Page 39 of Fall Into Temptation
“We’re still talking about the dog, right?” Eva grinned.
She helped her sisters load up their books.
Emma turned around at the door. “Merill recap. Talk to us about stuff. You don’t have to protect us from the bad or hold on to the good until its better.”
“Yeah. What she said,” Gia said, nodding in Emma’s direction.
Eva tossed her sisters a salute. “Got it. Now get out of here so I can write another book.”
Gia ducked her head back in the door. “Trust us, okay?” And then she was gone.
But she couldn’t. Even now, Eva couldn’t. There were just some things that you protected your family from.
Eva poured herself a second cup of coffee and retrieved her phone from the bedroom. She powered it up and winced at the number of missed calls and new text messages. She weeded through them quickly. Saving Donovan’s to read last.
She’d have to return her dad and Phoebe’s calls now, but the rest could wait.
There was another text from an unknown number. Eva debated not opening but decided it was better to know what was in it.
Unknown: “Don’t play games with me. I know where you are.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
By Thursday, Donovan felt like he’d been in uniform for a week straight. The entire town had lost its damn mind, and he, Colby, Layla, and Minnie were stretched thin trying to restore peace every five seconds.
Every time he lay down to sleep, every time he stepped in the shower, his phone went off with another crisis. Someone had stolen an entire rolling rack of turtlenecks from the Second Chances sidewalk fire sale. Aretha had come to her senses after trying to brain Fitz with hardbacks only to get into a shoving match with Amethyst Oakleigh in the canned goods section of Farm and Field Fresh over the last six cans of tofu tomato soup.
Colby had taken the night shift and ended up driving half a dozen teens home to their parents after they attempted to move the statues in front of the high school into a compromising position. Minnie was working overtime just to keep up with the avalanche of paperwork.
He had yet to make and keep a date with Eva. So he did the next best thing.
He’d snapped up the copy of her book she’d found at Fitz’s store and tucked it into his desk drawer. Between the peaks of crazy, Donovan read. A chapter here, a page there. And now was as good a time as any to take a break. He checked to make sure the door to his office was closed, slipped out of his shoes, and opened the drawer.
He’d read for ten or so and then see about tracking down some lunch,he decided.
Eva’s writing was strong, her language straightforward. Donovan had never picked up a romance novel before in his life, but he could guess at the genre’s appeal. She added layers to her characters, and he found himself thinking about the book, about the characters, even when he wasn’t reading.
It wasn’t just the story that interested him. It was what it told him about the author behind the words. The heroine, he’d discovered, had been abandoned early in life by her mother and had taken to hiding her feelings to protect the rest of her family.
It gave him a better idea of what was going on in the brain of the woman he couldn’t get out of his mind or his heart.
He paged through the paperback to find his spot, too embarrassed to use a bookmark in case Minnie snooped through his things like he imagined she did when she got bored behind the desk. Donovan propped his socked feet up on his desk and dug in.
He’d managed a chapter and then the better part of another when things began to heat up on the page. The heroine and her hero were losing clothing faster than he lost money to Fitz at poker. Donovan tugged on his collar and glanced up to make sure his door was still closed.
He was just getting to the good part, thereallygood part when his door flew open. He wasn’t sure if it was adrenaline or embarrassment that had him chucking the book across the room. It hit the window with athwackand fell behind the worn couch that he’d been grabbing cat naps on since the planets had gone to hell.
“Everything all right, Cardona? You look a little feverish,” Beckett asked from the doorway. His cocky ass smile made Donovan realize he wasn’t fooling anyone with his pitching arm. It was a good thing he was wearing his daughter Lydia in a sling or Donovan would have considered taking a swing at him.
“To what do I owe the interruption?” The Pierce brothers—all three of them—plus Niko filed into his office with three kids and a dog. Donovan tried not to think about the scene he’d just been reading.
Jesus. Was that sweat on his brow? Was he sweating?
“Man, you’re sweating. You coming down with Colby’s food poisoning?” Carter asked.
“Nope. Just a warm day,” Donovan said, wondering where he usually put his hands when he wasn’t hiding something. Everywhere they went felt awkward and fake.
“It’s forty-five degrees outside,” Jax pointed out. “See, buddy. This is what happens when grown-ups lie. They get all red and sweaty,” he said to his foster son, Caleb. Caleb, at six, was all big eyes, messy hair, and shy smiles. He nodded with the hint of a curious smile as if still stunned that he was invited to be part of the man crowd.
