Under Locke (39 page)

“Baby, please. Just go back to sleep. That couch is fuckin’ uncomfortable.”

Dang it!

He made another grumbling noise. “I swear I’m not gonna try to feel you up or anythin', Ritz.“

That notice didn’t exactly make me feel any better. Of course he wouldn't. I was like his... pet dog or something.

“I can just sleep, I swear," he insisted in a yawn.

Eek. Score two for Dex on the not-making-Iris-feel-better scoreboard.

“Babe, c’mon. I promise.”

And it was a Tempurpedic, damn it.

I was a weak sucker. I knew that. Even though I made huffs and puffs as I shuffled back under the covers and rolled further away from Dex, I still didn’t think staying
o
n the same mattress was a good idea. But I did it anyway.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Waking up next to Dex had to be the most awkward experience of my life.

More awkward than the time I'd walked in on
yia-yia
naked.

Because it wasn't like I opened my eyes facing the wall. I woke up on my belly. Normal, right?

With an elbow digging into my shoulder and a heavy leg thrown over one of mine—not so normal.

It wasn't like there was a boner pressed up against me or anything, but the bodily contact was enough. I straightened out as much as I could before trying to slide out from beneath the limbs pinning me down. I'd barely managed to scoot over about two inches before the leg over mine locked me down.

"What'cha doin'?" Dex's incredibly husky voice asked.

I froze. "Trying to get up."

The weight of his leg lessened as his heel slid up from my ankle to my knee. He had to be sleeping on his back, I figured. "Mmm," he grumbled. The elbow on my shoulder shifted off of me at the same time I heard him yawn. His foot shifted again, the sole
c
oming to rest on the back of my knee before sliding down my calf. Holy moly, that was hot. "What are you wearin', honey?"

Aww crap.

"I'm not wearing pants," I told him, not moving an inch while his warm foot rubbed up my leg again.

All of a sudden, a cool breeze swept over my legs and I
peeked
over my shoulder to see Dex holding the sheet up, his head tipped down while he
looked
below it.

Wait a second...

I slapped the sheet down with my hand, half shrieking and for some unknown reason, half laughing. "What the hell are you doing?"

Of the ten different ways he could
ha
ve answered, Dex chose to laugh. But it wasn't a regular laugh, it was the lightest, most genuine sound I'd ever heard from him. "Checkin' out that ass," he answered breezily.

"Jeez," I groaned, rolling onto my side to face away from him. My shirt didn't cover my upper arms at all, so as long as I kept my arm clamped down he wouldn't be able to see it. Which only meant that I needed to quit testing fate and get the heck out of the room. "That's inappropriate, Dex."

"Who says?" he answered from behind me. I could hear the sheets rustling with his movement.

My brother, I wanted to answer him but seriously? What had ever given me the idea that Dex would do something he didn't want to? Oh, please.

I sighed and sat up on the edge of the bed, facing the wall. My clothes were piled on the floor and I carefully slid my
pants
up my legs without standing up too much.

"You wanna shower before we get goin'?" Dex's voice carried over from the opposite side of the room.

I had no idea what he was doing. Knowing him, probably not getting dressed. I had a terrible feeling he slept in only his underwear. I'd barely survived seeing him in shorts back in Austin. Seeing him in his underwear now that I realized how I
—
unfortunately
—
felt for him? Disaster.

"Where are we going?" It was Sunday and the shop was closed.

"My niece's birthday party." It sounded like he'd opened the bathroom door. "I need to stop and get her somethin' or else I'll never hear the end of it."

Now that made me laugh. Dex Locke scared of his niece's wrath? The fact was, I hadn't met his family. I wouldn't know anyone besides him at the party, and just thinking about that made me anxious.

I leaned back to zip up the tab on my
pants
. "I can just stay here if you don't mind."

His huff was distorted by the distance. "I want you to go."

Crap.

The recommendation just kind of came out. "You sure you don't have anyone else that already knows your family?" The stupid redhead flashed through my brain. Ugh.

"No," he answered too quickly. "You're comin'. So grab your bathin' suit and whatever else you're gonna need at the lake, so we can leave in an hour."

A bathing suit? In front of his family? I'd just come to terms with my arm the day before, but that didn't mean I was ready to have a ton of people I didn't know looking at it weird.

Shit
.

"All right." I was such a wuss. Such a big, friggin' coward.

I stood up and slipped my cardigan on over my tank top, grabbing my socks off the floor before rounding the bed. Dex was standing just inside his bathroom, a toothbrush shoved into his mouth, his face still too sleepy.

And the cruel bastard that weaved the fate of people's lives together decided that the beautiful black-haired man with brilliant tattoos all over his upper body, would be standing there in his boxers. The hand on his hip only accentuated the contoured lines of muscle beneath all his tattoos. Damn him.

"You seen my cuts?" he asked through a mouthful of toothpaste.

But of course I was standing there looking at Uriel, the friendly, vibrant octopus that twirled a tentacle around one of his nipple piercings.

I coughed, dragging my eyes up to his bristly beard. "What?"

"My cuts."

"What's that?"

He lowered his chin in disbelief. "My cuts, babe. My MC vest. You seen it?"

The redhead flashed through my memory. Again. I had to fight the urge to call him an idiot for leaving me at his house alone that day. I'm sure my nostrils flared as I plastered a pleasant smile on my face. I'd completely forgotten to tell him about his stupid vest the day before since he'd been so busy with clients. "It's at the shop. Your lady friend dropped it off a couple days ago."

His forehead crinkled. "Who?"

Just how many houses had he gone to that night? You know what? I didn't want to know. God, of all the people in Austin—hell, in the Gulf Coast, that I could
ha
ve grown feelings for, it'd been Dex. I was a total idiot.

"The redhead," I probably snapped a bit more harshly than I would've liked. "Sky
-something
."

Dex's lips turned down just a fraction, the lining of his forehead staying in place. "When?"

"That day you were planning on skinning m
e
alive." I might have glanced down at Uriel—not his pierced nipples—again.

He looked at me like he didn't believe me. "Why?"

Why? "She said you left it at her house the night before." Crap, I really did sound a lot more crabby than I would
hav
e liked.

At the sound of my tone and the words that had come out of my mouth, Dex pulled the red toothbrush out of his mouth and spit in the sink. He glanced up once before rinsing out his mouth, quirking an eyebrow in my direction. Slowly, he straightened up, those
sooty
cobalt eyes lingering on me for longer than I was comfortable with.

He narrowed his eyes. "Why do you sound so pissed off?"

"Because you left me alone here all night," I replied just a little too fast. It wasn't because he'd spent the night with a pretty redhead. No, siree. "I kept thinking someone was going to break in and murder me since we're in the middle of nowhere."

"I wouldn't let that happen, Ritz."

I almost rolled my eyes. How would he have stopped that from happening if he hadn't even been around? "All right," I said a little more sarcastically tha
n
I intended.

The line of Dex's unshaved jaw twitched. "I wouldn't," he insisted.

"All right," I repeated myself. "It's fine."

I had a sickening feeling that he didn't exactly believe me. "You sure?"

Still, my response of a nod was too instinctual to be played off as cool and distant.

Dex kept that heavy gaze on me as he crossed his darkly tattooed arms over his chest, muscles and colors popping with the movement. He was watching carefully, way too carefully.

Suddenly, I didn't want to keep standing in front of him like I was waiting to go to trial. One foot out of the door, I rolled my eyes at myself for being so dang transparent. "Your thing is at Pins, and I'm going to shower real quick and get dressed."

"Bathing suit, Ritz!" he called out after me.

Like I could forget.

~ * ~ *

The only positive thing I could think of while Dex drove my car down the dusty road that led toward the lake, was that I was extremely grateful I'd been a Floridian before coming to Texas.

I'd grown up a short drive from the beach. I'd lived most of my life right by the ocean. And when you're broke as a joke, you can always go to the beach for free. So it was inevitable that I had almost as many clothes for sand and water as I did for a normal day. Specifically beach wear that could cover me up.

Dex and I had to make a stop at Sonny's to get my things because I hadn't brought anything to his house that was water-friendly. I found a really thin long-sleeved beach
dress
—plus shorts—to cover my
royal
purple two
-p
iece.

I'd come up with my game plan somewhere between Sonny's and the toy store for going undetected. I could either simply not get into the water, or I'd just make sure to keep my arms down constantly. I'd
only done that a few times
while at the local beach back home but that was because the strangers that saw my scar were just that—people I'd never see again.

But Dex? And his family?

My secret was better off safe for a while.

"Chill out," Dex murmured as he maneuvered the car toward a grouping of cars the furthest away from the entrance to the state park.

"I'm fine." Lie.

He chuckled low, turning the wheel into the first spot he found by his family's collection of cars. "Babe, you're all tense. Quit worryin'. My sisters are all right, and my ma's been houndin
’
me to bring you around since she found out you worked for me." He flashed a little grin over. "The worst you gotta worry about is Han not likin' her present."

"I think you should be worried about your sister when she finds out you got her a karaoke machine." I'd gotten Hannah, Dex's youngest niece, an alarm clock of that kitty character that she supposedly really liked. The big brute had spent an arm and a leg on a pink karaoke machine with two microphones that he swore the little girl would love.