“I know how helmets work,” I said.
Mason glanced back. “You ever worn one?”
“No.”
“Then you don’t know how this one works.”
I looked at Regan. “Has anyone told him his bedside manner is medically concerning?”
“Constantly,” she said, handing me the sunscreen. “He doesn’t improve.”
Mason took the helmet from my hands before I could object. “Come here.”
“No.”
His eyes lifted to mine. Green again. Deep, impossible green, made darker by the morning light and the shadow from his lashes. Not pretty in the polished sense. Worse. Arresting. Like water trapped under stone. Like if you looked too long, you’d see something moving underneath that had no intention of being found.
I hated his eyes.
That was a lie.
I hated that I noticed them.
He held the helmet open. “Come here, scientist.”
I stepped closer because apparently my body had decided obedience was acceptable if delivered with sufficient irritation. “Don’t call me that like you enjoy it.”
“Maybe I do.”
“That would require joy, and I’m not convinced you’re familiar.”
“Put the helmet on.”
I took it from him and slid it over my head. It swallowed the world for a second, padding muffling the porch sounds, the women murmuring behind me, Bandit screaming faintly from somewhere inside the mudroom like a cursed violin. My hair caught at the collar. I reached up to fix it, but Mason was already there.
His fingers brushed my neck.
I went still.
Not dramatically. Not visibly, I hoped. Just an internal shutdown of several major systems. His hands were rough, warm, and careful in a way that annoyed me more than if he had been careless. He pulled my hair free from the strap, the backs of his knuckles grazing the side of my throat. A tiny, involuntary chill moved over my skin.
He noticed.
Of course he noticed.
His gaze flicked from my neck to my face. “Cold?”
I stared at him through the helmet opening. “It’s the desert.”
“Didn’t answer.”
“It was a physiological response to unexpected contact.”
One corner of his mouth moved. “That what we’re calling it?”
“That’s what science calls it.”
“Science blush too?”
