Damien (Slater Brothers #5)(78)

“You’ll do great.”

I looked at Jax. “Bye-bye, buddy.”

He smiled at me and made the sound of kisses, so I leaned in and kissed all over his face, to which he screamed in delight.

“What about me?” Damien said, a perfect pout in place. “Don’t I get kisses?”

“I don’t know,” I mused. “Have you been a good boy?”

“I made you come twice last night, once on my tongue, and once on my fingers … I think I’m a very good boy.”

I covered Jax’s ears. “The baby is present!”

Damien laughed. “Give me some sugar, gorgeous.”

I leaned up on my tiptoes and pressed my lips against his in a chaste kiss.

“See you later,” I whispered before sliding my tongue over his lower lip.

“Sin,” Damien growled. “You’re sin!”

I winked, then turned my attention back to Jax.

“Be good for your Mammy and Daddy, okay?”

He nodded as if he knew what I was saying.

“Just his Mom,” Damien said. “Kane is busy today.”

Before I could stop myself from being nosy, I asked, “Doin’ what?”

Damien pointedly flicked his eyes away from me, and instantly, I knew it was because whatever he was about to say was a lie. I knew because I couldn’t lie for shite either, and my friends had told me on multiple occasions that I did the exact same thing when I was being untruthful.

“Running some errands,” he answered. “I’m not all that sure. I wasn’t listening to him when he was talking last night. I was too busy looking at you.”

When Damien looked back at me, I had a forced smile on my face, trying to hide the unease I felt at him lying to me so easily.

“Well.” I cleared my throat, focusing on my nephew. “You be good for Mammy, d’ye hear?”

Jax babbled in his baby language.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Damien grinned then leaned down and kissed my cheek.

“I’ll see you this evening?”

I nodded.

“Is this all of his things?” Damien asked, hiking the strap of Jax’s baby bag farther up his shoulder while holding Jax against his chest with one arm.

“Yeah,” I answered. “I bought the travel cot since the kids stay with me so much. You have everythin’ he needs in that bag.”

Another kiss and another goodbye, then I was alone with my thoughts, and from previous experience, I knew how dangerous that could be when I doubted something or someone. Damien just lied to me, I knew he did, but it was regarding whatever Kane was doing. I wasn’t sure if I should have been offended or simply brush it off because really, it was none of my business where Kane went, and it wasn’t Damien’s job to tell me, either.

I shook my head, forcing it to the back of my mind and went ahead and got changed into my work clothes. I tidied around the whole apartment, and an hour after Damien left, the buzzer rang, and I knew straight away that it was Morgan. As I walked towards the front door, I glanced at the clock on the wall and saw he was nearly ten minutes early for work, which made me smile.

I didn’t answer the call; I simply buzzed Morgan in once I saw it was him on the monitor. I put Barbara into her crate, just so she wouldn’t freak out when Morgan came in because she didn’t know him and was still a little flighty around me and Damien. Five minutes later, there was a knock on my door.

I opened it with a smile.

“Hi, Morgan.”

Morgan beamed a smile right back at me. “Heya, how’re you?”

“I’m great,” I said. “Come in, come in.”

Morgan whistled after we entered the kitchen.

“Nice place.”

“Thanks,” I chirped. “I love it.”

“Are you ’ere long?”

I shook my head. “I moved in a month ago; me friend lives upstairs and told me about it.”

“Nice,” Morgan said, his eyes roaming around the room. “Where I live is a dive compared to this.”

I chuckled. “I’m lucky, I guess.”

“Yeah,” Morgan agreed. “I guess you are.”

“D’ye want a cuppa?”

“If you’re makin’ tea, I won’t say no. Two sugars, please.”

A man after my own heart.

“I’ve been thinkin’ about what you said about your office.” Morgan spoke as I made the tea. “And I figured between the pair of us, we could get it up and operational today to get it out of the way.”

I glanced over my shoulder. “Are you sure? I don’t wanna have you goin’ out of your way.”

“It’s not out of me way,” he replied. “I’m gonna be workin’ ’ere, so I figure I might as well help you get the workspace together.”

“That’s lovely of you,” I said. “Thanks.”

“It’s settled then,” he chirped. “We can get on it when we finish our tea.”

I placed his cup in front of him, and together, we sat at my kitchen table.

“Have you got somethin’ to work on today?” Morgan asked, sipping his tea.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I’ve to start a book cover for an author; she has a pretty detailed brief about it. I need to reread it to capture ’er vision as well as combinin’ it with me own to create somethin’ I hope she likes.”