Page 41 of Give Me What You Will

“Yeah,” Sammy replied. “We both did.”

Something dark and heavy passed between them, but he refused to back down. Refused to let the tension—the desire—whatever the fuck was happening between them stop him from making sure he was all right.

He brushed concerned fingers over the cut, assessing the bruising and swelling. “Should be gone in a week. I’ve seen worse cuts in the ring and so have you.”

Sammy released a tight breath, capturing the hand clutched over his face. “I’ll be fine, Frankie.”

He clenched his jaw, forcing himself to let go and take a step back. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“You went into survival mode. Yours just happens to be fight. No surprise there.”

“Well, you’re not exactly a big bear I gotta be runnin’ from, now are ya?”

“Not yet.”

He recognized the twinkle of amusement in those brilliant green eyes.

He slapped a playful hand on Sammy’s shoulder and squeezed the muscle under his shirt, not having to pretend to be impressed as he whistled. “Maybe by the end of the year. Be thicker than me in no time if you keep hittin’ those weights.”

Sammy's eyes slid down his body in the same appreciative way he did last night. “I doubt that very much.”

Something sizzled and crackled inside him like a livewire to the fuckin’ guts.

“And the only big bear here,” Sammy’s heated gaze lingered over his crotch, yet his tone was teasing. “Is between your fuckin’ legs.”

Frankie suddenly laughed, flushing with embarrassment, his body relaxing as Sammy smiled, then glanced over at the vintage muscle car behind him. “She’s incredible, Frankie.”

Beaming, he flourished a hand over the 1965 Ford Sterling Gray Metallic Mustang. “You like my baby?”

“Baby?” Sammy asked, lips still dancing upward.

Frankie scrubbed a hand over his blushing cheeks. Calling him "baby" last night had been so natural, so easy. He hadn’t even realized he’d said it until Sammy froze.

Baby was reserved for the women he fucked and the cars he loved.

And now, apparently, Sammy.

He swallowed, trying to play it off. “I call all my cars baby, you know that.”

He nodded, “She’s a beauty.”

“Isn’t she? I feel like a proud daddy whenever I look at her. Resurrected her from Tommy’s graveyard.”

“No shit?”

“Yup, paid cash and worked to the bone to get her shinin’.”

“You should be proud. Good word, Frankie.”

“Thank you, Dr. Samuels.” He grinned roguishly. “I was thinkin’ about takin’ her for her first official Casavani christening, wanna come?”

Sammy hesitated.

“Aw, c’mon, Sammy. You’ve got nowhere else to be, you’re on vacation. Well, from the hospital at least. Let me take you for a spin, for old times' sake, huh?”

He hadn’t realized how excited he was for him to say yes.

“Shit, why not?” Sammy said, slipping his sunglasses back on.