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Wake’s lips tipped up at the edges as he pulled me closer.
I barely held back a wince as he touched a particularly tender spot from my back meeting the wrong end of a chair.
Wake didn’t notice because it was during our preoccupation with each other that Tex decided now was his chance.
In a flash, he was hopping right off the dock.
I threw my head back and laughed.
CHAPTER 23
We’re all brave in our own way. For instance, I’m not afraid of raw cookie dough.
-Dutch to Wake
DUTCH
It was my wedding night, and we were officially inside the house with a very grouchy Tex lying on the floor in the kitchen where Wake had banished him.
“Wow.” I snickered. “He’s really mad at you.”
“He doesn’t get to sleep on the hardwood floors when he’s soaking wet. He’ll just have to deal with the tile floor in the kitchen. Which is why I put it in, because he’s the exact opposite of rational when it comes to the water,” he explained.
He pulled the gate closed that would lock Tex in the kitchen, then gestured to the bedroom.
I licked my lips, avoiding his stare, and caught sight of his raw wrists.
I made a sound in the back of my throat and said, “Go sit down. I need to put some ointment on those wrists. They look really bad.”
Then, without waiting for him to comply, I headed to the bathroom where I assumed there was a first aid kit.
I didn’t find one, which caused him to laugh from the other room.
“They’re actually in the closet behind you. Big box. Nothing fancy like a kit. I’m a bachelor—was a bachelor. I rarely, if ever, have need of Band-Aids,” he replied.
“You have a daughter,” I countered. “Who, at the time that this stupid box”—I looked at it as dust practically flew off the flaps as I opened the top—“was made, likely scraped herself up a lot.”
The tube had never even been opened, despite the age.
I hoped it was safe to use anyway, and walked back into the bedroom and practically stopped dead at the sight that waited for me.
His legs were spread wide, his shirt was off, and he was sitting on the edge of the bed looking mad at the world.
Which, I realized, he had a very big right to be.
His wide, muscular shoulders were thrown back, and his hands were planted on the bed behind him as he leaned back, displaying his perfect chest and abs.
I’d never seen a set of abs before. Other than the few times I’d gotten peeks at Wake’s.
But now, with him posed as he was, I could see those little rib indentions that looked like fish gills to me. He also had that line that went from his outer hips to disappear into his pants.
And what a well-defined line it was.
I wanted to walk that line with my fingers before ripping his pants off and having my way with him.
“Ointment?” he growled.
I looked up to find his thousand-yard stare down with the wall gone, and only a heated, well-amused one replacing it.
“Yeah.” I jumped and started for him. “Give one to me.”
He did, leaving the other one planted backward in the bed to hold himself up.
I took my time smearing ointment that I hoped wouldn’t kill him because it was so far out of date, onto the top of his wrist. Then moved on to the underside.
I stopped when I got to the tattoo that’d always intrigued me.
It was a ‘Death’ Tarot card. Around the card, it said: Vengeance is easy. For her, I’ll face the consequences.
I knew what it meant: he’d kill again. Over and over again. If it was in defense of his little girl.
“You know,” he said quietly, bringing me out of my study of his tattoo. “At one point in time while I was doing time for those murders, I thought to myself, ‘I’ll only do it for her.’”
My brows rose as I gestured for him to give me his other hand.
He did as he explained his words. “But then I met you.”
My heart started to race as I smeared the stuff all over his wrist, being a whole lot less precise this time due to my shaking hands.
“And I realized that my easy little world was about to change. And not because I was getting out of jail,” he said. “The moment I met you in that prison, I knew that I wanted to make you mine.”
I licked my lips as I twisted the cap back on the tube.
When I went to turn around, to put it where it went, he caught my hand and pulled me until I was splayed on top of him in the bed, him down on his back.
His gaze was even more intense as he stared at me from so close.
“I never meant to not hide my past,” he explained. “And I never meant to make you upset by selling you my land. But I wanted to make life easier for you, not harder. So… that counts, right?”
