Page 140 of The ARC Unit: Breach

After taking my vitamins and birth control, I decided my hair was another problem that could wait. I twisted the thick waves into a loose knot at the back of my head, pulled on socks and headed downstairs.

The compound was quiet in the particular way it only managed before everyone started moving through it. The operations monitors cast a low blue glow across the far wall, while the kitchen lights remained off except for the one above the stove. Rain still tapped lightly against the high windows, softer than yesterday, and somewhere in the building an old vent rattled whenever the heat came on.

I smelled coffee before I reached the kitchen, which meant somebody else had beaten me downstairs.

Fuck.

Wolf stood at the counter with one hand around a black mug, dressed in dark cargo pants and a fitted black t-shirt that made it obvious he had been awake long enough to become a functioning human being. His sleeves ended above the tattoos along his forearms, and his watch sat tight against one wrist. The mask again exposed his mouth and chin so he could drink.

He noticed me immediately.

I stopped a few feet away from him.

“You’re up early.”

“I was already awake.” His voice was low and rough.

“That sounds healthy.”

He gave me a quick once-over before returning to his coffee. “You came downstairs at 4:50 in the morning in shorts.”

“It’s called sleeping.”

“Usually happens in bed.”

“Clearly I tried that.”

Wolf took another drink.

I should have gone straight for the coffee. Instead, my attention dropped to his mouth.

It was worse now that I had seen it before. Yesterday at the service station, the glimpse had been new enough that curiosity gave me an excuse. This morning, I already knew the fuller shape of his lower lip and the sharper edge of the upper one. Knowing did absolutely nothing to stop me from looking again.

Wolf set the mug down.

“Mercer.”

I looked at the coffee machine. “What?”

“You know what.”

“I was looking at the scar.”

“Again.”

“Just checking, and yep it’s still there.”

His mouth moved at one corner, barely enough to count as a reaction. “Good observation.”

“Thank you.”

I reached for a mug from the cabinet above the sink. The shelf was higher than it had any right to be, which had never bothered me much before because Bear usually left the clean mugs stacked near the coffee maker. This morning the stack was gone, and when I stretched up, the hem of my shirt lifted slightly against my waist. I got the mug down and turned.

Wolf wasn’t looking at my face. His eyes had dipped lower, fixed enough that it took me half a second to realize exactly where they’d landed.

The kitchen was warm, but seeing his lips again forced my body to remember the car conversation and every answer Wolf had dragged out of me yesterday. The memory of his hands tightening on the wheel did not help. My nipples had tightened beneath the thin cotton enough that pretending otherwise would have required a thicker shirt and considerably more dignity than I currently possessed.

Wolf picked up his coffee as if neither of us had noticed exactly where his attention had been.