Under Locke (43 page)

N
ever in a million years woul
d I ha
ve ever expected Dex to even have a favorite X-Men or Ninja Turtle, much less care about which one was mine.

"What do your friends think of all this?" I asked him.

He looked me dead in the eye. "I don't give a
shit
what anyone else thinks." Then he'd paused and quirked a cheek up, like he regretted the word choice he'd used. "But nobody else except Shane's seen 'em. I think Sonny and Trip remember I was into 'em when we were
kids
but
...i
t's my one thing I don't gotta share with anybody."

God. Where was Dex The Dick when I needed him to keep me far away from this charming monster?

I sucked up how tired I was and looked through another couple boxes he had in his closet.

When I started yawning every couple of minutes, he sat back with his hands propped behind his butt.  “You want the bed?”

I shook my head. “I’ll be fine on the couch.

“I’m not gonna ask you twice,” he warned me, smiling wearily.

“Thanks, but I’ll survive.” What I probably wouldn't survive was another night spent in the same bed with him after our day together. Specifically, after I'd become personal with the hot, heavy touch he was capable of. "I need to get used to sleeping on the couch again if I'm ever going to try and get my own place in the future."

I'd been thinking about my financial situation
a lot recently, when I wasn’t thinking about all this crap with my dad
. Though
I liked living with Sonny, I didn’t want to take advantage of him. He would never kick me out but I didn’t want to mooch. I was too old for that. Most importantly, I didn’t want him to think that I would ever use him. He’d done more than enough for me.

So I needed to move out at some point in the sort-of distant future.
I’d saved pretty much all of my paychecks except for gas, my Florida medical bills, and other little things, but it still wouldn’t be enough to pay a first month and deposit on even the cheapest apartment, and have money left over to buy some furniture. Which meant that I'd probably invest in a couch whenever I got my own place and sleep on that until I could afford a bed.

Then there was the opportunity to go back to school, too. But that was money I didn't have either, dang it. Why exactly couldn't it grow on trees?

Dex’s face scrunched up. “Why?"

"I can't live with Son forever." I blinked at him.

His face screwed up even more. "You can't live by yourself."

"Yes I can."

"No, you can't," he snapped back.

Heaven help me
. "I can live by myself."

There was no hesitation in his voice when he ground out, "The hell you are."

"Dex." I glared at him. "You already know it was just me and my brother for a while, and then I lived with a roommate for a year. I'm not a little kid, and I'm not an idiot. I can live
alone.
"

He opened his mouth and my poor eyes went straight to those pink lips. Then he shut it so quickly that if I wouldn't have been looking, I woul
d ha
ve missed him opening it, period. Th
at
gaze
swept over my face, boring straight into my eyes in what I couldn't miss as being a
n act of domination
.

And obviously when he refused to break our eye contact, I had to accept that this wasn't a battle I was going to win. Regardless, he didn't have a say with what I did and it wasn't like I was going to be moving anywhere in the near future.

I reached out and poked him with my index finger in the shoulder. "Chill out. I don't have enough money yet anyway. And if I go back to school, it'll take me even longer."

The smug jerk smiled slowly.

I should
ha
ve known by then that his slow smile wasn't a positive sign.

~ * ~ *

Two days later, in the middle of my lunch break, I found out why Dex had been such a sly jerk in his spare bedroom.

The thick packet slid across the counter slowly, pushed by two tattooed fingers I recognized from the length alone.

Austin Community College: Fall Credit Catalog

“There’s info in there about certificates and degrees and shit you can get from 'em,” Dex’s gruff voice explained. “Classes start next month. I’ll help you pay for
‘
em if you want, you know.
Y
ou could go early before
we open.
”

I didn't know whether to look at the catalog that sat right next to the bean salad I'd brought from Dex's house, or look at the man himself.

Dex's face won.

But I couldn't find my vocabulary anywhere, and it must have made him feel awkward because he kept going.

"I know you said you
think you
aren't good at anythin' but I'm sure you can figure somethin' out, babe. You're smart."

My mouth opened and closed at least twice before my throat decided to work. "You went and got this for me?"

He shrugged uneasily. Uneasily! Dex! "I got a
prospect
from the Club to go get it."

He could
ha
ve asked Santa Claus to go get it and it wouldn't have mattered. What mattered, because
in life there are so few things that really do, was that he'd listened to me. That he hadn't just heard the words "I'm not good at anything," but that he'd heard everything else I'd said afterward.

“Why you frownin’?”

“I’m not frowning.” Pouting, maybe.

“Looks like you’re frownin’.”

“I swear I’m not.” My eyes were stinging. “I’m happy right now.”

He narrowed those impossible blue eyes. “You got somethin’ in your eye?”

I sniffed. “Allergies.” Like I was going to tell him he was going to make me cry.

Out of all of the things Dex could have given me, that was the last thing I could
ha
ve ever expected: a course catalog for the local community college and an offer to help me with my classes. Not that I would ask him to help me pay for
them
—I wouldn't. But it was the thought. The friggin' thought that was worth ten times its weight in gold.

How could I not like this man? This asshole, bossy man that listened to me?

“Dex.”
His name came out of my mouth in the form of
a
sigh
.

“
What the hell, Ritz? Are you cryin’
? I thought you’d be happy,” he said, quickly dropping to kneel right next to my chair. He pulled it out and toward him by the legs, making a horrible grating sound on the tile.

Without thinking twice, because I was so wrapped in his gesture, I threw my arms around his neck and pressed my nose to his throat. “Why
aren’t you this nice all the time
?” I asked, but it was
so
muffled
I’m not sure he understood the question.

Two arms wrapped around me, pulling me flat against him. It's a testament to how unfocused I felt that I couldn't find it in me to appreciate the contact he was giving me. To let me even think about what a gesture like this coming from a man like Dex meant.

“Sounds borin’ to me.” That large palm cupped the back of my neck. “And nobody else gives me hugs like this but you.”

The urge to fall to the ground, rip my heart out of my chest and hold it out like a sacred offering was overwhelming.
Take it! Take it all!
I’d cry.

Instead, I just sat there with my arms around him, breathing in that smoky Dex scent. I squeezed him tighter to me, knowing that I should move.

But I couldn’t. Not right then when I had my face buried in the nicest smelling place ever. Not when I was confused by the man who defended me, slept with me, and brought me class catalogs. The same man who was the most good-looking male in both hemispheres.

“Is this our secret then?”

His chest puffed against mine. “Yeah, babe, it is.”

“Okay.” I leaned back and smiled at him. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“Better not.”

I snorted right as this incredibly tender emotion flooded my chest. And it caused this urge… I had to close my eyes as I leaned forward and pecked a kiss on Dex’s stubbled cheek. “Fine.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

There were times when I wondered whether I'd lost most of my common sense the moment I got within the Austin city limits. Several times, in fact.

And one of those moments was right then.

Who in their right mind would turn down a date from a gorgeous guy that also happened to be really nice? The guy was one of Blake’s repeat customers.
A computer programmer
gradually getting a full-sleeve done. I’d met him my first week at the shop. But I mean,
really
, who would do that if they were sane?

Me, I hoped.

“Just one,” Trey, who was tall—almost as tall as Dex, the tallest person in my life— had the nicest shade of close cropped light brown hair. Did I mention he was super cute?
One date, just to try it out
, he’d said a minute before.

My answer was a blush and a goofy grin. When was the last time someone had asked me out and been serious about it? Four years ago?

“We’ll do whatever you want,” he kept going.

“I don’t think I’m allowed to go on dates with customers,” I told him honestly. While I hadn’t seen it written anywhere, it just seemed like normal etiquette in an employee handbook.

Someone from behind me, Blake, snickered loudly. All of these guys were unbelievably nosey. They had superhuman listening skills when they were busy, but when they weren’t busy and a walk-in came in asking for a generic type of tattoo—like a girl who had come in asking for the name of her current boyfriend to be crafted onto the back of her neck for the rest of her existence—they were all deaf. It was a miracle, I swear, that their hearing came back on an hourly basis.

“I think all of us but Blue have done it, Iris,” Blake called out from his station.

Trey smiled that nearly perfect like smile. “See? Tomorrow night then?” he asked me expectantly.

I wasn’t planning on saying yes no matter how cute and tall he was. I had no business dragging someone into the same stagnant pit I had VIP passes to. I didn't have my own place, I'd barely caught up on all of my bills, and I had no clue what I was doing with my life. Realistically what did I have to offer anyone?

Plus, I'd be lying if I said that the first thing that popped into my mind when he first asked wasn't Dex's face. Not that I knew or understood what the heck that meant but I'd leave that thought alone for another day. Or year, whatever.

I’d just been about to tell Trey I wasn't interested but in much simpler terms when two large hands slipped over my shoulders. Two sets of strong fingers spanned down my chest, the tips dangerously close to
my nipples, er, boobs
.

“Sorry, Trey. It’s against policy unless little Miss Iris wants to quit,” Dex's cool voice announced, his grip squeezing the tops of my breasts.
“And that ain’t happenin’.”