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I let my fingers sift through her hair and then I brought a strand to my nose. “You’re adorable. Worrying about a bastard like me. I don’t deserve it.”
“Danny, stop,” she said. “Come on.” She went to move and I crowded in closer, leaning down. “What?”
“Why are you here?”
“You told me to come here.”
“Last night, yes,” he said. “I didn’t tell you to stay here.”
“You didn’t give me any indication that I should leave,” Sara snapped and then she shuddered as I looked her over. “I thought it wasn’t safe. I was waiting to hear from you.”
“You shouldn’t care about me, Sara,” I said, inches from her lips. “If you knew what I’d done today. If you knew what kind of man I really was—” I broke off with a laugh. “Not even a man.”
Sara’s eyes flashed. “Donotstart with this demon shit. I will kick your ass.”
I like you,I almost said.I like you so much.
“Don’t let lust cloud your judgement,” I warned as I pushed off the wall, both trying to warn her and goad her. Sara looked like she was about to slap me, and I fought a grin. “I’m taking a shower.”
“Let’s go.”
Sara
“Excuse me?” Daniel asked.
I knew I needed to stop enjoying shocking Daniel out of his affected cool, that I shouldn’t keep trying to find way to catch him off guard or give him any more ammunition for innuendo.
But that look on his face, his eyebrows going as high as they could go, his eyes wide with incredulity, and his lips parted into a reluctant, bewildered smile—it got me every time. Maybe because it was the only time that I felt like all his posturing and bullshit fell away, that I was seeing the real Daniel—and I wanted to see more.
I want him to be happy for more than few seconds.
Already his gaze was dimming, his lips were twisting into a sardonic smirk, and his face was assuming the lines of his mask. I stepped by him and caught his wrist. “I said, let’s go.”
“You’re taking a shower with me?” Daniel asked, allowing me to drag him along in hopes I’d say yes to that question.
“I’m going to help you clean up those injuries and google anything that looks serious,” I replied and hit the light in his room. We crossed to the bathroom, where I dropped his wrist and then blurted out, “Oh, come on,” as I hit the light.
I’d been using the guest bathroom, which was ridiculously nice, and hadn’t yet snooped into Daniel’s master. This one made the other one look like a hovel. It looked as though it belonged on some gorgeous resort on the other side of the world by a private beach. There were lovely black and white photos of beaches on the walls, huge fluffy white towels, and the lighting was soft and dreamy. It made the room look bigger, also helped by the fact that the floors, sinks, and cavernous shower were made of deep gray stone with black accents. There was also a big, deep black tub next to the window, where the city twinkled with sharp promise in the cold winter night.
“Can people see in?” I wondered out loud as I walked to the window.
“No,” Daniel said with a rough laugh. “One way glass. I splurged.”
I nodded, gazing out, and then in the glass caught my breath as Daniel pulled off his jacket, began unbuttoning his shirt, revealing the grooves of a muscular stomach and chest. But then he winced and made a sound of pain deep in his throat, causing me to whirl around. He raised his eyebrows but said nothing as I helped him out of his shirt.
Then I caught my breath as I stepped behind him and saw the crisscross of scars across his back. Lacerations, burns, some half-hidden by tattoos, but others too big. Including one serrated one that cut across nearly his entire back and wrapped around his hip.
“Just think of me like an old street dog that won’t die,” Daniel tried to joke but it fell flat.
Deep down, I knew that very few people had seen this, and that he didn’t want pity. Red suffused the back of his neck and without thinking, I laid a hand on his scapula, where there was a beautiful tattoo of a woman’s face surrounded by three bent triangles and a wreath of leaves.
“I like your tattoo,” I said.
Daniel swallowed hard and nodded. “Thanks.” He turned to face me, and I winced at the bruise on his face. There were some scars here as well and a livid bruise on his side. “Well?”
I jerked my gaze up from his abs and I thought I saw a different kind of smile flicker across his face. “Hm?”
“Injuries? Weren’t you concerned?” His tone became more sardonic. “Isn’t that why you’re here?”
