Page 53 of H E R

“Hmm,” I muse. I tuck a loose strand of her hair behind her ear and she follows the movement, transfixed by the ink, I think. But I can’t be sure. “Y con quién hablabas?”

She gapes, her eyes give her away, and she swallows nervously and looks around, as if grasping for an answer from the air or the critters nearby. And I laugh softly.

“Hand it over, Niki.” I stick out my palm knowingly.

She clicks her tongue like a chastised teenager, and I laugh again.

“Why do you gotta be such a fucking cop?” She slaps the phone on my palm and crosses her arms once again.

“I thought you didn’t own phones because it’sa way to track you.”

She rolls her eyes, and I stiffen. I want to throw her over my shoulder and drag her into my trailer. Then I want to bend her over my leg and spank her ass until her flesh turns a perfect shade of pink. I’d run my tongue over her milky pink skin and soothe it until she writhes and begs for me to eat her pussy.

“It’s a burner,” she whispers almost inaudibly.

I nod. “Okay, I’ll dispose of it.” It slides into my pocket, its weight slightly tugging one side of my sweats, and I hold out my hand to her.

She breathes in an unsteady breath. “What did you mean earlier by knowing where I was?”

She puts her hand in mine, warm in comparison to my heated and calloused grip, and I pull her gently. “Who’s questioning who now?”

I nudge her toward the front of her trailer and wrap my arm over her shoulder. I feel her shudder and her knees buckle ever so slightly, and I fight the urge to claim her. Instead, I fill the short distance with a question I hope she gives an answer to. “How are you?”

Her face isn’t as swollen as I thought it would be, but the delicate skin is a shade darker than pink, murkier than red, with hints of teal peaking around the edges. My jaw tenses and I look at her wrists, smeared shiny and slick with some balm.

She gives me a solemn nod. “Good.”

Our pace is slow but deliberate, and I get the feeling she doesn’t want to be apart. She starts to twiddle her fingers and then stretches the shirt in her hands, twirling it into a knot and then letting go. I know she isn’t a shy or nervous type of person, that much I’ve deduced. She’s comfortable in her own skin, unabashed and confident.

“Qué es lo que sabes de mí?Y que con todos los secretos?” Her Spanish is clear and comes with a barely noticeable accent resembling two cultures meshed into one.

“Todo a su tiempo.”

“What happens when Vork’s guys come around looking to avenge whatever happened back there? Noah can’t possibly cause so much damage. What happens when that fucker realizes that it wasn’t Noah who came for me and killed all of his men?”

I stop walking and turn her to face me. I put both my hands on her shoulders, then glide them down and wrap my fingers gently around her arms. “No one is coming for you. I’ll make sure of it.”

She swallows and her throat moves with the forced motion. “Y mi familia?”

“Todos a salvo.”

She doesn’t ask about Noah and the savage caveman inside me beams. We’re by the steps of her trailer, and I take my hands off her, prompting her to enter.

She exhales loudly, annoyed suddenly, and when she turns, I wrap my arm around her waist and collide her back against my front. She gasps and I push my face into the back of her head, breathing her in. She wants me to answer all of her questions and not justthe ones I choose to respond to. And so I move close to her ear and whisper. “I knoweverythingabout you, cunning little fox.”

And now we both have what feels like incriminating information about the other. She knows who I am, more or less, and I know exactly who she is. It feels like something’s shifted in the cosmos, as though we’re both finally at the same center, holding hands and journeying the next terrain side by side.

I graze my lips on her ear and take the lobe between my teeth. She trembles and grips my arm and hugs me tightly against her. She pulls in a deep breath and I let go, she almost stumbles back, if not for my hand at the small of her back gently pushing her forward. She takes two steps, and when she turns, I’m already walking back to my trailer.

“Swear you won’t say anything,” she hisses in a harsh whisper.

I turn and touch a hand to my heart, feigning a deep hurt. “Niki, I’m appalled you’d even have to ask.”

“Swear it, rookie!”

She points a finger at me accusingly, waiting. Her face scrunches up and her brows furrow, glaring at me from the distance, and I chuckle at her threatening glare. She’s fucking perfect.

“I swear I won’t tell a soul, fox.”

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