To Love and Protect (Must Love Diamonds 4)
“Hey, whoa, save it for the gym, Slugger.”
She gasped at the sound of Dev’s gravelly voice from the other side of the bed and jerked her arms back down while whipping her head toward him. “You’re still here.”
He lifted one arm up behind his head, and left his other resting over his flat stomach as he rolled his head toward her. “Where else would I be?”
“In the kitchen.” Seeing him in bed beside her in the light of day had awareness tingling through every cell in her body. “You’re always up by now.”
“You said I should sleep in.”
That’s right. Because she was going by Grayson today instead of tomorrow.
“Yeah, I just…” She lost her train of thought when her gaze met his. His eyes were more blue than green in the morning light, and the shadow of stubble darkening his jaw made her want to reach out and feel the rasp of it against her palm. Or her lips.
Realizing she needed to finish her sentence, she quickly said, “I forgot.”
“So you weren’t trying to smack me on purpose to have the bed to yourself?”
“No,” she exclaimed. “Of course not.”
His slow smile clued her in he was teasing, and this time she did reach over and smack his arm on purpose—his very firm arm.
He cringed and hunched his shoulder. “Ow.”
“Oh please.” She rolled her eyes with a grin tugging at her own mouth. “That didn’t hurt one bit.”
His gaze shifted down to her lips, and his smile faded. From one second to the next, her heart surged up in her throat, making it hard to get enough air into her lungs. It had been two days since that kiss in the makeshift gym, and while she respected his reasons for ending it when he had, she sure as hell wouldn’t stop him from kissing her again.
Especially since the past two days had solidified the return of their childhood friendship—just with a heaping dose of sexual tension oozing all over the place.
She shifted under the covers and started to roll onto her side to face him. The loud buzz of his cell vibrating on the nightstand made her jump. Dev blinked, and then whipped his head to the other side of the pillow while grabbing for the phone like it was a lifeline. His quick glance at the screen produced a frown that had Shelby paying attention—especially when he swept the covers aside to sit on the edge of the bed with his back to her.
“Asher. Hey man, what’s up?”
What? What the heck was her brother calling Dev for? She pushed into a sitting position and adjusted the hem of her tank top as the covers pooled around her waist.
His voice droned from the phone, but she couldn’t make out his words. Dev gave a short, “Yep,” and then suddenly sat up straighter, his shoulders rigid. After a moment, he relaxed some, only to tense all over again a minute later. His tone was terse as he nodded and said, “Will do.”
Impatience had her tapping him on the shoulder. He shifted toward her on the bed, and his solemn expression made her pulse pick up as she arched her brows in silent expectation.
“Asher—hold up.
Shelby’s here, so I’m switching you to speaker.” After pressing the button, he rested his forearm on his knee to hold the phone out between them. “Go ahead.”
“Morning, Bells.”
“Hi.” She watched Dev’s face, but his shuttered expression gave nothing away as she asked, “What’s going on?”
“There was a break-in at Mom and Dad’s early this morning.”
Shelby’s stomach lurched. “In D.C.?” The death threat she’d read yesterday against her dad flashed in her head, sending a cold flood of fear down her spine. “Are they okay?”
“They’re fine,” he assured her. “It wasn’t there, it was at the house here in Colorado.”
“Thank God there was no one as home.” Then it dawned on her he’d said morning, and she sought Dev’s gaze. “Elena wasn’t there, was she? Is she okay?”
“It happened shortly before she got to work,” Asher said. “About six-forty-five. The security company had the police notified and at the house in five minutes.”
Good Lord, what time was it? She angled her head to see the time in the upper left hand corner of the screen. 7:45a.m. Wow, they really had slept in.