Free Born to Darkness by Suzanne Brockmann Page B

platform bed, secondhand dresser, mirror, closet door. Mac knew from the change in his body language that she’d inadvertently hit a nerve.
    “That’s not a bad thing,” she hurried to tell him. “In
this
world? It’s not. I didn’t mean it to be. Bad.”
    “Still not leaving in a huff,” he pointed out as he met her eyes again.
    “But this time you thought about it,” she countered.
    Shane laughed. “No, ma’am, I most certainly did not.”
    “Okay, I’m sorry, but you just, like, proved that you’re a Boy Scout. Who says
ma’am
?”
    “I’m not a boy,” he said.
    “Believe me, I’m highly aware of that.”
    And in that moment, with that much heat in his eyes, she was sure he was going to move—pull off his T-shirt, join her on the bed, and kiss the shit out of her, the way he’d done out on the street. But he didn’t. He just kept standing there, looking at her,smiling a little bit—which really worked with the full-on smolder from his pretty eyes.
    “So what does that make you?” he finally asked, folding his arms across his chest in a way that made his biceps look huge. Also not by accident. Nor was it a fluke that his T-shirt was deliciously snug. “If I’m a Boy Scout. You’re … the girl with the dragon tattoo?”
    She answered his question in part by pulling her tank top up and over her head. “No tattoos,” she said. “Of dragons or anything else. But feel free to check more thoroughly.”
    Heat flared again in his eyes, but he was observant and he’d clearly noticed that she hadn’t yet taken off her left boot. And he finally moved closer, coming around to her side of the bed. “You need some help with that?”
    “I’m a little afraid to take it off,” she admitted.
    He stopped. And it was clear he was going to ask a question, like,
When, exactly, did you hurt yourself?
    She didn’t want to lie to him, certainly not by more than omission—not after he’d been so honest with her. So she said, and it wasn’t a lie, “It’s been feeling much better, but I think that’s partly because the boot provides support. I’ve just mostly left it on. Since the injury.” She left out the part where it had felt startlingly better after he’d touched her in the bar. And after that kiss, as well …
    “That’s one way to go,” he said. “What did the doctor say?”
    “Well …” Mac made a face.
    Shane laughed, and his smile was like a sunrise and God, wasn’t
that
some of the corniest shit that had ever sashayed through her brain. What she
should
be thinking, right about now, was
Justin who
? No need for any rainbows after a storm on a tropical island, or the perfect silence of an early morning snowfall, or a glorious sunrise or sunset or moonlight or spring flowers or puppies or fluffy newborn bunnies. And yet …
    He’d crouched next to her still-booted foot and looked up with a neon-blue flash of eyes to say, “You
do
know that there’re a lot of little bones in your feet and ankles, right? You might have astress fracture, and not even know it. You really should get it scanned. If you want, I’ll go with you, to the hospital.”
    He was just so beautiful and sincere in his kindness—and okay, yeah, he totally wanted to fuck her. That was really why he was here. But he was sincere in his desire, too. There was no ugliness involved—at least not that she could feel from him. He didn’t have any issues at all with sex. He liked having it, and he was okay with himself for liking it.
    And he absolutely wanted her to peel off her sports bra—she knew
that
because he kept looking at it, like he was trying to figure out where the clasp was so he could get it off of her.
    “No clasp,” she told him, as he knelt there before her, like some kind of knight in shining armor come to rescue her. “It pulls off, over my head. And going to the hospital isn’t a good idea.”
    He instantly took her words the wrong way. “Of course. I understand. I wasn’t