Page 2 of Gatling
“I found these.”
Kelsie held up a pair of men’s sunglasses with bronze lens. Nothing I would wear. And certainly not a style that her brother would wear either. A prickle of warning spider-walked down my spine.
Ms. Jalinski spoke up.
“I told you before, sweetie. A boyfriend probably forgot them. You brought home that nice young man from the post office a few weeks ago, remember?”
Kelsie’s cheeks turned a mortified shade of pink, avoiding my gaze.
Something nasty and dark curled around my spine, tightening with a possessive grip that I had no right to. She was twenty-six years old, for fuck’s sake. Of course she would bring men back to her apartment.
I still didn’t like it.
“You’re dating amail boy?” I said in a flat voice.
Kelsie huffed with annoyance.
“He’s apostal worker. Not amail boy. And no, not anymore.”
“Maybe he left them behind and you didn’t notice until now,” I suggested.
She shook her head.
“They were right next to my sink. I would have seen them when I was washing dishes. Besides, I haven’t had anyone else in my apartment since then.”
Well. That wasn’t true. But I wouldn’t admit it out loud.
Scrubbing a hand over my mouth, I looked away in case something in my expression betrayed me.
Three days ago, I overheard Kelsie mention a leaky faucet in her shower. I didn’t like relying on other people when I couldget the job done myself, especially when it came to maintenance techs who were notorious for dragging their feet.
So, while she was at work, I let myself into Kelsie’s apartment…with the spare key she didn’t know I had. Strictly for safety purposes, I reasoned.
It took less than fifteen minutes to fix the faucet. And that should have been the end of it.
But I’m a no-good, rotten bastard.
Bundled at the foot of Kelsie’s mattress was a pile of clean laundry, smelling of fresh, floral detergent. T-shirts and skirts, pajamas and shorts were jumbled up, tossed there to be folded and put away later.
Peeking out from a pair of jeans was a pair of pink, lacy panties.
My gaze locked on that fabric and every drop of blood in my body barrelled south. My cock twitched against the zipper of my fly, damning me to burn in hell for eternity.
Reaching out, I plucked the panties up, twining them around my fingers.
Fuck, they were so soft and silky. I'd clenched my teeth tight enough to snap my jaw, thinking about what that color would look like against Kelsie’s bare skin.
During the course of my lifetime, I had committed many sins that I wasn’t proud of.
Stuffing those panties into my pocket was one of them.
It was wrong on every level.
And I didn’t give a shit.
Taking the sunglasses from Kelsie now, I examined them. No identifying marks to indicate who the owner might be. Probably couldn’t get fingerprints off them at this point either, but I would try anyway. I tucked them into the inner pocket of my cut for safe keeping.
Kelsie cast a worried glance at me, chewing her lower lip. The number one thing that Noah and I had hammered into her brain above everything else we taught her:trust your gut.If something made her uneasy, it was better to act on it than to second guess it.
