His shoulders damn near sagged in relief. “Okay, good. I was hoping?—”
Apparently, it was my time to blurt shit out, because the words left before I had a chance to catch them. “Wanna eat in here with me?”
That dark, stoic stare of his bounced to mine, and we held each other’s gazes for a little while. He just stood there, looking at me, like he waited for the joke. Some sort of punchline. I just stared back at him, though, waiting for whatever rejection was about to head my way.
I saw him look around.
“Ah,” he mumbled as he started toward the corner.
My eyes followed his line of sight and I realized what he was doing. “You could also just sit on the edge of the bed, if you want better access to the bedside table for your drink or something.”
He whirled around on his massive feet so hard that he almost toppled over.
I had to clap my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing at him.
“You, uh—” He cleared his throat and wiped his hands off on his black shirt. “You… want me in bed with you?”
Oh, he was flustered.
It was a good look on him. “I didn’t say all that, now, Big Guy. But it is an option, if you’d rather have a more comfortablesurface to sit on other than the wooden chair in the corner. It’s a bit rickety. It wouldn’t shock me if you sat on it and the legs bowed right out from beneath the damn thing.”
His eyes volleyed from the bed to the chair. Bed. Chair. Bed. Chair. I practically saw the tennis match going on in his head, trying to figure out what to do. If there was one thing I learned about Brutus in the weeks I spent at his side, helping him with patrols and shit, it was the fact that his brutal form housed a beautiful man.
But to my shock, he simply turned around and… walked out.
I was shocked. My jaw actually hit the floor, so to speak. Was it something I said?
“Fucking hell, Anna,” I grumbled to myself as I picked up my fork. “Why the fuck are you always trying to get under his skin? On your fucking bed? Shut the fuck up next time and?—”
Just as quickly as his footsteps fell away from me, they came back with a vengeance. My head lifted so quickly that I almost threw the damn thing out, and I watched as the massive man raced back into my room. I saw that he had two glasses of ice in his hands, along with another stack of napkins and his Gatorade, of all things. He sat everything down on the bedside table before disappearing again and reappearing only seconds later with his plate of food piled high.
Only to leave once more and return with a chair that wasn’t as rickety as the one in the corner.
Such a gentleman.
He placed the chair down next to my bed and eased himself into it. He placed his plate of food on the mattress, using it as a makeshift table while the actual table we used held the stacks of napkins, cups of ice, and our drinks.
“One’s for you,” he said as he pointed to the cup of ice closest to me. “Wasn’t sure if you wanted one.”
I couldn’t help but smile at him. “Thanks. I really appreciate it.”
And when he peeked back at me before taking his first bite, a soft smile crossed his face.
A smile that lit a fire behind his eyes that made him look almost boyish.
My God, he’s got a lovely smile.
I had to find ways to make him smile more often.
8
BRUTUS
She stared at my smile.
Not sure why, not like it’s anything special. Lopsided. A bit scarred. Got a scar that cut right through the corner of my upper lip from bashing my head around in the cockpit after being hit with a missile during one of my deployments.
I liked it when she stared, though.
