Page 42 of Risky Game

He called me pretty in a way that wasn’t amused and for his daughter’s benefit. He called me pretty like he couldn’t not call me pretty and feel okay about himself.

It shook me the entire night and was still shaking me while he was upstairs putting Amelia to bed. After that comment, nothing else was said. He barely looked at me while he grabbed the ice cream and he and Amelia both had dessert. He then sat and asked me to join him while we watched the live animation Beauty and The Beast movie together.

It was a typical, normal night where I didn’t feel the need to hide to give them space and wasn’t in a hurry to run off and hide from him. It was so normal, it was comfortable. Like I was sitting in my brother’s living room with my own family.

Familial and comforting… if I could stop the runaway train running loops inside my brain, that was.

He called me pretty like he meant it.

Or the tension strumming between us every time he glanced in my direction. Which wasn’t often, but happened, and I couldn’t not feel it because I’d definitely been sneaking looks in his direction, too.

He kissed me this morning like it was second nature.

He called me pretty like he meant it.

I was stewing on the entire strange day, all over again, when he came into the living room and plopped back down on the couch.

“Seems like you should have taken Amelia to her gymnastics class last week.”

He chuckled. He wasn’t wrong at all. Whatever breakthrough I had with Amelia came after her class. Of course, she hadn’t talked to her mom today either, so I wasn’t holding my breath quite yet that the tides were turning.

I was walking in from the kitchen with two water bottles when he came down the stairs and I took one to him, setting it on the coffee table near him.

“Thank you.” He didn’t reach for his water. He leaned back on the couch, tipped up his chin, and swallowed. “We should probably talk about this morning.”

We definitely should.

No way I wanted to. If I could go back to pretending to forget it happened, I’d be better.

“Before we do that, any chance you can help me get these hair clips and barrettes and pins out of my hair? I can feel the tangles turning to cement and if I don’t get them out, I’m going to have to shave my head and I really don’t want to do that.”

Amelia had insisted I keep them in all night, so I couldn’t do anything when she was awake. And when I tried to remove them on my own, I could only get out two before I learned the rest were knotted in there too tight.

“Sure.” Logan chuckled.

Which brought me to my next problem. “Um… where do you want to do it?”

His brows arched, and I was pretty certain we had the exact same thought in our minds.

Shouldn’t have made me feel crazier, should it?

Was this man attracted to me? There was no way.

“Have a seat, Ruby.” He spread his knees on the couch and sat up straight.

Oh dear God. He wanted me in between his knees? His thighs that close to me. His hands shoving through my hair?

This was a bad idea. It had to be.

He smirked. “I promise I won’t accidentally kiss you again, too.”

A laugh bubbled free. “I thought we weren’t going to talk about that.”

“Figured we should get it out of the way.” He gestured with a dip of his chin to the floor in front of him. My knees turned to jelly as his expression changed. “Come on. Do you have anything for your hair?”

I had a comb and detangling spray in the kitchen. “Yeah.”

I ran to grab it, my knees wobbling and my heart thumping the entire time.

---