“Doesn’t know his dad.” Ivan’s voice sounded full of challenge. “He’s got me.”
“He’s a lucky boy.”
“Remains to be seen.”
“No.” She tightened her fingers around his. “Anyone would be lucky to have you.”
“Yeah? Anyone?”
“Anyone.” Now she’d gone and done it. Somehow, without saying the words, she’d let him know how she felt about him. Switching gears quickly, she said, “So, tell me about the fight.”
“Fight was pretty one-sided. I had a lot of practice, since I spent my first twenty-one years fightin’ everyone who looked at me wrong. Been makin’ up for it ever since.”
“Problem teenager?”
“You could say that. Pissed off at everything. Thought the whole world had fucked me over. So, when I had an actual reason to hurt somebody…man, I kicked the shit out of him. I mean, I hurt himreal bad.”
“Do you regret it?”
“Hurting him? No. I’d have killed him if the cops hadn’t shown up. Steve was the first guy on the scene. Guy who owns the martial arts school. He was already sheriff back then.”
“He owns it?”
“Yeah. You didn’t know that?”
“No. I thought he was just a police officer.”
“Well, sheriff.”
“So, Steve showed up and—”
“He took me down.” She could hear the admiration in his voice. “Did some crazy, wrestling-type moves on me before I could kill Frank. Good thing too. Otherwise, Jessie would have been completely alone, and Gabe would have had a dead dad and an uncle still in prison.”
“And now you’re friends with Steve.”
“Yeah. Funny how these things happen.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re here.”
He took advantage of her position to kiss the top of her back, right below her neck. That was the first one, there. The tattoo she’d chosen.Idiot, she thought, a little less angry with her old self.
“This one’s different.”
“Yeah. We got them done together. By a guy named Zap.”
“Ooh. Never trust guys whose names come straight from comic books.”
She chuckled and brought her hand back to his body, to another scar. This one invisible under the hair on his belly but clearly textured beneath her fingers. He shivered under her touch and tightened his arm around her.
“Appendix,” he said, voice a little breathier than before. “Probably the only one I got that’s not my own damn fault.”
Continuing her exploration over one sharp hip bone and down, she let her fingers trail a hot path, enjoying the feel of soft, resilient skin that had seen so much, the muscles tensing as she went. “Oh, what’s this one?”
“That?” His eyes, slightly glazed, took their time moving to an irregular spot above his knee, and rather than wait for his explanation, she shifted, stroking up and down, up and down. “No idea.” Another stroke up brought her hand to graze his half-hard cock, and she left it there, tantalizingly close. “Honestly, baby, not sure I could tell you my name right now.”
“No?” She smiled, sultry and powerful as she watched his Adam’s apple bob when he swallowed. Their eyes met for a second before traveling down, together, to where she touched him. With a shaky breath in, she said, “Thank you, Ivan.”
“For what?” he mumbled.
