Rocked (The Everyday Heroes World) - Julia Wolf Page 0,27

she climbed in and drove away while I stood there in an empty parking lot wondering what the hell had just happened. Kat was a complication I wasn’t looking for and didn’t need, but damn if I didn’t regret the loss of her lips and feel of her warm skin under my hand.

Nine

Kat

I’d planned on avoiding Devon until...well, until he packed up and left Sunnyville for good. It seemed the wisest course. I didn’t need to be getting tangled up in a guy whose presence was temporary. My life was complicated and busy enough without adding an egotistical and flirtatious rock star to the mix.

I was getting way ahead of myself with those kinds of thoughts anyway. Just because Devon kissed me didn’t mean he wanted to get tangled up with me—a single mom in a small town with a crazy dog and a demanding job.

But that kiss…

Nope. I was wiping my memory free of that.

I stood on my porch, calling for Leroy, who had once again made a break for it. It was as if he knew I was aiming to avoid Devon and was hell bent on doing the exact opposite of what I wanted him to.

Relief washed over me when Leroy came flying back into the yard, tongue hanging out and tail wagging like mad. I wouldn’t have to go fetch the damn mongrel from Devon’s yard, and I could choose to bury my head in the sand.

A flash of white on Leroy’s back caught my eye. When he skidded to a stop in front of me, I realized he had a piece of notebook paper tucked into his collar. Plopping my bum on the top of the steps, I slid my fingers under his collar and tugged him closer. My goofy boy laid his head on my knee, and I gave him a good scratch for finally doing something right.

I slipped the paper out, unable to stop the smile pulling at my lips. I tried. Damn it, I tried! But sending a note with my dog? I wasn’t immune to cute gestures like that.

Lady,

I regret nothing.

Yours,

The wholesome and never naughty except when you want him to be lad next door

Oh boy, it was both better and worse than I thought it would be.

“Did you really have to bring this to me?” I scolded Leroy. He let his head flop to the side on my lap and gave his most pitiful tail wag. “Fine, you’re the best boy who was just listening to the bad man. I get it. He’s cute and probably gives you really nice pats. Just try to be a little more discerning next time, okay, buddy?”

“You’re talking to your dog about me?”

Of course Devon stood at the edge of my yard, close enough he probably heard most of what I had said. I shrugged internally. It wasn’t like Devon didn’t know he was really cute. Hot. Devastatingly good-looking.

“I’m talking to my dog. What makes you think I’m talking about you?”

His smirk didn’t make him any less handsome. God help me, it might have made him more so. It certainly didn’t give him the smarmy quality it did most guys. Devon Chambers was made to smirk. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d slid out of his mama with a sardonic little smile already on his baby lips. The nurses probably all fainted and it was a whole incident.

He slowly shuffled closer, his hands tucked in the pockets of his faded jeans. “Oh, I don’t know. Guess I heard something about a cute, bad man and figured that might be me.”

My brow lifted. “That’s mighty presumptuous of you, thinking you’re cute.”

He spread his arms out to the side. “I got a little ego, what can I say? I think you’re cute too, Kat.”

I dipped my head to hide the heat in my cheeks. I dated...occasionally. Hooked up...every now and then. I wasn’t heinous, had even been called cute, beautiful, pretty, sexy, more than once. But I rarely blushed from male attention. It just wasn’t in me.

Except apparently it was. I attributed that to the “extra” Devon carried around with him. His rock-star-soaring-ego-why-shouldn’t-you-love-me vibe.

Which might’ve been why his thumb brushing over my scar while he kissed me yesterday jerked me back to reality. Other men had touched it before, both purposefully and inadvertently, and though the purposeful touches made me uncomfortable, if I liked everything else going on, I wouldn’t stop it. I’d certainly liked kissing Devon, but I’d hated the feel of him touching