved to have been that smidge of jelly.

“While I cook, would you like to listen to an audiobook with me?” Dev asked, as he took out a food processor and a pot. “Wander Whitlock’s new book just came out on audio.”

“Oh, what’s it called?”

“Temptation,” he said, with his intense gaze that made me want to clench my thighs.

“Temptation sounds really good,” I said, noticing my voice growing a little husky.

“Yeah, it does,” He pulled out his phone, opening up the audiobook and hitting play.

My little angel didn’t know it, but she was mine and I didn’t care who I had to kill to make that happen.The narrator growled.

Maybe listening to a mafia audiobook was a bad idea.

* * *

“Dev,where the hell did you learn to cook like that?” I asked, after I finished washing the dishes. I walked to the sofa where Dev was sitting while on his phone. Almost sitting right next to him but decided that might be too much and sat by the other arm of the sofa. After hearing that audio book that went straight to sex, I felt like I needed a release.

“My brother's wife is an excellent cook. I usually watch her when she makes dinner and one day, she asked me to help her. Since then, we always make dinner together when I go over,” he said looking up at me. “I wanted to make sure Ava knew where she came from on her father’s side and her mother’s side.”

“Wow, that’s really sweet,” I said, melting at his constant need to take care of his sister.

“I can’t take full credit for that. My ma has always instilled an importance of family and to know where you came from.” He grabbed his wine glass, taking a sip. “Lucio is an asshole who I hope my sister never has to be around, but she needs to know what her heritage is. My brother and his family are helping as much as they can. Vittoria’s mom is amazing too.”

I was jealous for a moment when he talked about all the people who were around his sister to help her. I wished I had that growing up.

“That is great,” I said, hearing the emotion in my voice before I downed the rest of my wine.

“Do you have a lot of family around here?” Dev asked an innocent question, but it still hurt.

“No, my parents traveled a lot when I was younger. Mary practically took care of me since I was in middle school,” I said, giving almost the same spiel I gave to almost everyone. “Once I graduated, they gave me the house I lived in as a present and bounced.”

“What do you mean they bounced?” The anger in his voice was startling.

“They left. I don’t see them very much. My dad came from a wealthy family and once he received his inheritance, they started going on trips more, now they live in L.A.,” I said trying to smile like it didn’t bother me.

“I mean no disrespect Darcy, but your parents are fucking assholes,” he sneered. I enjoyed his anger at my parents, grateful he said that they were the problem and not me.

“You don’t have anyone else around here?”

“My uncle lives in town, but I wouldn’t say that we are really close.” I felt the need to distract myself with something because I wasn’t too fond of talking about myself.

“I always thought Mary was your aunt,” he said, shifting back on the sofa.

I smiled, a lot of people assumed that. “She doesn’t need to share my blood to be my family. She was a better parent than my own.”

“She sounds amazing, no wonder you guys are so close.” He drank the last of his wine.

“She is,” I smiled but anytime I talked about my parents it always dragged my mood down. It didn’t help that I was stuck in a cabin and if something happened to me would they even know? How long would it take for them to find out?

“You ok?” Dev asked, as he put his glass on the coffee table.

“Yeah,” I sighed.

“That doesn’t sound like you are fine,” he said, leaning his elbows on the tops of his thighs.

“I think—I’m just tired,” I said, getting up from the couch. “I’m going to head to bed.”

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