Page 28 of Devil's Work: Dark

“It’s tight.”

“So my figure offends you?” she asks.

Fuck yeah, itoffendsme and by extension my cock, that she hasn’t let me ram it in her tight little sweet box while running my hands and my lips all over herfigure.

“Don’t need all those loser dads hitting on you while I’m trying to keep you safe.”

She rolls her eyes and I want to kiss that look right off her face. The fuck? Kiss? “I highly doubt that with you as my bodyguard, anyone will have the guts to talk to me, let alone hit on me,” she says, tearing me away from those truly disturbing thoughts.

Ty bounds out of his room. Baby Girl starts wailing from her room. Jesus, it’s a fucking madhouse. The sound of Green’s Harley rumbles, like he’s telling me if we don’t get on with it, he’s leaving.

“Can you help Ty with his shoes while I get Lace?” Rae asks, snapping my attention back to her and the kids.

Holy shit.I grit my teeth. I need to get laid and quick. “Yeah,” I sigh. “Get your shoes, bud.” When she smiles her ‘thank you’ at me, I know I’m gonna die. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a bitch so much in my life.

The kid bounds to the mat by the door and sits down. No shoes allowed on inside the house. My mom didn’t care enough to make sure wehadshoes. Rae does me in with how good she is to those kids. All the shit they’ve been through the last couple of years and the kids don’t feel it—aside from Ty losing his dad—she makes sure the kids don’t feel any of it. Rae takes it all on. Carries every burden alone.

I look down and Ty has his right shoe on his left foot. Left shoe on his right foot. “Wrong feet, bud. Switch ’em around.”

Ty smiles up at me then switches the shoes. I’m bent over tying them when I feel Rae move back into the room. Once I’m finished, I tug him up, grab Rae’s keys from the key hook hanging by the door, and shove my feet inside my boots. Then I turn to her, gesturing for the door. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

As she passes me, I lift the diaper bag from her shoulder, hefting it over mine, ushering her out the door, then I lock it before we go.

“Dark,” Baby Girl says to me and she smiles. She fucking said my name. It feels like a hand gripping my chest, I’m so proud. The kid doesn’t talk much. Not that she’s dumb, it’s just everyone does things for her so she really doesn’t need to. She’s already got her mom’s smile, even at a year and a half. I turn my head to take in Rae with her hand partially covering her mouth and her eyes shimmer. I didn’t mistake this. It really is a big moment. Ty grabs my hand. I clear my throat as we move next door.

Miss Mable stands in her open door waiting on us.

Ty drops my hand and rolls in to hug my legs. “Bye, Dark.” He runs, slamming into his mom’s legs hard enough to force her to take a step back. “Bye, Mumma.” Then he runs up the couple steps past the wrinkled, old Mable into her house.

I drop my hand to the spot right above Rae’s ass and usher her over to the trailer. She doesn’t protest and I don’t move my hand as we walk. Without thinking, I press a kiss to the top of Baby Girl’s head. “Be good for Miss Mable,” I say. She’s little. She’ll act how she’s going to act.

Rae makes the exchange with Mable taking Lacy. “Have fun tonight,” Mable says, backing inside. “You don’t get out near enough.” Shit, if that doesn’t hit me in the chest, too. She’s right. Rae needs to get out and have fun once in a while. As I hand off the diaper bag, I wonder when was the last time she went out dancing or got so drunk, she needed to be carried off to bed.

“Aw… What a sweet little family,” Green calls out. I punch him in the gut as I pass. He doubles over, making me chuckle under my breath and without missing a beat, I help Rae inside the truck.

When I climb in next to her, she’s looking at her hands. Something’s wrong. Again with the touching her, I use a crooked finger to lift her chin. I want her to look at me.

“What?” I ask.

“I’m sorry about that.”

Not following, I ask, “About what?”

“Green. Teasing you.Sweet little familyand all that. I know they give you shit. He’s not the only one. A guy like you—it must be so embarrassing, people thinking you’re connected to me and my kids in any way. I hate that for you.”

The fuck?

“I don’t give a shit what Green or anyone says. You’re a good mom, got great kids.”

She smiles, but it’s only half-hearted. Has the world beaten her down so bad that she doesn’t know how fucking great she is?

We don’t talk on the short drive to the school. I park the truck closest to where the people are entering the building. I think it’s the gym. Rae waits for me to help her down out of the truck and because I feel like I need to prove a point, I drop my hand just above her ass again as we follow a group inside.

Rae’s doing exactly like she said she was coming here to do. Her head moves as she scans the faces of every person we pass.

A pudgy woman wearing helmet hair and clothing too tight for her size, popping out of her black leather pumps that only by the grace of God are holding up, stops us. She’s got judgment written all over her face. “This is a meeting for parents,” she says in an exaggerated sweet voice.

“Yes. I know,” Rae replies. “I’m a parent. My son will be going to kindergarten here.”

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