Page 80 of Painless
I saw it in her posture, though. In the way her shoulders slumped forward, and the pinched tightness of her brow.
When she didn't answer me, Gunner backed me up. "What happened, baby girl?" He was sprawled on my couch, boots up on my footstool. I didn't have the energy to tell him to take his damn shoes off.
Mari dropped her supplies on the coffee table and sat down next to me. "Nothing, he's just," she sighed, peeling away the gauze on my back, "being Reaper."
"Dallas's death doesn't give him an excuse to be an asshole." I ground my teeth against the odd sensation of my injury.
It didn't hurt exactly, but I felt a weird pinching and pulling, like my muscles were too tight. Sometimes an area would seize up or suddenly go numb. Mari said it was because my nerves were damaged, and my brain was trying to communicate with what was no longer there.
"He wasn't being an asshole," she protested, inspecting my burn closely. "If I insisted on staying with him, it might have gotten to that point, though."
"Good thing you didn't," Gunner remarked.
I tossed a smile his way. "You're starting to get the hang of this group thing, huh, bird boy?"
"Yeah, whatever." He flung a hand at me, but an adoring smile crossed his lips as he watched our girl tend to me.
"How's it lookin' back there?" I could only turn my head so far to look at her. My neck muscles felt like they'd been shortened by several inches.
"Good," she muttered, dabbing something all over my back with a gloved hand. "Really good, actually. You're healing faster than I thought you would." Then, in a lower breath to herself, "I don't know why that surprises me anymore."
"When can I ride?" I dropped a kiss to her shoulder.
"Gettingwayahead of yourself,guapito. I don't even want you out in the sun for at least two weeks."
"Two weeks?!"
"Do you know if anyone has a humidifier?" She started pressing fresh gauze onto my back. "Your skin needs to stay hydrated to heal."
"I got parts in the shop. I can make one."
She gave me a wide-eyed stare before laughing softly. "Of course you can."
"Maybe a better question is," I dragged my lips from her shoulder to her ear, "when canyouride?"
I felt the grin at the edge of her jaw. "Well, my seat still works, doesn't it?" Her fingers trailed up my thigh and I never felt so alive since coming back from the dead.
"Even ifthatburned off, I have another place for you to sit." My tongue darted out, dragging along her earlobe with my teeth.
"I don't know how you can be in the mood right now," she sighed, though her grin never faded.
"It's easy when I'm right next to you." I pressed a slow, smoldering kiss to her jaw. "And after the last couple of days, I think we could all use some feeling good."
"Am I included in thatwe?" Gunner rested his chin in his hand as he smiled at us.
"Yes," Mari and I said in unison. "And you're not just watching this time either," she added.
"That took convincing," I squeezed her knee with a chuckle.
She looked at me, face etched with concern. "I still don't want you to—"
"Put pressure on my back. Yeah, yeah, I know." An idea struck me right then. I stood her up, spun her around, and smacked her ass in Gunner's direction. "Gun can take you lying down. I'll be standing."
She gave me a coy look over her shoulder on her way to the bird boy. "Shadow's not home, is he?"
"Don't really give a fuck if he is." I followed like a predator, staying one step behind her as she lowered into Gunner's lap. He grinned like he won the fucking lottery as she leaned toward him. "Hey, baby girl."
"Hi, handsome," she returned sweetly, before kissing him.
