Wicked as Lies (Wicked & Devoted #3) - Shayla Black Page 0,86
to a rumbling Santa laugh.
The gesture warmed Tessa’s heart. Her baby would love this gift…and she loved the way he always thought of her. “Thank you, but you didn’t have to do that.”
“I kind of did. It’s a long way out to Trees’s place. You ready? You must be because you look”—he scanned her up and down with a hungry stare—“amazing.”
“Yeah.” She leaned closer. “You look pretty good yourself, but I don’t think Santa has abs like yours.”
He grinned. “Santa is full of surprises.”
Tessa laughed again as she lifted Hallie’s car seat and they made their way to her sedan. She unlocked the vehicle and situated the car seat in its cradle. When she looked up, Zy had settled himself behind the wheel.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to make tonight as fun—and safe—for you as possible. Finding Trees’s place isn’t easy, and the dirt roads are a bitch.”
“Dirt roads?”
“Oh, yeah. In the office, Trees might seem quiet, laid-back, and easy to get along with. At home? He’s a paranoid badass looking for any reason to shoot anyone who steps foot on his property. You’ll see what I mean.”
She’d never glimpsed that side of Trees, but if Zy said it existed, then it did. She’d never trusted anyone the way she trusted him, even, in the end, her own father. That told her a lot about the depth of her feelings. So did the fact that she’d spent the last month job hunting again, hoping to find a position with comparable pay and benefits working for someone who wouldn’t care anything about her personal life. Unfortunately, the search had merely reinforced the reality that, in a city of 125,000 people, the opportunities for someone with her skills, requiring her pay, just weren’t there.
But she refused to give up. Maybe something would materialize in January…
Pasting on a smile, she gestured to the steering wheel. “Then lead the way.”
He backed out of her driveway and headed for the highway. Christmas carols played softly in the background. And Tessa was painfully aware of the fact that she sat less than a foot from the man she wanted so badly she could taste it, the seat belt pressing the open Santa jacket to his sides, leaving her a mouthwatering view of his strong, solid chest and amazing twelve-pack abs.
Lord have mercy.
No, she wasn’t in love with him because his muscles made her drool. She’d fallen for the man inside. But no denying the outer packaging stirred her interest…along with parts farther south.
She had to stop thinking like this, or if she got a little booze in her system, she’d be all over Zy. “Tell me what I’m in for tonight.”
“I’m not entirely sure. Trees said Christmas Eve dinner. Dress festive. He has the food and booze covered.”
“That’s all I heard, too. Can he cook?”
Zy winced. “No. And—I hate to break it to you—but he’s too much of a survivalist to order a holiday dinner.”
“Oh.” Good thing she’d eaten a sandwich, just in case. “On the bright side, I offered to bake desserts, and he took me up on it. So I brought them to the office yesterday. At least we know that part will be edible.”
He gave her an enthusiastic nod. “I can live on pie for a night.”
“Me, too. We’re good.”
They laughed and settled in for the rest of the car ride, enjoying small talk and holiday tunes. They weren’t on the highway long, and the streets of the small town they passed through quickly gave way to unpaved roads. It was scary dark out here—no streetlights, no houses, no signs of life.
“Trees lives here voluntarily?”
“Oh, he chose this place on purpose.” Zy sighed.
Finally, they turned a corner and passed a group of thick shrubs. An imposing gate appeared, and Zy hopped out of the car, waved to the top of a tree, then punched a code into a keypad on the surrounding fence before shoving the gate wide. While Zy slipped behind the wheel again and drove on, Tessa turned to watch the gate shut behind them.
“Wow. He’s serious about security.”
“Absolutely. It doesn’t matter whether he’s hit by an armed robber, civil unrest, or the zombie apocalypse, he’s prepared to survive.”
She’d known his work, mostly via his expense reports, to be fastidious and detailed. She hadn’t imagined he had a crazy streak. “All righty, then. Do you know why he’s so…cautious?”
“Yeah.” And Zy didn’t sound like he wanted to talk about it.
They rounded a few more bends and finally stopped in front of a