He rests back down on his heels. ‘I would never hurt you intentionally, Ava. You know that, right?’ The uncertainty is clear in his voice as he brushes a stray hair away from my face.
Now, this I’m absolutely certain of. Well, in the physical sense. It’s the emotional sense that scares me to death. And the fact that he added intentionally should be cause for concern.
I look into the hazy, green pools of this beautiful man. ‘I know.’ I sigh, but I really don’t. And it scares me to death.
He swivels around onto his back, taking me with him, so I’m sprawled across his chest. I shift slightly so I can trace a figure of eight on his stomach, lingering longer over his scar than anywhere else.
It fascinates me in a morbid kind of way, and it’s another mystery behind this man. It’s definitely not a war wound from an operation and it’s not a puncture wound or a slice. It looks far more sinister than that. The thick, jagged wave looks like someone has, literally, plunged a knife into his lower stomach and dragged it all the way around to his side. I shudder. I wouldn’t have thought anyone could survive a wound like it. He must have lost a heap of blood. Dare I press him on this?
‘Were you in the army?’ I ask quietly. This could explain it, and I’ve not asked directly.
He pauses stroking my hair briefly but continues shortly after. ‘No.’ he answers. He doesn’t ask me why I would think that. He knows what I’m getting at. ‘Leave it, Ava.’ he says in that tone – the one that makes me writher on the spot. Yeah, I’m not arguing with that voice, and I certainly don’t want to spoil the moment.
‘Why did you disappear on me?’ I ask a little apprehensively. I need to know.
‘I told you, I was a mess.’
‘Why?’ I press. His answer explains nothing. I feel him tense beneath me.
‘You spark feelings in me.’ he answers softly, and I think I might be getting somewhere.
‘What sort of feeling?’ BOOM!
He sighs. I’ve pushed my luck. ‘All sorts, Ava.’ He sounds irritated by it.
‘Is that a bad thing?’
‘It is when you don’t know how to deal with them.’ He lets out a long, tired breath of air.
I stop with my strokes. He doesn’t know how to deal with the feelings he’s having, so he tries to control me? How will that help? All sorts of feelings? This man talks in code. What does that mean, and why does he sound so frustrated by it?
‘You think I belong to you.’ I start circling my finger again.
‘No, I know you do.’
‘When did you establish that?’
‘When I spent four days trying to get you out of my head.’ He still sounds irritated, while I’m delighted with this news.
‘It didn’t work?’
‘Well, no, I was even crazier. Go to sleep.’ he orders.
‘What were you doing to try and get me out of your head?’
‘It doesn’t matter. It didn’t work, end of. Go to sleep.’
I pout to myself. I think I’ve extracted as much information as I’m going to get. Crazier? I don’t think I ever want to meet that man. All sorts of feeling? That, I think, I like the sound of.
I continue with my swirling patterns over his chest, while he strokes my hair and drops a kiss every now and then. The silence is comfortable and my eyes are getting heavy.
I pull myself further into him, resting my leg over his thigh. ‘Tell me how old you are.’ I garble into his chest.
‘No.’ he replies flatly. I screw my face up in sleepy disgust. I didn’t even get a fake age. I doze off into a peaceful slumber, dreaming of all things crazy.
Chapter 30
I wake up feeling exposed and cold, and I know immediately why. Where is he? I sit up, blowing the hair from my face, to find Jesse on the chaise lounge, bending down.
‘What are you doing?’ My throat is hoarse, not yet broken in.