Damaged and the Knight (Damaged #2)

“Don’t,” he growled.

Instead of responding to his implied threat, I laughed. “You growled like a dog.”

“Just eat your food.”

“Okay, Daddy.”

“Fuck. Stop it.”

“Stop it what?”

Judd tensed his body and I watched all of those tanned muscles flex then he sighed. “Stop it, Tawny,” he said then added, “Or else.”

“Why did you call me angel this morning?”

Judd shook his head. “Doesn’t matter.”

“No one’s ever called me something pretty like that before.”

“You never had a guy call you anything nice?”

“Farah and I weren’t allowed to date.”

“If every kid listened to their parents, the world would be less crazy, but considerably less fun.”

“You ever try to sneak out of a motel room you share with your dad?”

“Can still have a boyfriend. Just harder to hook up.”

“Do you wish I had a boyfriend?”

Judd studied me in a soft way. “I wish you had someone to say sweet things to you.”

If I was braver, I would have jumped across the booth and kissed him. I’d hold him and never let him go. In my heart, I knew Judd was safe. Yet, my head viewed him as a threat and it had no interest in jumping across the table and kissing anyone. My head wasn’t running the show at the moment.

“I want to know why you called me that,” I said, slightly breathless between my nerves and growing lust.

Shrugging dismissively, he muttered, “No reason. I was dreaming.”

“You were awake when you said it.”

“I thought I was still dreaming.”

Sensing he wanted a reason to share, I offered, “I’ll tell you something if you tell me that.”

“Tell me what?”

“What do you want to know? It’ll be like an exchange of info.”

Judd poked hard at his food like he was working out an internal struggle in his head. Finally, he nodded.

“Fine. I want to know why you stayed in that room starving? I know you couldn’t move the dresser, but you could have climbed out the window.”

“I had no money and what was waiting outside was worse than starving to death.”

Studying me with his cold eyes, he asked, “If I hadn’t come, you would have let yourself die?”

“I figured I would die either way and my biggest fear is to die violently.”

“Why?”

“Would you want to die violently?”

“No, but most seventeen year old girls…”

“I’m not a girl. I’m a woman.”

“You can say that a million times and it doesn’t change anything in my head.”

“How about a million and one times?” I asked, giving him a grin. “I think you want me to change your mind.”

Judd watched me with those sad eyes. “Of course, I do. Any man would want an excuse to do something naked with you. Only an evil man would let you con him into it though.”

“It’s not evil to be close to someone you like.”

“You’re young.”

“Tell me why you called me angel.”

“Tell me why that’s your biggest fear.”

“No way. I shared my greatest fear with you, something only my sister knows, and you’re stalling. Don’t be a cheat. Just tell me.”

Placing his hands flat on the table, he glared at me. “I tell you this and you don’t make an issue of it. You don’t make it mean anything or get goo-goo eyes over it.”

“Is it sexy?” I asked with a hint of both excitement and dread in my voice.

Judd rolled his eyes. “When I was a kid, my mom took off for a while. Like she had to run to get away from my dad. One early morning, she came back for us and snuck into the house. I woke with the light bright behind her and she was dressed all in white looking like an angel,” he said, running a hand over his arm as if tense. “That’s what I thought she was for a minute. An angel saving me. So, yeah, when I woke up with you wrapped in that white blanket and the light all around you, I thought you were an angel. That’s all it was. Sleepy brain shit.”

“Did you think I was beautiful?” I asked like a dope.

Judd’s grumpy expression softened. “You are beautiful. You know that too.”

“I don’t feel beautiful. I don’t like looking in the mirror and seeing my reflection.”

“Why the fuck not?”

“I just don’t. I don’t like knowing what I look like. I force myself to look, just enough that I can check for gunk on my face and in my teeth. I don’t like doing it, so sometimes I just asked Farah.”

“That’s fucked up. You know that, right?”

I nodded. “You’re probably fucked up too. I think maybe we could be less fucked up if we were together.”

“Never happening.”

Grinning, I kicked him gently under the table. “The more you say that, the dumber you’ll look when you’re kissing me and hugging me and marrying me and pushing that baby carriage.”

“I don’t want kids.”

“Why?”

“My family has a genetic defect and I don’t want to pass it on.”

“What kind of defect?”

“We’re assholes.”