Desire (Desire, Book 1) - By Missy Johnson Page 0,1

if I even wanted them myself.

“You are the closest blood relative, apart from their father, who as you know, is incarcerated.” He shrugged, “If not you, they will go into care. Trust me, you don’t want them ending up in the foster system.” He added. His last words came out more like a question. Or an accusation. A surge of anger ran through me.

He was judging me? What the hell did he know about me, and my life?

Wow. I couldn’t believe this.

I moved from the kitchen into the living room and sat down on the couch. Part of the reason I had moved to Seattle was to get away from all the drama. Had I felt bad for leaving? Sure. At seventeen, I felt as though I was doing them a favor. The more time had passed, the easier it had become to forget them.

The more time passed, the option of reconnecting became harder. Mom had been a good mom, for Sam and Neri at least. In the early days, she was good to me too. I had never forgiven her for doing nothing, for taking his side. In turn, Neri had never forgiven me for putting him in jail. Sam had been too young to understand what had happened, but seeing him meant seeing mom and Neri, and it was just too hard.

“She hates me, you know. Neri would rather go into care, I’m sure.” I commented dryly. The detective chuckled, the sound making my heart flutter.

“Well it’s a good thing that fifteen year olds don’t get a say then.” He took another mouthful of his drink. I watched it slid down his throat as he swallowed. The image was oddly arousing. It reminded me of a soft drink commercial. I half expected him to rip his shirt off and down the can in one gulp, sending stray dribbles of cola running down his cheeks, his neck, his smooth, rippled chest…

My eyes widened. Jesus Kait, Calm down!

I looked away, embarrassed. This was really not the time to be fantasizing about detectives, no matter how sexy they were.

“Look at it this way, Kaitlin. No matter the issues you’ve had with your mother in the past, is it the kids’ fault?” He was right. It wasn’t their fault, and how awful was I to be thinking about poor me when what they were going though was a thousand times worse.

“Can they come here?” I asked, unsure of how all this worked. I had college here, and my friends. Besides, I couldn’t go back home. Or more to the point, I didn’t want to.

Home was Silver Lake, less than half an hour by car from my current place. I’d grown up there in the town where everybody knew everybody. In turn, everybody knew everybody’s business. After the court case, the town was divided between those who thought I was a slut, and those who thought I was a victim. How sad that my own mother fell into the former category.

The detective nodded.

“They can come here. That is probably best anyway.” He put out his hand, “I’m Devon, by the way. Devon Walkerson.” I shook his hand, embarrassed that I hadn’t realized he hadn’t told me his name. His hand was everything I’d imagined. Soft, warm, strong, long fingers, sexy…

I pulled away suddenly, the sparks that his touch sent flying up my arm shocked me. I felt myself melting into his touch, wondering what it would feel like to have his hands on my body. He frowned at me, as if confused as to why I was staring at him. I blushed, pulling my hand back. What a great first impression I was making; he probably thought I was a selfish, heartless bitch.

“You’re pretty young to be a detective.” I finally offered. He looked to be in his mid-twenties. I always imagined detectives to be older, like in their fifties, balding, with a pot belly. Obviously I had been watching too much Law and Order.

“I’m twenty-seven. I guess that’s young, but I’ve worked hard to get where I am.” His tone suggested that was all I was going to learn about him. Today at least. I wondered what skeletons he had hidden in his closet.

“Where are the kids now?” It suddenly occurred to me it was late on a Friday night. He wasn’t going to palm them off to me tonight, was he? Shit, what if they were outside? I hadn’t even cleared it with Ara. Where would they sleep-

“With the neighbor. I