His slight wince let her know that maybe her words were too hard, but she wouldn’t feel bad for them. He had nerve, and his ego needed a check.
“Well then, go! I’m telling you that you can go!”
She started down the hall back to Damian’s room, then turned back to him, surprised to find him not far behind.
“It wasn’t like I needed your permission to stay in the first place. And it’s not like I’m staying for you.” She let out a breath, not sure in that moment why she really let it get that heated. Kerry lowered her voice. “Look. I’m not staying for you. That part is true. Not just for you. Though, yes, you can use my help, but it’s also true that you would be fine or close enough to getting by without me. I’m doing this to help you flourish and because I still believe in the shop. I don’t want to see it close. I believe in what Mama Joy built here over all these years. Almost as much as it was for you, this place was like home for me too.”
Without her thinking, that damned errant hand came out once again and was now stroking his arm. Damn, he was way too easy to touch. She pulled back. “Didn’t you have dishes to finish? And I have a shirt to iron.”
11
Kerry didn’t have time to wallow in the embarrassment or the emotions of the conversation with Jesse because, just as she was finishing unplugging the iron and slipping into her blouse, Damian showed up.
Deep in thought, she didn’t hear him come in over the sound of Jesse washing dishes, or maybe it was the sound of her brain stuck flipping over in hyperdrive about the conversation they’d just had back in Mama Joy’s room. It was good she’d gotten him back on track, but it was just barely, at that. And really, he was almost too much to take. Talk about thinking he was all that. She couldn’t with Jesse Strong, even if she wanted to at times. She paused midway through pulling on her blouse and thought of how he’d looked at her. For a moment in the midst of his desperation, she thought she had seen a hint of desire, but maybe she was wrong. Maybe she had only imagined it, or wanted to imagine it. But that was the last thing she should want or want to imagine. Shit. Kerry sighed. More likely than not it was just Jesse being Jesse. His usual way. She could call it flirty, but it kind of wasn’t. She knew that now. Still, the touch of his hand was so powerful, so electric, she couldn’t help but jump back as if shocked, and that shock, that immediate response, it damned well did make her angry. Just as much as his egotistical words.
Kerry looked over at her phone. Crap. Why hadn’t she heard back from her landlord yet about the state of her building? Staying here much longer would definitely be detrimental to their relationship and her nerves. And lately her nerves had had enough—Mama Joy, the shop, her place . . . it was just one unnerving moment after another.
“Sorry. If I thought my bedroom would be occupied, I would have knocked first.”
Kerry quickly spun around. The arrogant voice at the doorway as she buttoned the last button on her top let her know that there was no respite on the horizon for said nerves.
She glared at Damian, both pissed and embarrassed over having been potentially caught with her pants down. The embarrassment left little room for her to feel any type of way about being in his space. “Seriously, Damian, didn’t Jesse tell you I was in here?”
“He didn’t,” he said with an arrogant smirk. “And, well, it’s not like I actually asked him. When I saw him in the kitchen washing dishes, I just assumed he must have been cleaning up after his company from last night. Or maybe she’d either just left or was still in his bedroom. How was I supposed to know the reason for his domesticity would be you, Kerry Girl?”
“I wouldn’t quite characterize myself that way, Damian My Boy.”
She let out a breath. She didn’t quite want to address the whole innuendo of being Jesse’s overnight guest, but yes, she still felt she needed to explain things. It wasn’t like she could argue with Damian’s assumption when it came to Jesse.
“It’s no big deal really. Well, maybe it is. I hope it’s not. There was an explosion at my place last night and Jesse came to get me. Well, Lucas came first, when the fire department was called. And he let me crash here. Jesse, that is. I hope it’s okay that Jesse said I could use your room.” She was rambling. Why was she rambling when she’d clearly said it wasn’t a big deal?
Surprisingly, immediate concern came to Damian’s eyes. He grabbed her by the shoulders and looked up and down her body. “Are you all right? Was there a fire? You didn’t get hurt, did you?”
She lifted her arms and pushed his hands down. “I’m fine. As you can see. Thankfully it wasn’t as serious as that.”
“Yes, she’s fine. No need to be putting your paws all over her like that.”
The bass in Jesse’s tone had both her and Damian spinning toward Jesse’s voice.
In a flash Damian was back to his usual cool self, leaving Kerry wondering if the moment of kindness had ever happened and why Jesse was so weird. “You should talk. Paws? That’s funny coming from the original bear in the woods. Wasn’t it you I found with your hands all over her just the other day?”
Hold up. Kerry could tell he was about to go back to a potentially dangerous place and emergency breaks were in order. “You two plan on growing up anytime this year, or nah?” she said.
“I choose nah,” Jesse replied, and Kerry rolled her eyes, connecting for a brief moment with Damian.
He gave her a slight grin, then sobered. “Seriously, what happened?” he asked, but now that he’d assessed that she was fine, he had divided his attention and was going toward the small closet. When he opened it, Kerry wasn’t surprised at all to see his suits and dress shirts all perfectly aligned and in color-coordinated order. She hoped he’d find time to help them with organizing the shop half as well, because this closet was a dream.
“I thought you had your own place downtown?” she asked, her mouth working before her brain could stop it. She remembered too late that not even Mama Joy spoke about Damian and his downtown living situation. From what Kerry had gathered, Damian was half-secretive about it, which may or may not have had something to do with his roommate or sometimes bedmate being an older colleague at the financial firm he worked at. But who knew? Certainly not Kerry, and she didn’t have business opening her mouth to ask. She was the not-quite-Goldilocks who had slept in his bed without permission last night.
“I do,” he said, his words short and clipped, “but I still keep a few things here.”
She frowned but nodded anyway, vowing to stop the questions there.
But Jesse took no such vow. “Yet you’re so quick to want to sell off your ready-made storage unit.”
Way faster than Kerry and maybe even Jesse expected, Damian whirled on him. “Fuck you. You know I don’t think of this as a storage unit.” Damian stopped suddenly and let out a slow breath as if he’d surprised himself with his outburst.