Probably one of the reasons my Emily was so damn sweet and innocent. I couldn’t dislike her momma. She’d raised my angel. “If I need to, I’ll talk to her. I swear, you’ll be safe. A hell of a lot safer than you are in this place. No one will touch you. I swear. I’d kill ’em, and they know it.”

“If I point out that I have a lease on this apartment and that my things are here and I have nowhere to take them, you’re going to have an answer for that, aren’t you?” she asked, looking like she was ready to cave in.

“I’ll pay off the lease, and we will put your furniture in storage.”

She studied me a moment, and then a smile slowly spread across her lips. “I can’t believe I am saying this . . . but yes. I accept.”

Fuck, yes!

One week later

Emily

Life with Slacker Demon was like a movie. I hadn’t thought about what it would look or feel like, since I had been so busy taking care of things in the last week. I had let Will know I was resigning, which hadn’t gone well. Then my mother had begged me not to go. In the end, she had given in and told me that home would always be there when I needed it.

Packing my things for storage and shipping what I needed to Los Angeles had consumed every moment after. Not once had I stopped to think about what I had said yes to. Now, standing in a mansion with every luxury known to man, I realized my life had just taken a massive turn.

I worked for Slacker Demon. It was my job to make sure this house was taken care of and everyone had all they needed. Talk about a huge addition to my résumé. Wow.

Dean walked into the room, with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and wearing nothing but a pair of pajama pants with skulls all over them. “Well, lookie who finally arrived,” he drawled.

“Did Emily’s stuff get here?” Kiro asked, carrying the one duffel bag that I had brought with me on the plane.

Dean’s gaze went from Kiro to the piece of luggage in his hand. Then his eyebrows shot up as his gaze swung back to his friend. He was surprised about something, clearly.

“Emily’s stuff. Did it fucking get here?” Kiro asked in a clipped tone.

Dean muttered something, then nodded his head to the left. “Yeah. I had it all sent to the room Viv used.”

“That’s not where I fucking wanted it,” Kiro snarled.

“Can’t read your damn mind,” Dean replied, rolling his eyes. He sauntered over to the nearest sofa and sank down onto it.

“Follow me,” Kiro said, his tone much different now. He was softer with me. “I’ll show you your room, and then I’ll have your things moved in there.”

“OK,” I said, wondering if I should just go where Dean wanted me to be. He lived here, too, and I didn’t want to make him angry.

“Which room you giving her?” Dean asked.

“The white one,” Kiro replied.

Dean let out a sigh. “Shit,” he muttered.

“If Dean wants to leave that room available, I can use the room he had my things sent to.”

Kiro stopped walking and looked back at me. “Dean lives in the left wing of this house. The right wing is mine. He doesn’t get to decide who lives in any of my rooms.”

Oh. Then why did he seem upset about it?

Dean hadn’t asked me to work for him. Just Kiro. But I would be working for Dean, too. In his house. What if he didn’t want me here? Why hadn’t I thought of that?

Kiro led me up a grand staircase, the kind I’d only seen in movies. “The place is big, but I’ll give you a tour. If you get lost, just take a bunch of right turns, and you’ll end up back here.” He glanced back at me with a sexy little smirk on his face.

“Right turns, got it,” I said. I didn’t let my gaze linger on him. I worked hard to be a good friend to him. I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable with my little infatuation.

Dating Will had helped a little but not much. Now that I was living across the country from Will, that was over. He hadn’t been very happy about it, either. He’d actually raised his voice to me and asked me if I was stupid.

I didn’t answer him, because maybe I was being stupid. My mother didn’t seem to think it was smart. But if I had said no, I was sure I’d regret it for the rest of my life. Being near Kiro made me happy.

He stopped and opened a door, and I almost ran into his back. I’d been so lost in my thoughts. “This is your room. I will show you your office, if you’d rather have one not attached to the bedroom. There’s a sitting room through there that can be used as an office, but that’s your call.”

I stepped inside, unable to form words just yet. Office, sitting rooms, and holy crap, this bedroom was massive. It even had a large marble fireplace. I understood now why it was called the white room. It looked like heaven. Everything was a soft white. Even the bed had a white, flowy canopy that gathered at each corner and hung down until it puddled at the floor. I was going to get lost in that bed. Four people could sleep in it comfortably.

“What do you think?” Kiro asked. He almost sounded nervous.

I spun around to look at him, and all I could do was smile. The big, goofy kind of smile that just can’t be helped.

He took a few steps toward me, and his perfectly sculpted lips tugged up a little at each corner. “You got words to go with that beautiful smile?” he asked in a husky voice that always made me shiver. Problem was, he wasn’t on the other end of a phone. He was in front of me. I would have to control my shivers around him.