Michael sighed. “Probably.”
“I figured as much.” I walked over and pushed him so that he sat down. He stared up at me in question. I pointed to his left cheek where a small cut lay beneath his eye.
“You’re injured.”
“It’ll heal by itself.”
“Not if it’s infected. Hold still.” I poured a bit of alcohol on a cotton ball and pressed it to the wound. He winced a bit. Maybe he’d been sucking it up.
“That was pretty impressive. Remind me to never pick a fight with you.”
“Not that you don’t do it anyway.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, don’t even go there. You give me lip all the time and yet you threatened to dismember a man for touching me.”
He scowled, looking away as I opened a Band-Aid. “That’s different.”
“Sure it is.” I pressed the Band-Aid to his skin and dusted off my hands.
“Any other injuries I need to know about?”
“Not sure.” Before I could say anything, he yanked off his shirt and walked over to the bathroom mirror. I cleared my throat and concentrated on putting the small pack of cotton balls neatly back into the First Aid kit. If I ignored the shirtlessness, maybe it wouldn’t affect me. Maybe.
“Mm. Doesn’t look too bad,” Michael noted. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him touching a couple of bruises on his perfect washboard abs. Er, his abs. Pay attention, Amador, he’s talking to you.
“He was tougher than he looked.”
“Well, if he actually lived in Australia at some point, he had to learn how to fight. Everything on the continent tries to kill you.” I closed the kit and setting it aside to dig deeper in the suitcase. Later tonight would be my second not-date with Terrell and I had packed an outfit in case Michael and I went to dinner somewhere nice. Or so I thought.
When I got to the bottom of the suitcase, I didn’t find a modest burgundy dress with sensible straps and a high neckline. What I found instead was the slinkiest, revealing-est, attention-getting-est black dress I had ever seen in my life.
“What. The hell. Is this?!” I seethed. The Neiman Marcus tag was still on it. I had never set foot in a Neiman Marcus store in my life. But I knew someone who did. Someone busty, Korean, and annoyingly forward.
Michael gave me a confused look. “What’s wrong?”
“This is not the dress I packed. This is the kind of dress you wear when you want to get molested on the ride home from prom!” I shouted, shaking the dress with emphasis.
Michael coughed, attempting to hide a chuckle, and walked over to examine it. “How’d it get in there?”
“My ex-best friend. She must have repacked my suitcase before we left,” I grumbled, tossing the offensive article of clothing on the bed in defeat. I didn’t have enough money left to get a different dress and I wasn’t going to ask Michael for any. He’d done enough for me already. Meaning I’d have to squeeze into this thing and be Terrell’s arm candy for the night.
“What exactly is the problem anyway? Why do you even need a dress?”
I hesitated. I forgot that I hadn’t told Michael about the not-date tonight. Fantastic. “Oh. Terrell invited me out again tonight to escort him to some black tie affair.”
Michael stared at me. I fidgeted. “Stop that.”
“I’m not doing anything.”
“Yes you are. You’re mentally judging me.”
He frowned. “How would you know that unless you subconsciously knew you were doing something unwise?”
I crossed my arms beneath my chest. “I don’t have to answer that question. It’s not a big deal. It’s one stupid event. We’ll be leaving Jersey soon enough and it won’t matter anyway.”
“You heard what Luka said. Something is going to happen soon. Do you really want to be out on your own tonight when Belial or Mulciber could be hiding around any corner?”
I glared at him. “I can take care of myself, Michael.”
“No one’s asking you to!” he yelled, making me jump. The angel turned away, raking his hand through his hair with a haggard sigh.
“Look, Jordan, you’re not alone any more. It’s my job to protect you while I’m here and I can’t do that if you keep pushing me away.”
“That’s the problem, Michael,” I shot back. “You have more responsibilities to your boss than you do to me. You taught me how to defend myself, how to heal myself, and that should be good enough. You can’t keep babysitting one little human when you have an entire cosmos to worry about.”
He faced me again, those green eyes boring into mine as if he could see straight through me. “Are you saying you want me to leave?”
My chest tightened. I hadn’t expected him to say that. I bit my bottom lip, glancing away. “That’s not what I mean.”
“Then what do you mean?”
“Since when have I ever known what the hell I mean?”