*
For once, Devon woke before her alarm. She didn’t need to open her eyes to know she was alone. Tanner’s scent still permeated the air, but it was faint.
Oh God, she’d slept with the fucking pooch.
It had been mind-blowing. Unparalleled. Would be etched into her memory for all time, just as he’d promised it would.
Ordinarily, she liked it when a guy delivered on his promises. This time? Not so much.
Her enhanced hearing picked up the sounds of someone puttering in the kitchen. She let out a tired groan. Hell, he was still there. She would have thought he’d be long gone before she woke, considering he was supposed to be escorting Harper to work. And, God, Devon wished he had left. She just didn’t know what to say to him. Didn’t know what to expect from him.
Was he regretting it? Was he worried she’d expect more from him? Was he going to ask her to keep it a secret so that Harper didn’t get involved? Was he—
Her alarm went off. Fuck, it was time to face the music.
Devon turned off the horrid sound, went through her morning ritual, and then shuffled through the apartment into the kitchen. Her demon huffed at the sight of Tanner sitting at the small dining table, reading something on his phone while he drank coffee, looking far too at home.
He also looked far too gorgeous and edible—which only grated on Devon’s prickly mood.
He looked up. “Morning, kitten.” He gave her one of his slow, sexually charged perusals that made her all tingly. “How are you feeling?”
Devon held up a hand and mumbled, “Don’t talk to me.” She needed caffeine before she had any hope of holding a conversation with him. And she certainly wasn’t capable of civility until she’d had her fix.
She was just about to head for the half-full coffee pot when something caught her attention. There was a little saucer of milk on the island.
Tanner glanced at it, his eyes dancing. “Thought you might be thirsty, kitten.”
And that was enough to jab at her foul morning temper. She sharply flicked her hand with a snarl. Power crackled through the air and zapped his ear hard enough to make his head jolt. “It’ll be your balls next,” she warned.
Even as a little blister formed near the tip of his reddening ear, the masochistic bastard smiled. “And there are my kitty’s sharp claws again.”
Devon narrowed her eyes at his possessive tone. Caffeine, she needed caffeine to deal with this shit.
It was as she moodily snatched a mug out of the cupboard that her cell phone rang. The chiming … God, the sound was so piercing right then, it was like having an ice pick shoved down her ear. She dug the phone out of her pocket and looked at the screen. Adam. She tapped the answer icon and snapped, “What?”
There was a brief silence. “You haven’t had coffee yet, have you?” Adam asked, a smile in his voice.
She grunted.
“Just wanted to check how you were doing.”
“Fine,” she bit out, watching through narrowed eyes as Tanner crossed to the coffee pot. If he tipped that precious liquid down the sink, she was so going to slit his throat.
“I actually intended to come check on you before I headed for work. You can imagine my surprise when I saw the hellhound’s Audi parked outside your building.”
Devon snarled at the note of amusement in Adam’s tone.
“I guess I don’t need to ask if you got much sleep last night.”
“Eat shit, asshole.” She ended the call on his laugh.
Tanner slowly approached her and poured coffee into her mug. “There.”
She grunted again.
“You’re welcome.”
Why was he still talking? Right then, she’d kill people for less. Ugh.
Devon lazily crossed to the table and sank into the chair. Cradling the hot mug in her hands, she drank her coffee quietly, enjoying the blessed silence, acting for all the world like she was completely alone.
It wasn’t until she’d drained the cup that she finally met the gaze of the male opposite her. And then memories of last night crawled all over her. Memories of his hot mouth eating hers, of his skilled fingers playing with her nipples, of his long cock driving so deep inside her it almost hurt. That quickly, the air snapped taut with that good ole sexual chemistry. “Stop staring.”
“But you’re such a pretty view.”
Whatever.
“Jolene called me a few minutes ago. She said Finn told her that Asa was … uncooperative. The prick swore to Finn that he’d already given him the names of everyone from his group.”
Devon ground her teeth. “Finn should hand the fucker over to Jolene—she’ll get him to talk.”
“Jolene made that same suggestion, but Finn turned her down; said he’d get the information. He also said he’d never heard of Sheridan. He intends to ask Asa about him.”