Free And Able by Lucy Monroe Page B

she didn’t want to, but it didn’t offend her. “No.”
    She could sense his smile, even though she couldn’t quite see it. “You allowing me to touch you had nothing to do with a lack of modesty and everything to do with trust. I’m honored you trusted me with your body.”
    Coming on the heel of her earlier thoughts, she wasn’t sure she liked that conclusion any more than her first one. But it made even more sense. She did trust him. To a point, anyway. As he’d pointed out, she had   trusted him to help her with her pain and not to push for what she’d been in no position to give. She also trusted him to keep her from harm.
    “You are hero material through and through,” she mused, trying to work it out in her own mind. “A woman would have to be brain-dead not to realize you can be trusted on some level.”
    He went rigid beneath her, an inexplicable sense of tension emanating off of him. “I am no hero, Claire. I’m a mercenary…a soldier for hire, a man who puts duty to the mission above everything else.”
    “You are an ex-mercenary, as you are so fond of pointing out, and you can’t tell me you don’t care about the people you help. I trust you with my safety.” Why did she feel the need to keep saying it? It wasn’t like she enjoyed trusting a man to that extent and wasn’t entirely sure she was using all her smarts in doing so, no matter how heroic he was.
    “Since keeping you safe is my current mission, that’s an okay bet to take, but don’t romanticize me, Claire. I’m no hero in a white hat.”
    She laughed out loud at that. “I’m the last woman to do that…for any man. Believe me. But I don’t get why you’re so adamant about it. I would think that in your line of work, you would like being seen as the man in the white hat.”
    “It’s an old story and not one I want to get into right now. Probably not ever.”
    “Okay.”
    He let out a startled sigh. “That’s it? No inquisition?”
    “You said you didn’t want to talk about it. I respect that. There are things in my past I wish I could forget, things which cannot be changed that define who I am. I guess I’ll just be grateful that you see it as your duty to keep me safe and leave it at that.”
    “Thanks.”
    “For what, not badgering you?”
    “For not moving,” he corrected dryly, but she wasn’t sure he wasn’t thanking her for the other, too. “I don’t relish another knee in my nuts.”
    She accepted the topic change with grace. Like she’d said, she understood. “I’m sorry about that. I hope I didn’t do you any real harm.”
    “I survived.”
    “Barely.”
    “Please. I’m not that fragile.”
    “A man’s testicles are his most vulnerable spot.”
    “Did you read that on the Internet?”
    “Josette told me—well, all of us—during the self-defense classes she taught at the shelter.”
    “What else did she teach you?” he asked, sounding genuinely interested.
    “Some basic hold-breaking techniques. The concept of using your opponent’s size against him. That sort of thing.”
    “She’s real good at that last one. I’ve seen her kick butt on men twice her size.” The blatant admiration in his voice for her friend stirred uneasy feelings in Claire that she tried her best to ignore.
    She had absolutely no reason or right to be jealous.
    “Josette’s good at a lot of things,” Claire said with a smile she didn’t have to force.
    “Yeah. Nitro’s a lucky dickhead.”
    She gasped and then laughed. “Do you call all your friends such nice nicknames?”
    “Sure. You should hear the one I have for you.”
    “What is it?” she demanded, instantly curious.
    “Terabyte. Because that’s how much information I figure you’ve got stored in your head from all the reading you do on-line and otherwise.”
    “Oh. Does Josette know you call me that?”
    “Sure. They all do. They think it fits, too.”
    “Oh,” she said again, not sure how she felt about that. Being a walking computer