38. Ridley

38

RIDLEY

I watched as a million unnamed emotions swept through Colt’s stormy gaze, each one flickering to life and then disappearing so fast that I couldn’t grab hold of a single one. But it didn’t stop me from trying. Because I wanted every piece of him.

And that knowledge was dangerous. He was dangerous.

Bear barked and I jumped, forcing a laugh. “No need to be jealous, buddy. I’ve got all the pets for you.”

I followed the dog and Emerson into the house, trying to shake off the lingering feelings clinging to me. As I walked down the long hallway toward the kitchen, I couldn’t help but slow my steps. There was art everywhere. Lots of different media but all of it amazing.

As I reached the kitchen, I found Emerson grabbing a pitcher of what looked like iced tea. “You’ve got great taste in art,” I told her.

Emerson’s cheeks tinged pink. “Thank you.”

The screen door slapped shut as Trey strode inside from the back porch. “What she’s not telling you is that she did them all.”

I turned back to Emerson, gaping. “ All of them?”

She shrugged, heading for the back door. “It’s a nice outlet, and it gets my creative juices going for work projects.”

I took the basket of rolls Trey handed me and followed Emerson outside, Bear on my heels. “Work projects?”

She nodded, setting the pitcher down. “I’m a graphic designer. Mostly web design but a few general branding clients as well.”

The perfect job to do from the safety of your home.

Trey crossed behind Emerson, giving her shoulder a squeeze before setting a bowl of coleslaw on the table. “I keep telling her she should set up a site to sell her art.”

“You really should,” I agreed. “If I had walls, I’d buy some.” I frowned as I tried to picture my interior space despite its recent destruction. “I might be able to fit one of the smaller ones. One of those wildflower watercolors by the bathroom?”

“Make her a strong offer,” Trey chided.

I grinned. “I’d never lowball her. They’re too good. Seven fifty?”

Emerson’s eyes went wide. “Dollars?” she squeaked.

“Definitely not cents,” I said with a laugh.

Trey smacked a hand on the table. “Sold!” He glanced at Emerson. “Right?”

She shook her head. “That’s too much.”

“I’ve traveled all over and always poke my head in galleries along the way. It’s not,” I told her. “You could be making bank if you sold them online.”

Colt moved into our huddle, a frown on his face. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“Why the hell not?” Trey challenged.

“It puts Em out there. Public. If her history got out there along with it, it could make her a target.”

I watched as Emerson’s shoulders slumped, a little of that shocked-but-happy surprise bleeding out of her.

I shifted closer to Colt and slowly stepped down on his foot, hard . His gaze flew to me, confusion there. “What?”

I glared back, trying to make a silent point.

“What your houseguest is trying to say more delicately than I will is that you’re being a dick,” Trey said.

A muscle ticked along Colt’s jaw. “I’m being cautious.”

I kept right on glaring at him but spoke to Trey. “I have no problem telling Law Man that he’s being a giant dick. He likes to do that often. Sometimes in good ways, other times not so much.”

Emerson choked on a laugh. “I have been wondering what this roommate situation entailed.”

“Friends with benefits. My kinda houseguest,” Trey said with a grin.

“Jesus,” Colt muttered. “Is nothing private anymore?”

I turned to Trey with a smirk. “ Enemies with benefits would be more accurate.”

He barked out a laugh. “I knew I liked you.”

“Would you three quit it?” Colt gritted out.

Emerson’s hazel eyes danced. “Come on, don’t pout. We’re just having a little fun.”

“I don’t pout,” he shot back.

I reached up and grabbed his bottom lip. “I don’t know, this was sticking out pretty far.”

Colt grabbed my wrist, tugging me to him fast and hard. “Chaos,” he growled, but there was an amber heat in his eyes. “Careful. You’re playing with fire.”

My breath hitched. “You should know by now, Law Man, I’m not afraid of getting burned.”

I glanced over at Colt as he drove. The sun hung lower in the sky now, its heat having baked the earth all afternoon. We’d spent hours at Emerson’s. Hours I’d loved because I adored Colt’s sister. More than that, I admired the hell out of her. She had an incredible strength and, more than that, an intelligence that she’d used to make herself feel safe despite what she’d been through.

Colt had gone quieter after getting a call from Ryan. He’d stepped inside, away from prying ears, to take it. And he’d done his best to hide the anger when he’d come back out. But I knew the change had put Trey and Emerson on edge, wondering what was going on.

“What did she say?” I finally asked, breaking into Colt’s spiraling thoughts.

His fingers tightened on the wheel. “Who?”

“Let’s not play that game. We’re both smarter than that.”

Colt sighed, making the turn up the mountain road that led to his house. “Tara confirmed their relationship. Broke down while talking to Ryan. All sorts of guilt and confusion. It’s been haunting her for years, getting mixed up with Kerr.”

“Bastard,” I muttered.

“He made her feel like the whole thing was her fault. That she tempted him into cheating on his wife, into starting a relationship that could’ve gotten him fired.”

I stared out at the forest around us as we drove, trying to take on its calm. “Now she can let it out, finally process what she needs to.”

Colt’s gaze flicked my way. “Excising the wound.”

I shifted in my seat so I could really take him in. “What do you mean?”

“Took me a while, but I realized that’s what you do. You find where the hurt and sick is and cut it out. It means reopening the wound, but it also means healing.”

I stared at him for a long moment. “That’s incredibly morbid and kind of gross but also…beautiful.”

Colt chuckled as he made the final turn toward his cabin. “It’s also accurate.”

That thing inside me shifted. The one that cared a little too much that Colt saw what I was doing as good . That he got me. I forced my gaze away, toward the cabin. “Did she corroborate his alibi?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Colt said, pulling to a stop in front of his house.

We both sat in silence for a long time, letting the weight of the day settle in. “I wanted it to be him,” I finally admitted. What a horrible thing to wish on a person, even someone like Bryan Kerr.

Colt stared straight ahead. “Me too.”

I could feel his pain calling out to me for comfort. I wanted to take his hand, to weave my fingers through his. But there’d been too much of that today already. Physical acts but emotionally intimate. Not the sort of thing enemies with benefits did.

“Come on,” I ordered, shoving my door open. I hopped out of the SUV but didn’t head for the front door. Instead, I took the path around the side of the house, hoping Colt would follow.

A door slammed behind me. “Where are you going?”

I turned, walking backward, and grabbed the hem of my flowy tank top. It was almost four, but the sun had been warming everything for hours. I tugged the shirt over my head and dropped it on the steps to the back deck.

Those deep-brown eyes heated to warm amber. “What the hell are you doing?”

My lips twitched. “What I’m good at. Creating a little chaos.”

Colt barked out a laugh. “You are damn good at that.”

I jogged up the steps and my fingers locked in my shorts, my gaze cutting to the man following me. So damn gorgeous with that dark hair and those dark eyes. The angular jaw and scruff my fingers ached to run over. I didn’t look away as I stood on the deck and pulled my shorts down. I waited there in nothing but my bralette and thong and watched those eyes turn from amber to gold fire.

“Ridley,” Colt growled.

I grinned, climbing up onto the deck’s railing. “Come on, Law Man. Live a little.”

And then I jumped in.