Page 42 of Only ever you-Ana & Byron
Chapter 18
Months later
The sun hung low, stretching long shadows across the front steps of the rented house on the outskirts of Manchester. Ana rang the doorbell, shifting the weight of her bag and brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear. The strap dug painfully into her shoulder, which was only skin and bones. The breeze was cool on her thinner frame, eliciting a whole-body shiver, her olive skin paler than it had been in years.
Cadi answered in pyjamas and an old milk-stained shirt of Gray's holding Tomos in the crook of her arm.
"Ana?" she blinked, then gasped. "Jesus, you're-" Her eyes watered as she scanned her friend's face. "You're here."
Ana grinned. "In the flesh. Mostly." She stepped in before Cadi could pull her into a one-armed hug.
"And who is this?" Ana said, her eyes on the baby whose rapt grey eyes were focused on her,"Oooh, he is adorable!"
Cadi shut the door behind her. She was not distracted by Ana's ploy. "You're skinnier."
Ana shrugged off the comment, her eyes on Tomos, who was gurgling happily, her voice light. "Yemen cuisine’s so overrated."
There was a beat of silence, and she looked up when Cadi's voice wobbled. "When I called after Tomos was born, why did it take you so long to call back? And why did you sound so weird?"
"You did call, yes," Ana murmured. "I picked up. Just couldn't say much." She looked down at her jeans and began to roll up the leg. "Had a minor contusion here. Nothing major." She gestured. A patch of skin was still discoloured, faint scars like lightning bolts dancing over her shin. "I have a cool scar on my scalp, too. Here look. Very Frankenstein chic, huh?"
Cadi gaped. "Ana-"
"Shhh." Ana winked. "I'm alive, aren't I? I just had to spend a little time in a nice Saudi Hospital."
"Two months in a Saudi hospital? You said nothing!"
"I didn't want you panicking with a newborn. Anyway, I wasn't even close to the blast. Just a rogue landmine. Got clipped by shrapnel."
There was a small thump from the hallway. Gray's voice echoed. "Need a hand, Cad?", Ana glanced over, suddenly wary. "Could you not tell them? My parents still think I've been embedded with an NGO in Oman. They'll lose it."
"Tell them what?"
Too late. Gray walked in with Byron trailing behind him.
Byron.
She felt him even before she saw him. His presence was static electricity in the room. She could feel his eyes sweeping her slimmer figure as she turned to lay eyes on him. She had tried to suppress how much she had been looking forward to seeing him... until this moment.
The black T-shirt he wore clung to him like a second skin, outlining the hard planes of his torso. The kind of body sculpted through years of brutal effort-broad chest, shoulders thick with muscle, and lower down, the unmistakable ridges of rock-hard, washboard abs that showed even through the cotton.
Joggers hung low on his hips, casual and deadly, like he'd just stepped off a training mat and yet somehow, he looked carved for war. She could see the outline of his manhood through the joggers before she realized that she was staring and looked up again.
His hair was cropped short, still damp from a shower, curls tamed but refusing obedience. A neatly trimmed beard framed his jaw, giving him a look that was both mature and wild. Dangerous. That beard framed a mouth-sensual, full-lipped, and maddeningly expressive. Lips that she had once kissed with unstoppable hunger, and now that she admitted it to herself through the long hours in a hospital bed, she wanted to kiss again.
Hazel eyes met hers. There was an expression there which she couldn't quite understand.
"Tell her what?" he asked. Cadi hesitated. But Byron's eyes had already narrowed.
Ana barely managed a smile. "Nice tan."
He didn't return it. "What. Happened."
Cadi broke. "She was in a blast zone. Spent two months in the hospital in Saudi. She didn't tell anyone, not even me."
Byron said nothing. But Ana could see the storm brewing in his eyes with the way his heavy brows drew down and his pupils dilated.
Ana reached for the baby in Cadi's arms, using Tomos as a distraction. "My god, he's bigger than I thought."
