Page 27 of Iron Hearts

“He’d probably be pissed I was even there,” she said, trying to play things off, and I shook my head.

“Well, yeah, that too, but being proud and pissed aren’t mutually exclusive to one another.”

She giggled lightly.

“How about this?” I asked. “I’mproud of you and grateful. You really saved my ass back there. Kept me from gettingshot. You got some brass ovaries, girl. I’ve seen grown-ass men fall the fuck apart under less pressure than being unarmed during a live fire incident.”

She blushed prettily and sounded a bit awed when she asked me softly, “Really?”

“Really,” I whispered, raising her hand to my lips and kissing the backs of her fingers. She turned a deep, deep red from the pretty pink she’d been initially, and simply stared at me wide-eyed.

“I can sleep on the floor,” I said after a moment, and her face contorted into one that said she’d heard something utterly absurd.

“Move your big ass over,” she said. “Stay under the sheet. I’ll sleep on top of it.”

“Nice compromise,” I said, but it was still a pretty tight fit. She only had a full-sized bed, not even a queen.

CHAPTERTWELVE

Rarity…

I tried to give him some space and stay on my side of the bed, but it wasn’t exactly comfortable, two people on a full. It was hard not to touch.

“Come here,” he said. “Turn over.” I did as he asked and turned over. He turned, too, to lay flat. He pulled me up against him and said, “Lay your head on my shoulder.” I did, carefully, my body coiled tight with the awkwardness of being cuddled up to a stranger I barely knew.

I mean, hewasolder – a lot older than I thought.Forty-two,I thought to mytwenty-four.It took me an embarrassingly long time to do the math right in my head and I felt myself shift and even quite possibly pale when I realizedeighteen.

He had beeneighteenwhen I’d beenborn…

He was closer to mymom’sage than mine, my mom being forty-nine.

But he didn’t look forty-two. I wouldn’t have put him a day over thirty-five.

What does it matter, Rarity?I asked myself silently.It’s not like you’re going to hook up or whatever. You’re just feeling a little bonding from going through the same trauma. No big deal.

“You’re thinking awfully hard,” he murmured. “What’s up?”

“You’re really forty-two?” I asked, and he chuckled.

“Yep.”

“That means you wereeighteenwhen I was born,” I whispered.

“See, I told you I was old enough I could be your daddy.”

I snorted. “Still could be if that’s your kink,” I joked.

He was entirelytoosilent, and I sat up sharply. He snorted and shook with silent laughter. I laid back down and muttered,“Asshole,”which just made him shake with laughter more.

I couldn’t keep a smile off of my face if I tried.

“What were you even doing when you were eighteen?” I asked, curious, after we’d both stopped our giggle fits.

“Enlisting in the Army before I’d even fully graduated high school,” he said, heaving a big sigh. “I wanted to get out of my small town and travel the world.”

“Bet your parents were proud of you,” I said demurely.

He snorted.

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