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“It’s just us now, Katia. You can stop pretending.” Lucca’s hand fell from my lower back to take my right hand instead. He inspected it with light touches and feathering squeezes.
I let him, like a beggar. Taking anything he gave, even if it was just out of concern for my well-being. Was he concerned?
“Family lunch…” I started. “Next time, a heads up would be nice.”
“Noted.” His fingers ran up and down from my fingers to my forearm, and while it was sore to the touch,histouch calmed me. “Now, tell me how bad?”
“It’s just a sprain.”
“The doctor will make sure of that,” he insisted.
“It’s not the first I’ve received. It’ll go away in a day or two.”
“It’s your right hand, Katia. We both know how significant it is.”
You only know because you’ve seen me wield a knife.
“Which is the reason I am telling you to cancel the doctor. I know my body. I’ll be fine.” Our eyes fought. “Plus, can you only shoot with your right hand?”
“I shoot with both.”
With a smirk, I replied, “Then, what makes you think I can only use my right?”
Lucca tried to hide his own lips from curling as his head shook.
“I can’t believe I’m willing to listen to you,” he scoffed. “Fine. Now, how sore are you?”
“As sore as I am every morning after a run.”
His head bobbed, but he still hesitated. Lucca struggled to give away his controlling persona. His need to have everything in order. To allow someone else to make a decision.
“I can cancel lunch.”
Lucca hadn’t noticed, but his hand no longer checked my injury. It just held me. As much as I accepted what he hadn’t implied as a caress, I acted as if I too was unaware of it.
I shook my head. “Please don’t, I just need a long bath and two Tylenol, and I’ll be down to meet everyone.”
“Why are you being so headstrong?” he asked. “Are you trying to prove a point?”
“I’m always trying to prove a point.”
His eyes lowered to our joined bodies, his forehead creased, then he let go.
Figured.
“I’m going to start a bath. You should change too.”
He agreed with a nod, but he followed me into the bathroom. He leaned by the doorway as I twisted the knobs and poured some cherry and eucalyptus-scented bubbles into the tub.
His undivided attention was to me, and the sense of his eyes while my ass bent over the tub to check the temperature of the water was as heated as the steam that filled the air.
“How did you know they responded to Russian commands?”
I sat up, looked at him, and smiled. “They wouldn’t listen when I spoke to them in English, and even though they do in Italian, it wasn’t as quick as their breed should respond to a command.” Lucca crossed his arms. “I thought of Ilias and the fact that you speak Russian as well. It didn’t take long to learn them.” I watched his tensed muscles and added, “I’ve had plenty of time alone to do so.”
I was learning more and more of his tells.
“Don’t get in between one of them again,” his tone warned, annoyed.
