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“Hey,” he murmured. “I see it, shit swirling, moving in that beautiful head of yours.” He pushed the hair from my face. “I fuckin’ love your hair, have I told you that?”
“No,” I said on a whisper.
“Well, I do,” he said. “Redheads are fiery. I can’t believe I ever thought you were cold. You’re warm. Hot. You’re a fuckin’ inferno, baby.”
I stared at him. “I didn’t think men actually talked like this in real life.”
He chuckled. “Ah, I’m not sure this is real life or a dream yet. But I’ll be damn sure we try to inspect it right now. How about we just have tonight?”
“Okay,” I replied. I wasn’t ready to let go of the dream either, and surely there was enough of a nightmare ahead of us.
So we watched the movie. Drank good wine. I fell asleep in his arms.
Today, well, today was different.
The dream had to end at some point, right?
We all sat outside enjoying dinner. It was warm, but not sticky. They had lit tiki torches so mosquitos weren’t feasting. The food was good, and somehow, I was eating it and not thinking about the calories.
The fight from yesterday was only visible in the bruises on each of our faces. Mine had gotten the worst overnight because my skin was so pale and clear, there was no manly ruggedness to hide it behind like Tanner and Duke. Each family member had winced when they’d seen it today, none more so than Tanner. He wore his guilt etched into his body. He was torturing himself over it. That’s what good men did. They didn’t run from their mistakes, didn’t try and brush them off, didn’t try to lay the blame for them at the feet of a woman. They wore them. Suffered through them.
As much as I tried to convince Tanner that it wasn’t his fault, that was the truth.
“I’m not going to let you make me feel better,” he said when I’d tried to placate him with the knowledge that I was okay and that it was my fault in the first place. “I threw that punch. It landed on you. That responsibility lies with me. That sin is mine, accident or not.” His hand lightly brushed my bruise. A whisper of a touch. “Duke should’ve fuckin’ killed me, markin’ you like that,” he muttered. Then he turned and walked away.
I’d done my best to avoid Duke for most of the day, proud of myself that I’d managed to get up early and sneak to the main house for breakfast and coffee with Anna and Harriet.
He’d stalked into the kitchen, still shrugging off sleep. His eyes had found me, then the bruise on my face, and they’d turned murderous. He stalked across the room, whirled me around on the stool, cupped the uninjured part of my face, and kissed me. Hard. On the mouth. In front of his mother and grandmother.
I was so shocked that I not only let it happen, but I participated.
He took his lips from mine before I could participate too much more. Luckily. “You’re takin’ it easy today,” he growled.
Growled.
That jerked me back. “You’re under the impression that that’s your call to make, how sweet,” I replied, leaning back in my stool to grab my coffee. Both because I needed it and having something to replace the minty and fresh taste of Duke’s mouth was absolutely fucking necessary.
Of course, he folded his arms across his far too expansive chest and turned his gaze to Anna, who was hiding her smile with her own coffee cup.
“Make sure she doesn’t do anything else to hurt herself today,” he ordered his mother.
“Excuse me,” I cut in. “I’m a grown-ass woman, one that likes being healthy and having all of her limbs attached. I’m not going to do anything else to hurt myself. Stop with the macho-man crap and go and do whatever cowboy stuff you’ve got on the cards today.”
Duke’s eyes went from his mother, who was now not hiding her laugh, to me. “You have a rattlesnake bite still healing and were punched in the face.” He snatched the coffee cup from my hands in a move that was far too smooth. And in another far-too-smooth move, he grasped the back of my head and pulled me in for yet another hard kiss.
“Be fuckin’ careful,” he murmured against my mouth.
Then he snatched a croissant, turned on his heel, and walked out.
“He took my coffee,” I snapped, still slightly bewildered.
“Good thing that we’ve got more, because honey, you’re gonna need all your energy fighting with that grandson of mine,” Harriet said, already pouring me more. “And you better fight with that little alpha male. He needs to be challenged.”
She winked at me.
The teasing in that wink and the warmth in Anna’s smile were spears through my heart. Along with Duke’s kiss, that stayed with me through the rest of the day.
