Dex's face won.

But I couldn't find my vocabulary anywhere, and it must have made him feel awkward because he kept going.

"I know you said you think you aren't good at anythin' but I'm sure you can figure somethin' out, babe. You're smart."

My mouth opened and closed at least twice before my throat decided to work. "You went and got this for me?"

He shrugged uneasily. Uneasily! Dex! "I got a prospect from the Club to go get it."

He could have asked Santa Claus to go get it and it wouldn't have mattered. What mattered, because in life there are so few things that really do, was that he'd listened to me. That he hadn't just heard the words "I'm not good at anything," but that he'd heard everything else I'd said afterward.

“Why you frownin’?”

“I’m not frowning.” Pouting, maybe.

“Looks like you’re frownin’.”

“I swear I’m not.” My eyes were stinging. “I’m happy right now.”

He narrowed those impossible blue eyes. “You got somethin’ in your eye?”

I sniffed. “Allergies.” Like I was going to tell him he was going to make me cry.

Out of all of the things Dex could have given me, that was the last thing I could have ever expected: a course catalog for the local community college and an offer to help me with my classes. Not that I would ask him to help me pay for them—I wouldn't. But it was the thought. The friggin' thought that was worth ten times its weight in gold.

How could I not like this man? This ass**le, bossy man that listened to me?

“Dex.” His name came out of my mouth in the form of a sigh.

“What the hell, Ritz? Are you cryin’? I thought you’d be happy,” he said, quickly dropping to kneel right next to my chair. He pulled it out and toward him by the legs, making a horrible grating sound on the tile.

Without thinking twice, because I was so wrapped in his gesture, I threw my arms around his neck and pressed my nose to his throat. “Why aren’t you this nice all the time?” I asked, but it was so muffled I’m not sure he understood the question.

Two arms wrapped around me, pulling me flat against him. It's a testament to how unfocused I felt that I couldn't find it in me to appreciate the contact he was giving me. To let me even think about what a gesture like this coming from a man like Dex meant.

“Sounds borin’ to me.” That large palm cupped the back of my neck. “And nobody else gives me hugs like this but you.”

The urge to fall to the ground, rip my heart out of my chest and hold it out like a sacred offering was overwhelming. Take it! Take it all! I’d cry.

Instead, I just sat there with my arms around him, breathing in that smoky Dex scent. I squeezed him tighter to me, knowing that I should move.

But I couldn’t. Not right then when I had my face buried in the nicest smelling place ever. Not when I was confused by the man who defended me, slept with me, and brought me class catalogs. The same man who was the most good-looking male in both hemispheres.

“Is this our secret then?”

His chest puffed against mine. “Yeah, babe, it is.”

“Okay.” I leaned back and smiled at him. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“Better not.”

I snorted right as this incredibly tender emotion flooded my chest. And it caused this urge… I had to close my eyes as I leaned forward and pecked a kiss on Dex’s stubbled cheek. “Fine.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

There were times when I wondered whether I'd lost most of my common sense the moment I got within the Austin city limits. Several times, in fact.

And one of those moments was right then.

Who in their right mind would turn down a date from a gorgeous guy that also happened to be really nice? The guy was one of Blake’s repeat customers. A computer programmer gradually getting a full-sleeve done. I’d met him my first week at the shop. But I mean, really, who would do that if they were sane?

Me, I hoped.

“Just one,” Trey, who was tall—almost as tall as Dex, the tallest person in my life— had the nicest shade of close cropped light brown hair. Did I mention he was super cute? One date, just to try it out, he’d said a minute before.

My answer was a blush and a goofy grin. When was the last time someone had asked me out and been serious about it? Four years ago?

“We’ll do whatever you want,” he kept going.

“I don’t think I’m allowed to go on dates with customers,” I told him honestly. While I hadn’t seen it written anywhere, it just seemed like normal etiquette in an employee handbook.

Someone from behind me, Blake, snickered loudly. All of these guys were unbelievably nosey. They had superhuman listening skills when they were busy, but when they weren’t busy and a walk-in came in asking for a generic type of tattoo—like a girl who had come in asking for the name of her current boyfriend to be crafted onto the back of her neck for the rest of her existence—they were all deaf. It was a miracle, I swear, that their hearing came back on an hourly basis.

“I think all of us but Blue have done it, Iris,” Blake called out from his station.

Trey smiled that nearly perfect like smile. “See? Tomorrow night then?” he asked me expectantly.

I wasn’t planning on saying yes no matter how cute and tall he was. I had no business dragging someone into the same stagnant pit I had VIP passes to. I didn't have my own place, I'd barely caught up on all of my bills, and I had no clue what I was doing with my life. Realistically what did I have to offer anyone?

Plus, I'd be lying if I said that the first thing that popped into my mind when he first asked wasn't Dex's face. Not that I knew or understood what the heck that meant but I'd leave that thought alone for another day. Or year, whatever.

I’d just been about to tell Trey I wasn't interested but in much simpler terms when two large hands slipped over my shoulders. Two sets of strong fingers spanned down my chest, the tips dangerously close to my ni**les, er, boobs.

“Sorry, Trey. It’s against policy unless little Miss Iris wants to quit,” Dex's cool voice announced, his grip squeezing the tops of my br**sts. “And that ain’t happenin’.”

What. The. Hell?

Trey's eyes darted from Dex to me, and then back again, before he smiled pleasantly and nodded. Why the hell he nodded, I have no clue. “I got’cha, man.”

What did he have exactly?

I tipped my head up to look at The Dick standing over me. His face was tight, his hold even tighter.

"Yeah," was the last thing that came out of his mouth.

Trey looked back at me and winked. "Maybe another time."

I had to be the only one who heard Dex mutter, "Over my dead body," under his breath.

What the heck was all that about? That standard annoyance I'd come to associate with being in Dex's company kissed the nape of my neck. Now it was me who was stiffening while The Dick relaxed.

The first chance I got after Trey was out of eavesdropping distance, I looked back up at my hot boss. "What are you doing?" I hissed at him. Well, maybe that wasn't the question I'd been preparing myself to ask, but it had just come out.