Page 63 of Devil In The Details

I kiss her like my life depends on it until the scent of something burning distracts me and I pull away to realize we’re both breathing hard—and the waffle in the iron is burnt black.

“Oh shoot!” Wrenlee exclaims as she jumps from me. “Damnit.”

I slide the burnt waffle onto an empty plate, grinning at the frazzled way her hands dive into her hair. “Not a big deal, Kitten. There’s more batter.”

She scowls at me cutely. “You’re a bad distraction, Cash Jagger.”

“I’m the best distraction.”

She rolls her eyes and I bark a laugh. The dark is gone. She kissed it out of me.

“Just cook the bacon.”

Chuckling, I do as I’m told, thinking that maybe, just maybe I was made for domestication after all.

twenty-five

Wrenlee

The smell of homemade pizza hits me as soon as Ian opens the door. With his big hand on my back, Cash guides me inside. Ian and Candace’s condo isn’t quite as grand as Cash’s, but it’s not far off.

“Come in!” Candace calls from the kitchen. “I have a glass of wine with your name on it.”

Ian makes a noise that’s somewhere between a laugh and a grunt. “I’ve got beer with yours.”

“Thanks, man.” Cash gives him a chin-lift as Ian points in the direction of the kitchen. “Candace is in there. She won’t let me in the kitchen.”

“We’ll all die of food poisoning; she let you inthere.” Tav skips away from a slinky black cat that weaves between him and Kane.

Like a boy in a candy shop, Kane bends fast to snatch the kitty in inked arms. It wails a kitty howl of protest as he slams it into his chest, murmuring, “Love me,” into midnight fur.

The cat clearly isn’t down with ‘loving Kane’ because it twists, angling sharp kitty teeth toward Kane’s chin. As though expecting the trajectory of kitty teeth, Kane releases him at the last moment. The cat lands gracefully on all four feet, turning around to give Kane a parting hiss before strutting leisurely into the kitchen.

“Satan!” Kane calls after a thin black tail that flips side to side before looking back to us. “He loves me.”

“You just like it when they play hard to get,” Tav mutters.

“Or he’s delusional.” I pat Kane’s shoulder in mock sympathy as I follow Bells into the kitchen.

Kane says something, but I’m not listening as I enter the kitchen and find Candace standing with a big bright red painted smile and glass of wine. She nods to a second full glass and says, “Good to see you out, babe.”

I lift the glass, sip, and gesture to the pies. “Need help?”

She shakes her head. “Everything is done. Just need to be popped into the oven, now. I’m justenjoying a glass of wine in the peace of my kitchen where no man is brave enough to venture.”

I snort. “Cash ventures.”

“I bet he does.”

My eyes land on her to see she’s studying me. “You’ve been feeling better, lately?”

“Yep.” I’m not sure where she’s going with this, because I’ve been to a few shows in the last couple weeks. Sadly, I missed Halloween as I’d been too tired after the arsenic scenario, but I was much better now.

“That was scary.”

“It was.” I know what she’s talking about. “I’m sorry you were there for it.”

“I’m not.” She pops two pizzas into the oven before coming around the island to sit next to me. “Friends are supposed to be there for each other. I’m happy I was there for you. Still, it was fucking scary.” She takes a long sip. “Honestly, I thought you might die.”

---