Free Handsome Devil by Ava Argent

there, the cobwebs slow to disappear from my brain. I stare at him for a while before I register the significance of his presence. Once I do, I realize he's asleep.
    We're in a bed together.
    I don't freak out. Frankly, this does not rate my weird-o-meter after the day I've had.
    His eyes open. Unlike mine, they're clear and awake. Deep oceans were staring at me across a pillow.
    I look at him. He looks at me. Doesn't seem inclined to break the silence, so I guess it's all Jules. “You feeling guilty? For getting my arm bent out of shape?” Funny, the words are sticking like gum in my mouth.
    He says nothing, but his eyes flicker to my shoulder. I think it's bandaged. I can't really move it, but I don't feel terribly coordinated. He's solemn when he makes eye contact again.
    “ Well, you should,” I say without a hint of sour grapes. “I had that guy. One squeeze and all of our problems would have been over. Boom. Done.”
    “ Zarek was not the only enemy present. The others would have attacked anyway.”
    “ Maybe,” I allow, “but it sure woulda surprised 'em!” I giggle at my own stupid joke.
    He smiles, a genuine close-mouthed gesture of amusement.
    It's pretty. He's pretty. “I'm feeling really mellow right now. Is there a reason for that?”
    “ I gave you medicine for the pain before securing your limb.” M'anu brushes his pink bangs out of the way. I'm totally absorbed in the action. It's so...humanizing, for lack of a better word. “It will continue for a few more hours. By then your shoulder and ribs should be acceptably healed.”
    Alien meds. Awesome. I grin like a goof at him, but then another thought wipes the smile off of my face. “You know, it's insulting that you pushed me out of the way.”
    He blinks. Slowly.
    “ I mean it. You didn't trust me to make the shot. If it were Betty, would you have done the same? I don't think so,” I answer for him. “I think it was just me. That hurts my feelings. And my shoulder.”
    M'anu doesn't seem to know what to do with that. In fact, I'm pretty sure he's puzzled by the concept of feelings being hurt. I'm going to say that's a guy thing in general. Arms, though, he gets, and so he focuses on that. Except he doesn't say anything. He just dims a little. It's hard to explain. He's just not as bright as he usually is, and it's only then that I realize M'anu is a lot like a match flame. He draws my eye just by existing.
    I take pity on him. Just this once. “So why are we in bed together?”
    “ You require monitoring,” he immediately replies.
    “ Uh huh. You couldn't do that from a chair because...?”
    “ I did not want to.”
    Well how about that. An honest answer. Now it's me that doesn't know what to do, and I blame it on the drugs. A girl needs to be in total control of her faculties to deal with the magnitude waiting to engulf her. She has to have possession of herself that I just don't have right now, so I focus on other things. Like his scent, which smells clean and fresh, or his new gray shirt. He must have showered. Wish I could say the same.
    But I'm too tired. Too fuzzy. I snuggle back into the pillow and sigh. He's not holding or cuddling me, but somehow it feels like M'anu's big body is wrapped around me. Is it because this is his bed? It has to be. I can't picture M'anu putting me anywhere other than where he's most comfortable. There's a den-type feeling in this mysterious place, lived in, and later I'm going to explore it. For now I just want to relax and listen to M'anu's voice.
    In a few hours all of this is going to seem like a serious lapse of judgment. Or maybe not. M'anu isn't exactly the rampaging homicidal maniac I thought he was. He's no Harry Homemaker either.
    Kidnapping me for his bro is messed up (in a big way) but not heinous.
    He fixed up my arm despite the fact that we duked it out both on Earth and his ship.
    He dislocated said arm in an attempt to keep me from getting fried.
    “ I guess that means we've graduated