He could have thrown me off.
I could have let him.
Neither happened, and I leaned down, easing a segment of fruit closer to his scowling mouth, hoping my chest pressing against his would sway him before the sensation gave me an aneurysm. “I will if you will.”
I meant the words to be a challenge, but they came out deeper than that, and I found myself transported back in time, to that mystical place where I had believed life could be as simple as this.
Me. Him. And an orange we were definitely going to share if it was not to meet its fate on the ground.
Ranger exhaled, rough and long. “You’re trying to figure out how far you can push me.”
“In what sense?”
He flexed his hips, unconsciously, perhaps, but I felt it like a live wire plugged into my nerves. “In every sense. You think I won’t eat a fucking orange? That my limits are that simple?”
Nothing about Ranger was simple. He would not be here if it was. But the orange felt like something to me. Tohim. So I did not answer his question with words. I kept pushing and pushing until he took the fruit with his whiter-than-white teeth, licking my fingers for good measure.
A shudder rolled through him as he chewed and swallowed. He did not like it, but I could not feel bad for him while he had juice running down his chin. I could not feel anything except the terrifying urge to sweep it away with my tongue.
Do it.
I wanted to. But I knew what would happen if I did. I would kiss him. He would kiss me back, and then I would have to tell him that I was not sure I could stay for what might happen next. I would have to tell himwhy, if Jake had not already.
If the Kings have not.
A strange feeling crept over me. A shift in my mood, abrupt and visceral.
Jake.
While I was feeding Ranger oranges in the sun, he was at war without me.Fightingfor me. For Katya and Ivan.
For Yuri and Polina.
For Lida.
I left the orange on the ground, eased off Ranger, and stood. “We should go out.”
He sprang to his feet as if I had suggested skinning ourselves alive. “Where?”
“To work.”
His frown was instant. And confused. “What does that mean?”
“What I said.” I spun away from him and strode into the house with no real idea of where I was headed until I reached the room that was Jake’s when he did not sleep in my bed.
Ranger followed. Of course. He followed me everywhere, a shadow that somehow still lit up the dark, and it was hard to recall a time when he hadn’t. “Why’s it so pretty in here?”
“It was for Jake’s mother, but she died before we could bring her here. You need more clothes.” I tossed a handful of Jake’sover my shoulder, knowing he’d catch them. “It is too hot to be outside in those jeans.”
Ranger threw most of the clothes back. “Too hot for what?”
He kept the cargo shorts and dark T-shirts. Rejected anything that wasn’t black or grey, apart from a shirt the same shade as the rock he still carried in his bag.
The bag he had watched me poke through with nothing but a grin.
“You think I give a fuck?”
About me rooting through his tiny collection of possessions?
