Zed sigh in exasperation. "Fine, then you're irritated at me. But I can't change my past, Dare. And all those girls? They're in the past. I've only ever loved one woman, and that's you. Never forget that."
My heart softened at the sincerity in his eyes, and I tilted my head to kiss him softly. "I know. Go sort out Timber, and we can hit that rain check when you're back."
"Count on it," he replied, kissing me once more, then getting back into his car.
As he reversed back out of the garage, I made my way inside and found Dallas standing in the foyer with a laptop balanced on his arm. He was tapping the keyboard one-handed, his eyes on a wall panel where he was doing... something, but he looked up when I got closer.
"Boss, hi," he said with a tight smile. "Almost done. Sorry, we ran overtime."
I checked the clock on the wall and noticed it was a solid hour later than I'd told him to be finished by. Not that it really mattered, but I hadn't wanted Seph to notice the increased security.
"Don't worry about it," I told him. "Have Rex's guys gone?"
Dallas nodded. "Yeah, they left before Seph and Lucas got home. I figured you wouldn't want them hanging around your sister."
I flashed him an appreciative smile. "You figured right."
His eyes returned to what he was doing. "I told Seph we were just running routine maintenance checks. She seemed none the wiser."
"Sounds like her. Thanks, Dallas."
He nodded again, then tapped a few more keys on his laptop until the wall unit beeped five times and flashed green. "All done," he announced with a triumphant grin. "Want me to run you through it all?"
I accepted, and Dallas followed me to the kitchen so I could drop my bag and remove my weapons. He spent about fifteen minutes talking me through the new security system: motion detectors, cameras, spotlights, even heat sensors and gas particle detection units. I'd thought Zed's home was a fortress before? Not even close. Now it was a fortress. Seph would be lucky to sneeze without an alarm going off somewhere.
When Dallas was done, I showed him out, then armed our new alarm system as he'd shown me. I just needed to remember to disarm it before Zed got back, seeing as he didn't have the code.
"We all secure?" Lucas asked as I returned to the den, where he'd been studying on the couch. He'd listened to bits of what Dallas had been telling me, but I could tell his head was in his books. That was perfectly fine by me; it was nothing I couldn't show him when he needed to know.
I nodded, shifting some of his textbooks to the coffee table so I could sit beside him. Then I squirmed as the plug shifted in my ass.
"Yup, all done," I replied, wetting my lips. "Where's the brat?"
Grinning, Lucas capped the pen he'd been using and set his work aside. "In her room," he replied, snaking an arm around my waist.
"Hmm," I hummed, glancing up to the ceiling like my X-ray vision could tell me if she was likely to come down any time soon. "And Cass?"
Lucas shrugged. "No clue. Haven't seen him since I got home. Either he's gone out—sneaky cat—or he's hiding somewhere to avoid Dallas seeing him alive." He shrugged, then pulled me into his lap, making me squirm again. "So for now, it's just us."
"Just us, huh?" I repeated, draping my arms around his neck. He was still in his Shadow Prep uniform, the tie tugged loose and his top button open. "I can't decide if I'm turned on by this uniform or totally creeped out," I admitted, pulling the tie undone and tossing it aside.
Lucas nodded in understanding. "I should take it off, just to be safe."
Giving him a soft laugh, I unbuttoned his SP-monogrammed shirt and pushed it off his gorgeous shoulders. "Oh, much better," I murmured teasingly. "Wait. I'm interrupting, and you have exams coming up." I scrambled out of his lap in an attempt to be responsible, but Lucas caught me with his hands on my hips before I could make it far.
"I think I can take a study break, Hayden," he told me with a small laugh. He was still seated, and he tipped his head right back to hold my gaze. "Promise. It'll actually make me study better because I won't be distracted by my raging hard-on."