Free Play Softly (The Devil's Share Book 4) by L.P. Maxa

night when you and Bryan went to dinner. Landry woke up because she had a bad dream.”
    Lexi turned to him. “Okay. And the other two times?”
    He shrugged. “She loves that movie.”

    Halen was sleeping in her little bassinet next to our bed, and Lexi was lying with her head on my chest. There was no noise, no TV, no light. It was just the two of us, lying quietly listening to the sounds of our heartbeats and our daughter breathing. It was moments like this that made my chest ache; made me close my eyes and thank God that this woman had chosen me. And that I’d accidentally knocked her up.
    “Babe?”
    “Kitten.” I felt her smile against my chest at my use of her nickname. I called her Kitten all the time, and it never failed to bring a grin to her beautiful face.
    She let out a shaky breath. “What do you think Luke meant tonight at dinner when he said he was going to miss this ?”
    I could either lie to my fiancée to spare her currently over-the-top emotions, or I could tell her the truth. Hurting Lexi was never on my list of things to do, ever. But lying to her didn’t feel right either. “What do you think he meant?”
    She pushed off my chest and stared at me in the dark, her eyes shining, filled with tears. “I don’t want to say what I think. I don’t even want to think about it.” I reached a hand out and put a strand of her light hair behind her ear. She closed her eyes and kissed my palm when I rested it on her cheek. “When Halen wakes up in the middle of the night and I go into the living room to feed her, Luke is always there waiting for me. We hang out.”
    “I know, Kitten.”
    She laid her head back on my chest, where she belonged, and rubbed her hand lightly along my stomach. “Are you mad?”
    “No.” I stilled her hand, clasping my fingers with hers. “I spent a lot of time irritated about your closeness with Luke. Then I spent even more time just pretending it didn’t exist.” I kissed the tips of her fingers, one at a time.
    “And now?” Her voice was quiet, nervous.
    “And now I get it. Now I can see the love he has for you, how pure it is.” I rolled over on my side so I could look in her eyes. “He helped me plan and pull off our engagement. He sat next to you for two hours in that hospital room and didn’t once take his eyes off the screen that was monitoring our baby’s heartbeat.”
    “You’re the only one for me, it’s only ever been you, Dash. I love him, but I’m not in love with him.”
    “I know you aren’t, Lex.” I put my hand on her lower back and pulled her hips against my own. “I know I’m the only one you want, the only one who makes your blood hum, the only one you can’t truly live without.”
    Her eyes filled with tears again. “I’m going to be living without Luke soon, aren’t I?”
    I nodded.

Chapter Fourteen
    Lexi
    “ Well, we’re big rock singers, we got golden fingers and we’re loved everywhere we go …”
    I walked down the hall toward the kitchen, putting on my earrings. “Jacks, please don’t start singing that—”
    “ We sing about beauty, we sing about truth, at ten thousand dollars a show. ”
    I rolled my eyes when I heard another voice join in. “Wonderful. Now you have Smith singing it too, y’all are—”
    “ We take all kinds of pills that give us all kinds of thrills, but the thrill we’ve never known …”
    I stomped my ankle boot when Luke came down the stairs belting out the words I now knew by heart. “It’s been two days of this damn song. It was funny the first time but now—”
    “ Is the thrill that’ll getcha when you get your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone .” All three of them sang it together.
    I let out a sigh of relief. They usually stopped after that first verse. Dash came around the island and grabbed me by the hand, twirling me around and starting up the chorus. “ Wanna see my picture on the cover, wanna buy five copies for my mother. Wanna see my smilin’ face on the