“And pay for medical care.”
“Vet gives me a break. I made him a railing for his new house. And a fence. Few other things.”
She smiled, then stood and moved back to the armchair, feeling his eyes on her. “You barter with the vet.”
“It’s the country, princess.”
“Guess I’m not in Kansas anymore.”
Their eyes met and held, the warmth in his evident. Uma wondered if he could tell how much she liked him—not just as a man, but as a person.
He leaned in and asked, “So, how long you plannin’ on stickin’ around?”
“I’m not. I’ve got…something to do, and then I’m gone.” Even as she said it, she hated the thought. Leaving this place. It sounded awful.
His expression hardened. “I don’t know what happened with the asshole you’re runnin’ from, Uma, but I can tell it wasn’t good.” He canted even closer. “I know I’m big an’ ugly, but I don’t hurt women. You got that?Ever,” he said fervently. “I will tear some shit up in a fight. I mean, I’ve been stupid as hell in my life, but never with a woman.Never.”
“Okay,” she mumbled, oddly emotional about this outburst.
“Not sayin’ it to make you feel bad. I’m just…” She could see him searching for words. “I don’t want you scared of me.”
“I get it.”
He nodded and relaxed onto his crate. Uma sank back into the armchair, letting go of muscles that must have bunched during his tirade. What had happened in his life to rile him up like this?
“I’m not. Scared of you, I mean.”
“Good.”
After a moment, he leaned forward again, intensity suddenly full force—she absolutelyshouldhave been scared of that crazy light in his eyes, but she wasn’t. She wasn’t.
“You may be runnin’ from some bad shit, but you still got attitude. I respect that about you, Uma. Always liked that in a woman. But I’ll tell you somethin’. I see a look you get in your eyes sometimes. I recognize that look. Seen it on Squeak’s face after I took her from the guy who had her chained up in his yard. Used to beat the shit outta her. I seen it on…” He trailed off, obviously holding back. That was okay. He didn’t owe her anything. And maybe she didn’t want to hear what else he’d seen. “But I find out who your man is? What he did to you? I see him sniffin’ around here lookin’ for you? I will tear him apart, Uma.”
Oh.She could imagine the scene clearly—Ivan taking Joey down neatly with a surgical punch to the nose, then holding him for her while she worked his skin with his own stupid tattoo machine. Vengeance like she’d never imagined. She wasn’t sure she liked the idea of needing a big man to help her exact it, but the possibility was heady. There was no way to take to the courts for revenge. No, the law was Joey’s domain, but this…
Absolutely not. Uma stopped her thoughts cold, feeling like a psychopath.
“No. You’re not beating anyone up for me.” She softened the words with a smile and met his eyes, where bloodlust still shone, perhaps even reflected in hers. “But thank you.”
It took all the courage Uma had to reach out then and place her clammy hand over his warm one.
It was her undoing, that contact. Or maybe it had been his tirade—the idea that this man who hardly knew her, this stranger, was willing to defend her. Or perhaps the sight of his heartbreakingly beautiful face, lovely and bare. Either way, Uma crossed a line with that touch. Like in a movie, when the shot pans around the room, flip-flopping the perspective, she’d changed the rules, broken the barrier, dragging them into unknown territory.
They both stared at her hand for a beat or two before their heads lifted and their eyes met.
He moved first, flipping his hand so their palms came together. That touch was so much more intimate than it should have been, like lying belly to belly, naked. Their skin rasped gently as his thumb rode the bumps of Uma’s knuckles.
Ivan’s lids looked heavy, and when she glanced at his mouth, it was no longer stern but lush and ripe and hungry. Her eyes fled the invitation there and skittered back to the safety of their hands, but that was ten times worse. Because watching that rough, callused thumb—capable of so much violence—barely skate across the surface of her hand, more gently than she’d ever been touched in her life… That was too much. Like hand porn.
Which obviously wasn’t a thing.
Although, maybe itwasa thing, and if it wasn’t, damn it, it should have been. She could imagine the Tumblr feeds, ogled by closeted pervs like herself. She pictured herself hunting down shots of scarred, manly, thick-knuckled hands toying with pathetic, unsuspecting, small ones.
But then, in a moment of clarity, she knew, without fully understanding it, that what really turned her crank here wasn’t him dominating her. Oh no. It was the other way around. Her own tiny hand lording it over his big one.Shehad the power here—or at least the illusion of it. And it was heady.
“C’m’ere.” He sounded gruff when he tugged Uma toward him. She resisted briefly, but not out of worry or fear. No, she resisted for the stupid regular reasons: Would she make a fool out of herself? Did her breath stink?
She gave in and allowed him to pull her closer, to the edge of the armchair, and met him halfway.
