He takes a big bite of the delicious-looking burger and I follow suit.Damn. So good.
“Months of physio after I got home,” he says around chewing. “I fucked up my arm pretty good too. Broke it in two places and cut it to shit, so I was sort of limited on what I could do. It’s fine now but my back still bothers me from time to time, and I tweaked it last week.”
“What’d you do to it last week?” I ask, popping a fry into my mouth.
He just takes another bite, his eyes housing an evil sort of glint.
“We don’t know each other that well yet,” he says simply.
A chill runs down the length of my spine, and I’m reminded of my Google search in class this morning—What is the job of a Sergeant at Arms?—which told me that Sean has to be willing to do anything to protect his club, but especially his president, so I know this man in front of me is very much capable of violence. Yet in this setting, he seems more calm and controlled than any man I think I’ve ever met.
“Did they offer you meds?” I ask, dodging the visions of him as that violent persona.
He shakes his head. “I don’t take that sorta shit, not even Tylenol.”
I nod again.Noted,no drugs.
“Have you ever tried a deep tissue massage?” I ask, dipping another one of my thick-cut fries into the really good house-made sauce.
Sean looks up. “I don’t like people’s hands on me, so no,” he mutters, taking another bite. I watch him closely, thinking of the times he’s letmetouch him.
“There are stretches, daily yoga practices, even foods and natural things you can take that promote healing.”
He looks at me in silence while he chews, and I realize that when he focuses like this and watches my expression, it makes my palms sweat.
“It can really help. It’s what I study, but something tells me you already know that,” I offer nervously.
He leans back. “Mmm-hmm,” he answers noncommittally. “Why haven’t you accepted your offer yet for Kinesiology?”
“I swear …” I mutter, shaking my head. “How do you—?”
Sean leans a little closer. “To be clear right now so there’s no guessing involved … I know everything about you.”
I hate the rush that courses through my veins with those words and how much I like the idea that hewantsto know everything about me.
“How?” I ask.
“We have someone who gathers information for us,” he says simply as he eats.
“Most vague answer ever,” I comment, with a half-smirk. Sean shrugs.
“Before I decided I wanted to … spend more time with you, I had to know about you, and now I know,” he states, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.
“I can’t afford it,” I blurt, returning his honesty. “Kinesiology, I can’t afford it.”
I expect to see the same look of pity my parents’ church friends offer me, but instead Sean’s face contorts in confusion.
“You live in the nicest part of town, your father earned a strong six-figure salary. So, poor? That just doesn’t add up,” he retorts. It’s not a judgment, it’s simply an assessment.
I push down years of bottled-up anger at the image my parents portrayed.
“Your investigator didn’t find out everything then, did they?” I fold my arms over my chest as he looks at me questioningly.
He just takes another bite, waiting for me to continue.
“My parents’ life was a lie. They died and I inherited nothing but my father’s financial problems and the grief of losing my mother, who was my best friend. I can barely cover my tuitionfor my last semester so I can graduate, and I’m working as many hours as I can,” I bite out with a sigh. “All because a man wearing a cut, most likely from a club just like yours, robbed me of my parents and left me with my father’s sham of a life.” I force myself to soften my tone, trying not to sound so hostile. If nothing else, I’m fairly certain Sean wasn’t my parents’ killer. “According to the police, it was all for a measly four hundred and eighty-three dollars,” I add. “They died for nothing.”
Sean takes me by surprise and leans in, placing his heavy, warm hand over mine, I inadvertently take a deeper, more settled breath. “I didn’t dig into their finances, but I saw the address of your home. There are no poor families in that part of town.”
