Worth It (Forbidden Men 6)

I glanced back at the silver Lexus, its engine still running in front of the opened hospital entrance. Realizing I had no idea what the woman’s name had been, or how to contact her husband Quinn, I lifted my hands to wipe my face. But something red on my palms made me stop. My fingers froze halfway to my mouth, and I swallowed at the sight of fresh blood coating my skin. A wave of nausea swept over me.

Blood on my hands.

The last time I’d looked down and found blood dripping from my fingers, I’d just killed two men.

He returned a week later. I hadn’t honestly taken him at his word when he’d said he’d smear baby poop on my brother’s bed for every diaper he had to change. But there he appeared in the doorway to Garrett’s room when I was exiting my own to head downstairs one evening.

We both stopped cold, wide-eyed and caught in the act.

Finally, I scowled and set my hands on my hips. “You did not,” I whispered harshly. “Not again?”

His grin was instant and so cute it melted my frown to mush. Then he gave a careless little shrug.

With a roll of my eyes, I muttered, “Oh, but let me guess. You didn’t steal anything, right?”

Lifting his hands, he turned them to show me his clean palms. “Not even that brand new laptop on his desk.”

I sighed and shook my head. “You can’t keep doing this. You’re going to get caught.”

His gaze scrolled down my body, making me warm enough to remember I wore nothing but shorty shorts and a tank top. Then he murmured, “I haven’t gotten caught yet?”

“Uh, excuse me?” I lifted an eyebrow, playing indignant. “And just what do you think me coming out of my room and seeing you here is called?”

“Luck?” He flashed me another grin that, yeah, turned me into one of those girls—those stupid girls who abandoned all thought and reason for a pretty boy smile.

My brain jumbled; I didn’t even know how to respond. A giddy blush rose up my throat, but I swallowed it back down. I couldn’t help the feeling, though; I liked thinking he considered running into me as lucky.

Except I couldn’t let him know that.

I forced a scowl. “I hope you have a good escape route planned because—”

The clatter of footsteps on the stairs squashed my lecture short. The Parker boy and I gaped at each other. He began to edge in reverse, back into Garrett’s room, but from the sounds of the voices approaching, Garrett and his friend Tad were the two coming up, which meant they’d surely discover anyone in his room within moments.

Without pausing to think my decision through, I waved him forward. “Quick. In here.”

His gaze flashed toward the stairs. A breath later, he darted to me. I grabbed his arm and yanked him into my room, shoving the door shut behind us just as I saw the top of someone’s head clear the second level.

I covered my mouth with my hand, breathing hard into my palm. Oh man, that had been close. I looked up at the boy to see if he shared my thoughts, but he was too busy staring into my room with a look of horror.

“Is this your bedroom?”

I frowned and leaned past him to try to view my room as if I were seeing it for the first time, because seriously, what the heck did he mean, saying it like that? It didn’t look that bad to me. It wasn’t all pink, and frilly, or overly girly at all. In fact, it was decorated in tones of blue. I didn’t even have pictures of my favorite male movie stars tacked to my walls, mainly because my mother would’ve disowned me if I had, though a life-sized poster of Stephen Amell would’ve looked so good right above my bed.

The covers on my mattress were neatly made, no clothes littered the floor, even my books were all lined precisely on my bookshelves. It was a perfectly respectable bedroom, if I did say so myself.

“What’s wrong with it?”

“What?” He sounded distracted as he turned to me. I drew in a breath, not realizing we’d been so close. But when he was looking at me, with his gaze boring into mine, it felt as if there was nothing between us. No space. No air. Just him and me.

“Nothing,” he finally said, sounding dazed.

It really wasn’t fair that he should be so beautiful. His brown eyes had a golden quality to them today, but his hair still looked as dark and carelessly arranged as it’d been days before, as if he never combed it with anything but his fingers.

“Then why did you sound so appalled?”

His golden eyes tweaked with confusion before he looked back into my room. “I didn’t. I just...” He turned back to me. “I shouldn’t be in here.”

A quiet laugh blurted from my lips. “You shouldn’t be anywhere in this house.”