Page 51 of Devil's Work: Dark

“Oh, good,” she breathes. “I’d hate to have to kick Dark’s ass.”

I bust out laughing in my president’s ear. “Right. I’m off.”

“Later,” he says, then hangs up.

I walk back into the kitchen. Rae’s at the stove piling scrambled eggs and sausage on a plate. “Sit,” she says. I sit. Rae adds toast to the plate, then fixes a second one the exact same way. She walks them both over to the table, setting one down in front of me, and one at her place.

If it happened to me.

Shit.

I watch Rae as she eats her food. She must feel me because she looks up from her plate, stopping her fork halfway to her mouth. “What?” she asks.

What? I’ll show her what. I reach my hand over to cup the back of her head, pulling her in close, and kiss her. I kiss her hard and deep. She drops her fork and it hits the plate, clanking. Lacy squeals, kicking my head back straight and I end the kiss, letting Rae go.

She’s barely breathing. Staring at me, blinking. The barest hint of a smile tips up at the corner of her lips. I don’t say anything. She doesn’t say anything. But I know the woman fucking gets me. Her cheeks pink and she lowers her eyes, picking back up her fork to continue eating.

We’re in our little family bubble.

Then the fucking doorbell rings.

14

RAE

“I’ll get it,” I say, standing from the table.

“Sit, baby. Eat,” Dark orders me. “I’ll get it.” I turn my head to look in the direction of the living room, then back down at my plate and nod. Dark shoves up from the table and stalks over to the door, throwing it open, grumbling the whole time. Given the moment we just had, he has to hate that someone is interrupting our morning. I hear a female gasp and then, “What do you need?” barked from Dark. My sister finally showed…andI forgot to tell Dark that she’ll be staying with us for a while.

“Is Rae here?” she asks.

“Who wants to know?”

“I’m—”

“Dela,” I say from behind him. My sister jumps. God. Half of me wants to hug her tight and keep hugging her to continue reassuring myself that she’s alright. The other half wants to slap her upside the head for getting us mixed up in this. As always when it comes to my sister, the hug wins out. “Dark, move out of the way so my sister can come in.”

He turns narrowed eyes on me. “You want me to let this bitch inside our home?” Okay, it’s hard to be irritated with the man when he calls this place “our home.”

“She’s my sister. Yes, I’d like you to let her in,” I say. When he doesn’t move, I rest my hand gently against his beautifully strong bicep. “Please,” I say. He sighs and steps aside.

My sister looks between him and me, her eyes alight with curiosity and conjecture. And I’m sure everything she’s thinking is accurate. I pull her in for a hug, not remotely ready to get into the hard discussion looming predominately over our heads. She smells like she’s been living out of her car for a while and she could probably use a good meal.

“Have you eaten?” I whisper.

“Classic Rae,” she responds. “Always taking care of everyone.” Then she laughs softly. “Yeah, I could eat.”

“Right,” I say. “Into the kitchen.”

While I let her go ahead, I hold Dark back. “She’s what I was calling about last night.”

“That woman can’t be here. Look at the trouble she got you into. You want that shit around the kids?”

I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Dark, honey, she’s my sister. Our entire lives, we were all each other had until I married Jim, and now I have you. She doesn’t have anyone else.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“Maybe hers, maybe no one’s. You know how we grew up. I can’t turn her away.”

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