“You need to leave,” I told him before I could say something stupid.

Dewayne started to say something, but I held up my hand to stop him. “I know you didn’t hurt me

on purpose. I know you checked out Cam because you were protecting me and Micah. I get it. Now

please leave. I need coffee, and I didn’t sleep well last night, and I—”

I stopped talking as Dewayne took two steps toward me until he was towering over me. Then his

larger-than-life hands cupped my face, and before anything could register, his lips were on mine.

I reached up and grabbed his arms to keep myself from melting into a puddle on the floor. Dewayne

Falco’s mouth was very talented, and the second his tongue slipped along my bottom lip, I opened up

for him and was lost. The minty taste of him consumed me as he nibbled and explored my mouth. I

just held on. It was all I could do. My entire body was under his command. I couldn’t think coherently.

Nothing had ever been like this. Ever.

But then, I had only kissed one other. And we had just been kids then.

Dewayne’s hands slipped down my back and cupped my bottom as he lifted me higher up against

his body. His tongue danced along and teased mine, driving me crazy.

A moan came from somewhere, but I wasn’t sure whose it was. He heard it too, and it was like ice

water over the fire that he’d wrapped us inside. Before I could steady myself, I was back on the ground

and Dewayne was putting the length of my living room between us. I grabbed the chair behind me and

hoped I didn’t sway on my feet.

Dewayne’s eyes were wild as he breathed heavily. At least he seemed as affected as I was. Because

I was affected. No, I was marked. For life. I may not have been kissed by anyone other than Dustin

before this, but I knew that no one was ever going to compare to what I’d just experienced.

“We can’t. I shouldn’t have,” Dewayne said, shaking his head. Then he all but ran out of my house.

I stood there and listened to his truck door close and the engine start up. I stood there long after his

truck had pulled out of my driveway.

He hadn’t been able to get away from me fast enough. It wasn’t like I had asked him to kiss me.

Had he expected me to push him away? Was I a bad kisser? Had that moan been mine, and he had

been turned off?

God! I hated being so damn clueless at this.

“Momma? Why is the door open?” Micah’s voice asked, and I snapped out of my daze and turned

to see my little boy frowning at me.

“Because I was waiting on you,” I replied, not missing a beat.

He smiled and ran over to me, and I was careful to hide my bruised arm as I hugged him.

“Did you have fun?” I asked.

He nodded but pulled back and looked up at me. “I missed you this morning. Mama T offered to

make me biscuits, but I wanted to come home and eat Pop-Tarts with you. I remembered you didn’t

have work today.”

Hillary had given me one Saturday off a month, and I was very thankful for that this morning. After

what had just happened, leaving Dewayne at my house to watch Micah would have been hard and

distracting.

“I can do better than Pop-Tarts. How about pancakes?” I asked him.

He grinned. “How about chocolate chip pancakes?”

“Sounds perfect,” I said. “Let me go change shirts and we will get to work.”

I didn’t let him see me long enough to see my arm before I slipped out of the kitchen and into my

bedroom, where I put on a long-sleeve T-shirt.

DEWAYNE

She was Dustin’s. She would always be Dustin’s.

Why the fuck had I kissed her? Goddamn, I wasn’t going to be able to forget that. She’d been so

damn sweet and hot all at once. Almost like she was innocent, when I knew she wasn’t. She had a kid.

She wasn’t innocent, and she’d melted into my arms so easily. I had wanted to get her as close to me

as fucking possible.

Then she’d moaned, and my dick had gone so hard it had almost broken the damn zipper on my

jeans. Fuck, but she was a sexy moaner. If I hadn’t gotten away from her, I would have ended up

fucking her on the sofa. The image of Sienna naked and wrapped around me sprang to mind, and I hit

the steering wheel and cursed. I needed a fucking cigarette. Why did that shit have to kill you? Giving

up alcohol was going to be a hell of a lot easier.

I couldn’t do this shit. She was Micah’s mom. She wasn’t someone I could fuck for fun and walk

away from. And after today I wasn’t sure I could fuck her and walk away from her. Hell, not tasting

her mouth again was going to kill me. No wonder my brother had knocked her up. Fuck! I wouldn’t

have been able to keep my wits about me when I was between her legs either. Damn woman could

make any man lose his mind.

Dustin would want Sienna happy and taken care of. He would want her to have the life she

deserved. Not one with his loser older brother, who had made more fucking mistakes than the average

person. Hell, I’d bruised her arm. How the fuck did someone hurt Sienna? I wasn’t drinking ever

again. I was done. If that was the kind of shit I did, I wasn’t touching alcohol. Sienna and Micah were

going to turn me into the damn Pope.

Micah deserved a man in his life he could look up to. I would be the uncle who doted on him and

made him feel loved, but I wasn’t really much to look up to. I wasn’t that guy. I never was and never

would be good enough for Sienna Roy and my nephew. She needed a man who could be with just her.

Who didn’t need easy, no-strings fucks. And Micah needed a stable uncle. One who was a good role

model. One who didn’t fucking hurt his momma. Motherfucker! I wanted to beat my own ass. Sienna’s

bruised arm turned my stomach. I’d done that to her. I was the worthless piece of shit I knew wasn’t

worthy enough to kiss those sweet lips of hers.

Then I’d kissed her. What the hell! What kind of message did that send? Not a good one. Surely she

knew I wasn’t for her. I wasn’t for anyone. I would have to talk to Sienna and apologize. She needed to

understand that I couldn’t be what she needed. I wasn’t that guy. I would be there for them, I would be

her friend, I would take care of them—but that was all I was good for. Nothing more.

A knock on my window startled me, and I turned to see Marcus Hardy frowning at me. I had parked

in the lot of my apartment building, but I hadn’t gotten out. I opened the door and stepped out of the

truck.

“What was that about?” Marcus asked.

“What?” I asked, trying to blow off whatever it was he’d seen.

Marcus cocked an eyebrow at me. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the snarling and cursing and hitting

your steering wheel.”

Shit. He’d been there a while.

“Nothing,” I replied, and started walking to my apartment. I knew Marcus would follow me.

“Preston said Sienna Roy was back and she has a kid.”

Shit. Preston gossiped like a damn woman.

I nodded and pulled out my keys to unlock my apartment door.

“Kid’s Dustin’s, then?” Marcus said, walking into my apartment behind me. Marcus would have

this conversation by himself until I spoke up. He wouldn’t leave. That wasn’t Marcus. He was

persistent.

“Yeah. Micah’s my nephew.”

Marcus nodded and went and made himself comfortable on the couch.

“She giving you a hard time? If I remember right, you sure had a lot of interest in her back in the

day. You got sent to alternative school for a month after beating the shit out of that guy who had

cornered her in the hallway and was touching her while she tried to push him away. Broke the kid’s

nose.”

Alternative school had sucked. It was for the thugs who screwed up so bad they took them out of