I shrugged. “Pretty much my entire back.”
Her eyes widened. “Jesus, Bee!”
I chuckled. “Yeah, I was pretty prone to accidents and shit during my time in the service. But I always had a way of bouncing back quicker than the doctors expected me to. Even Doc is sometimes floored by how quickly I heal from things. Always kinda been my thing.”
She sighed. “Well, I’m glad you’re at least okay.”
I winked at her before I knew what I was doing. “Always.”
She stared at me for a while. Just… looking. And almost mindlessly, I watched as that little tongue of hers darted out and caught her lower lip. She pulled it into her mouth, nibbling on it precariously as her gaze slid up and down my form. Like she tried to catalogue every injury I’d ever had that she couldn’t see.
Her lower lip glistened as she did.
I cleared my throat and looked back down at my food, but my bowl was empty. So I reached for my drink and downed it the rest of the way. I still felt her gaze on me. Still staring, like she was drinking in her fill
I had to stop thinking about that tongue of hers.
Since when the fuck did I hyper-fixate on people like this?
Felt like some goddamn dude back in the olden days, losing his shit over some ankle.
“You finished?” I asked as I stood abruptly.
I had to get out of the room.
I was about to do shit that would get me killed by King if I didn’t.
She blinked a few times, like I startled her out of a trance. “Oh, uh… yes, actually. Here, I can?—”
I jutted my hand out. “I’ll take it for you.”
“Oh. Um, thanks.”
I scooped the bowl off the pillow in her lap before reaching for her dirty glass. It didn’t take long for me to gather up everything in one hand, and then I made my way to the door.
Don’t be rude. Don’t be rude. Don’t be rude.
I turned around in the doorway. “Thanks, Anna.”
She furrowed her brow as she clutched her lap pillow to her chest. “For what?”
“Inviting me to eat with you. It was… nice.”
She studied my face before smiling softly. “I enjoyed it. You’re welcome to eat with me anytime.”
Fuck, my groin pulsed. The hell was wrong with me? “I may take you up on that.”
“I really hope you do.”
And fuck, she looked like she meant it.
I felt another smile tugging at the corner of my lips, and pretty soon, she had a smile pulled across her face as well. She looked so… girlish… with her smile. Her tattoos and crass demeanor made her almost one of the guys, but that smile.
I need to make her smile more often.
Until a blood-curdling scream erupted through the safehouse.
“AAAAAAHHHHH!”
