Page 45 of Irresistibly Risky

But at least I’m not feeling any pain, so that’s something.

“I should go.”

I frown. “No. Stay. You can meet my kid. He’ll be here any minute.”

“Kids are afraid of me.”

I roll my eyes in a very Wynter way. “They are not. They just feel your strong, silent vibe.”

He raises an amused eyebrow at me.

“I think next time I should go with half a pill.”

He chuckles softly, his blue eyes full of mirth at my expense. “Lightweight.”

“I won’t even argue that because it’s the truth.” The buzzer for my door sounds, and a smile immediately springs to my lips, along with a jolt of nerves in my chest. “Fuck. They’re here. How do I look? Hot, sexy, dependable?”

“Like a man who had surgery this morning.”

“Thanks, big guy.” I smack his shoulder and then wince because the motion jarred me a bit. “Always setting me straight when I need it the least. Come on. Say hi to my non-woman and kid, and then you can go do… whatever it is you’re doing tonight.”

“Hacking a large—”

“La, la, la, la,” I start singing over him. “Plausible deniability. If you don’t tell me, then I don’t know what you actually do for a living other than inking people’s skin.” Even though I do. Tattoo artist by day. Genius hacker by night. You’d wonder when he sleeps, but after touring with him for four years, I know he doesn’t. At least not often and not much.

I open the door, and there is a happy Mason chewing on something that looks like a giraffe, and Wynter looking perfectly adorable in her yoga pants, oversized shirt, and hair up in a ponytail.

“Well, hey there. Welcome home.”

She rolls her eyes but pushes past me, wheeling him in. She has a huge bag on one shoulder and a long, heavy-looking rectangular thing encased in green cloth on the other. “Don’t make me already reconsider this.” Her words stop there as she sees Lenox standing over to the side. “Hi. Lenox Moore, right?”

“For real?!” I growl, looking between the two of them. “You recognized Callan first and now Lenox, but had no clue who I was?”

“Nice to meet you,” Lenox says. “I like you already.”

Wynter grins, throwing me a smug smile that only makes me want to kiss her, so she’s not winning this the way she thinks she is.

Lenox kneels down and looks at Mason. “Hi.”

Mason squeezes the giraffe thing, and it makes a horrendous squeaking noise like a dog’s chew toy.

“Sorry,” she says contritely. “It’s his favorite toy, and anytime I try to make it disappear, he cries until I magically make it reappear. I’m assuming he’ll outgrow it at some point and won’t go to college with it, but that sound haunts my dreams.”

“I can understand why. See you, little man.” Lenox ruffles his hair, and Mason reaches out, grabbing his finger and tugging it back toward him.

“See. Told you kids love you.”

Lenox allows Mason to hold his finger for a minute, and then he stands and gives me a fist pound. “Behave.”

“Yes, Thor. I’ll behave.”

I get the look he always gives me when I call him that—he never liked being called Thor, though the resemblance is uncanny—and then proceeds to ignore me in favor of Wynter. “Bye, Wynter. Best of luck to you with him.”

“Thank you. I have a feeling I’ll need it.”

“Nah. It’ll be great,” I promise. It’s only when Lenox leaves and it’s just the three of us that my heart really starts to pound. “Hi.”

“Hi. How are you feeling?”

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