Chapter 54 chapter 54

Chapter 54 chapter 54
Beck

I watched Misty from the couch as she walked across the hall in the dark from the bathroom to her bedroom. The towel barely covered her ass, and I gritted my teeth. I hadn’t found it this hard to avoid stumbling into a woman’s bed since Alley. The thought of leaving the girls with Valentina for an evening and going to a random bar, however fell flat. Over the years I had admired many women; physically and mentally. In my line of work, you met a lot of women who were considered chattel for their looks or breeding, but the survivors were the strongest. This five-foot-nothing woman was the fiercest, smartest, and most beautiful inside and out that I had come across in all my years. She had pulled a gun on my behalf for goddess sake. This mere human woman was balancing the world on her shoulders, and she didn’t even flinch. Every time I closed my eyes, she consumed my thoughts. Right now, I was imagining that cheeky ass of hers and the towel being a few inches shorter. What was wrong with me? Not only had I chosen to protect her and Cricket like any other charge, which I had never crossed the line before with. But she was also about 15 years too young to even consider these sorts of thoughts normal. I couldn't even blame her backhanded suggestion the other night for stirring them up; that trap she opened, I almost fell into. I’d started spiraling into these thoughts well before then. Only by my sheer force of will had I refused. Maybe the loss of the family I never got to have was rearing its inconvenient head. Deep down however, I knew it was something else. I genuinely liked her, admired her, and found her sexually appealing. Now that was a dangerous cocktail wrapped up in a five foot Latina single mom. 

I woke up to the sound of her making coffee the next day. When she bent to put something in the oven. She was in a oversized tee shirt and barely there sleeping shorts if you could call them that. I inwardly groaned. Apparently, getting older didn’t turn off my appreciation of the female form. Wouldn’t that have been convenient? I rubbed at my beard as I eyed her, wondering what she was making, and what the fuck was I going to do with this situation. I already put myself out there to help Cricket, because I truly cared about the cub, because she deserved an opportunity to grow up with guidance. If Misty agreed, that meant there was no just walking away. Anything that I acted on could affect our makeshift dynamic and Cricket’s future for the rest of our lives. 

I cleared my throat and she looked over her shoulder and smiled. That fucking smile, caught me in the chest. I loved it when she smiled, but it also came with conflicting feelings. However now I was asking myself, the question she had challenged me with. If Alley really loved me would she want me to wallow or live? That in and of itself bode to other things to contemplate; things I had avoided over the years. My mate had lied to me, hidden her greatest fears within an acceptable package. In the end that package had exploded, destroying us both. The truth I hadn’t come to terms with until now was that she thought she knew what she was doing until she discovered the devil she was playing with, and when she had realized what she had done, it was far too late.

The breakfast casserole was delicious. My lips were numb but I found myself in a coma of happiness as I sat with Cricket at the counter. Surrounded by the two females that made my life matter, not because they were charges, but because my soul had awakened. It wasn't due to duty, it was because I absolutely cared. I was a fucking mess.