Bare Skin (Skin Deep 5)

“Jesus, you scared me!” Her eyes were wide and she put a hand on her chest, like she was trying to calm a racing pulse. “I didn’t know you were standing there. Have you been there long?”

“Not really. Didn’t mean to scare you, though.”

She reached for a washcloth and lathered it with baby wash, then carefully began washing Kaden off. “What’s up?” she asked over her shoulder.

“Nothing,” I answered. “Just seeing if you need help with anything.”

She shook her head as she rinsed out the cloth, then dunked it in the water again and again, using it to rinse the baby off. “No, I’m good. Thanks, though.”

I still stood there as she made short work of finishing his bath and wrapping him up in a hooded towel, and then turned to leave the bathroom, but I was in her way.

She stopped right in front of me, eyebrow quirked, silently telling me to move. I stepped out of her way, but followed as she took Kaden into the guest room and laid him on the bed before she finished drying him off, then did the whole lotion, diaper, jammies routine.

I heard her sigh as she finished snapping him into his pajamas. “Are you gonna stare at me all night? Or do you want something and you’re just afraid to ask?”

“I’m not afraid to ask anything,” I scoffed, then took Kaden from her as she lifted him from the bed. I bounced him in my arms, waggling my eyebrows at her as I finished, “And of course I want something from you.” I grinned at her, but she just rolled her eyes and walked out of the room, leaving me to trail behind.

She went to the kitchen to make a bottle for the baby while I went to the couch, kicking back with Kaden on my lap, but she was right back, handing me the bottle. As I fed him (not that I did much since he holds it himself), she settled in beside me, but I noticed that she was really fidgety.

“Are you okay?” I asked, curiously.

She hesitated, but then nodded.

“You sure?”

She nodded again, then sighed. “Yeah, I just…there’s something I needed to do tonight, but I didn’t want to just have Cara come over here without checking with you.”

Suspicion grew in my chest, but I quickly tamped it down, cautiously asking, “What do you need to do?”

“Just…something. It’s probably too late for tonight. I just wanted to know if you’d mind Cara coming to watch him here, or if I need to take him to her house?”

I glanced down to check on Kaden’s progress with his bottle, noting that he was falling asleep. I moved him to my shoulder to burp him and as soon as he did, repositioned him to finish eating. “Dani, you don’t have to have Cara come, and you don’t have to take him there. Just leave him with me, unless you want me to come with you?”

“No!” she responded sharply, then closed her eyes, taking a breath before saying, “Sorry. No, thank you. It’s something I need to do on my own. But I can’t expect you to watch him for me…you’ve already been too kind letting us stay here.”

I shook my head. “Seriously. If you need to go, just leave him here with me. He’s already almost asleep, anyway, so…”

I could see her thinking hard and wondered, not for the first time, just what she was doing here. What was so important that she had to do that had her sitting in bars in the evening, and rushing off to do God knows what late at night. And, for the first time, I wondered if maybe I should have kept my distance.

I heard her blow out a breath and watched her shoulders slump as she said, softly, “If you really don’t mind, then… I won’t be long, okay?”

I nodded. She went to stand, but I grabbed her wrist lightly, preventing her from rising. “When you come back, you’re in my bed.”

She looked at me, her eyes searching mine before she slowly nodded.

I let her go. I didn’t want to, but I did.

She stood, but when she saw that Kaden was completely out now, she reached down and carefully took the bottle, sitting it down on the coffee table before she lifted him from my arms. “I’m just gonna go lay him down,” she whispered. “The baby monitor is on, sitting right there so you can hear him if he cries.”

I nodded, letting her know that I heard her.

When she came back, she’d changed into black leggings, a long, black hooded shirt, and knee-high, lace up combat-type boots. Her hair was pulled back into a high pony-tail, and she looked like a super-hot cat burglar.

Unable to hold my tongue, I stared up at her as she stopped by the end of the couch. “Should I be worried? Have a lawyer on retainer?”

She blinked. “Um…no?”

She didn’t sound so sure of herself and that worried me, but before I could say anything else, she headed towards the door. She hesitated briefly, hand on the doorknob, and looked back at me over her shoulder. “I don’t just leave him with anyone, you know.”

I didn’t answer, just nodded. I had a feeling she was battling guilt right now, among other things. I just wish I knew what, exactly.

She turned to leave again and I called out, stopping her. She turned to look at me as I got up off the couch and went to where I’d tossed my coat when I got home. I pulled the key I’d had made for her out of my pocket and handed it to her.

She took it. “I’ll be back,” she said, softly, and left, pulling the door closed behind her.

I flopped back down on the couch and commenced flipping through channels once again. Not exactly how I envisioned my night going now that I had her under my roof, but…

I must have dozed off, because I woke to Dani kneeling beside the couch, her hand on my shoulder, shaking me gently.

I stared up at her, blinking as the light hit my eyes. “Dani?”

It looked like she might have been crying at some point since she’d left. I sat straight up, and caught her shoulders in my hands when she went to move away. “You okay? What happened?”

She jerked her head slightly in a motion that I took as a warning not to ask. It took everything in me not to try and force her to talk to me, to tell me what the fuck was going on.

“I’m fine. You were sleeping, but I figured you’d be more comfortable in your bed.”

I glanced at the clock, surprised to see it was after midnight.