Page 2 of Smoke and Mirrors
“Yes, babe, I know,” he sighed.
“You know I’m honestly not trying to nag you.” I swirled my fingertips in the soft chest hair just below his throat. “I just hate seeing you in pain.”
“Pain is inevitable,” he grunted, rolling onto his back and pulling me with him so I splayed across his chest.
I lowered my head to listen to the watery thud of his heartbeat, my fingers tracing the Marine Corps emblem tattooed on the other side of his chest. “It can be avoided if you take the time to rest.”
“Rest is worse than physical pain for someone like me,” he said with a throaty chuckle. “Doing nothing will make me even more insane than I already am.”
I opened my mouth to tell him he wasn’t insane and promptly shut it, knowing it would be of no use to argue. Connor dealt with his PTSD and loss of his legs through self-deprecating humor. He didn’t do it for sympathy. I was beginning to see it helped him to make light of his situation.
So instead I complained, “Why do you always have to argue with me?”
He propped his head up with one arm and brushed a kiss along my eyelids. “You’re so damn beautiful in the morning.” With his other arm wrapped around me, he promptly slapped my ass. “See, babe? No argument here.”
“Changing the subject doesn’t count,” I pouted.
Laughing, he shifted his broad, muscular body out from under me. I loved watching him move up close. The muscles under his skin were like a landscape of shifting sands— rising and falling, solid and rippling.
He laid on his side, facing me on the same pillow. His green eyes swallowed me up like the deepest, darkest forest.
“I’ll go nuts if I don’t walk around at least a little, but I promise I’ll take it easy, babe.”
I sighed, knowing that was the best I was going to get from my stubborn ex-Marine. “Thank you. Foralmostlistening to me.”
“You’re lucky I love you,” he chuckled, dropping a light kiss to my nose before pushing himself up to rise from bed.
“Hey.” I grabbed his arm, stopping him from leaving the bed and pulled him back to me. “You know I really am lucky to have you, right?” My mouth found his to pull a long, lingering kiss from him, morning breath be damned. “And I love you too.”
Up close, I could see the conflict in his forest green eyes. Struggle and conflict ruled this man’s world in ways that were unimaginable to most people. He lost so much, and not just the physical parts of him. I wanted to remind him every day that he would always be worthy of love, especially when he didn’t believe it himself.
“You’re so sweet to me, babe,” he murmured, resting his forehead on mine. It wasn’t a full acceptance of it yet, nor a total brush-off. He was trying, and that was all I could ask for.
A softtap-tap-tapon the trailer door broke through our intimate moment.
“Whaaaat?” Connor groaned at the intrusion.
“Um, you guys up?”
My heart lifted in my chest when I recognized the voice of the handsome wolf shifter. Hunter!
“Only if your furry ass has coffee and bacon,” Connor answered.
I stifled a giggle. He was always so grumpy in the morning, it was almost adorable at this point.
“Well, I got one of the two. Just thought I’d share.”
“We’ll be right out, Hunter!” I called out, pulling the sheet back and reaching to the floor for my clothes.
“Oh,nowyou want to get out of bed.”
Connor’s smirk told me he was teasing. He and Hunter got to be good friends in the past week. Not to mention he practically threw me at the gorgeous wolf shifter whenever we were together.
“Don’t tell me you don’t want any of his bacon,” I said with a kiss as I stepped into my shorts. “Or his coffee, whichever he has.”
“The first one!” Hunter called.
“Mmm, bacon,” Connor crooned as he pulled on a shirt.
