She bit her lip and dropped her gaze before nodding.
I nodded too. Didn't matter why she wanted me, I was just glad she did. I stood and put Skylar in the crib. Then I took Julian from her and put him down too. They were both still awake, but they'd settled enough to lie contently by themselves for a minute.
Turning back to Eva, I held out a hand. "Let's get you cleaned up."
She frowned in confusion before looking down and seeing how torn her shirt was. Dried blood clung to her skin from a scrape on her arm and the backs of her hands bore more marks. Nodding, she took my fingers.
I led her into the bathroom and had her sit on the edge of the sink. Then I wetted a washcloth and dabbed at the cut on her lip first. After cleaning the scratch on her shoulder, hands, and along her neck where her torn top revealed the deepest marks, I leaned in to kiss the worst cut before gently applying a bandage.
She sucked in a breath and looked up at me. "You're being extremely cool about all this."
I snorted out an amused laugh. "You're the one who told me to simmer down."
"So you really don't feel as calm as you're acting?"
I shook my head and studied the bruise forming on her forehead. "Not even a little."
"Well, you put on a good show."
"Thanks." Reaching around to the back of her skull where her father had cracked it against the refrigerator, I winced. There was a decent-sized goose egg back there, but at least the skin hadn't broken open.
"What about you?" I finally asked, studying her eyes for signs of dilated pupils. "You okay?"
"Oh, you know . . . " She shrugged and lifted a nonchalant hand. "Reese, the one person on earth I never wanted to find out about all this, just found out, so . . . no. No, I'm not okay at all." Her chin trembled and she bit her lip to stop it.
I nodded, completely understanding. She was putting on just as good a show as I was. "So . . . your dad, huh?"
Glancing away, she sniffed. "He's not really my dad. The night he found out from my mom that I actually belonged to someone else was the first night he, you know, visited my room."
I swallowed the bile that rose in my throat and blew out a hard breath through my nose.
Shaking my head, I said, "I don't care if he was blood or not, he was still your father." Still a sick, disgusting motherfucker.
Her face fell and her shoulders shrank in around her body as she hugged herself. "I know." Her voice was so small and her expression so defeated. This was not my strong, sassy Tinker Bell.
I hated what that bastard had done to her and was still doing to her.
My breathing picked up. I lifted my hands to my head and buried my fingers in my hair as I coasted right back onto the edge of uncontrollable fury.
"Fuck, Eva. I can't handle this, knowing what happened to you and not being able to do anything about it because it's already over and done. I want to hurt him. I want to hunt him down and hurt him so bad. If I could just get my hands around his neck . . . " I lifted my fingers, all ten of them tensed and curled, eager to constrict.
Eva caught them and lifted them to her mouth. "Just breathe," she instructed as she kissed the dried blood on my knuckles.
"I can't," I bit out. "All I can do is see him pinning you in the kitchen and—"
She kissed me.
Her mouth against mine. It was . . . yeah. Everything. I closed my eyes and sank into her, cupping her face and lifting her chin so our lips aligned perfectly. It might've been dry and closed-mouth, but it was still a perfect kiss and tugged up all these feelings I had for her from the bottom of my soul.
"Better?" she asked as she slowly pulled away.
I kept my eyes closed, reliving that kiss in my head as I swayed forward. "Um, I don't think so. Maybe you should try kissing me some more."
Puffing out a light laugh, she rested her cheek against my neck and hugged me.
I stroked her hair, and pulled her closer as the urge to protect her flared hotter. "If I ever find him near you again, I'll kill him. I won't be able to help it."
"Pick, I was serious when I said he could destroy you. He'll learn all your weaknesses and find a way to use them against you."
Remembering how he already knew I was an orphan, I didn't doubt her. He was probably a very powerful shithead. But the knowledge didn't scare me. I pressed my lips to Eva's temple. "You're my only weakness."
She sighed as if she knew she wasn't getting through to me enough to intimidate me, not until Julian and Skylar started crying from the bedroom. Then she pulled back and looked up at me with a steady, probing gaze. "You sure about that?"
My eyes widened as my chest caved in around my heart with instant dread. "He wouldn't. They're only babies."