dropped to a whispered. “People are saying that you’ve bonded.”
“Hmm.” He stood, reached for a pair of sweats and tugged them on.
“Hmm?” she asked. “Just hmm?”
“Hmm.”
A groan. “You’re unbelievable, you know that?”
“I love you, too,” he said, peeling her fingers off her eyes. “I’ll stop by and see you and Mom on my dinner break, but I have a shift now. I need to get ready for that.”
“Graham,” she groaned.
“Meely,” he countered, nudging her toward the door. “I’ll see you later.”
“But—”
He reached for the handle, pulled the heavy panel open. “Later, okay. I just—” Not that he remembered what he would have said.
Because Suz.
Whose pretty chocolate eyes warmed and whose mind suddenly flared brightly inside his, giving him a glimpse of her thoughts. Heat, desire, need, but also uncertainty and no little amount of fear. Which—the second part at least—felt like shit. The desire and need, yeah, that was something he could get behind. But the fear . . . that was a fucking knife to his gut.
He was just starting to know this woman as a woman and not a sister (even as much as that had been pretend), a healer, a casual friend, but he’d always known she wasn’t someone who ran scared.
That was fact.
“Hey,” she whispered, her chin coming up the smallest degree.
Fuck, but he liked that, respected that. He could feel that anxiety, and she was here anyway.
“Hey, Firefly,” he said. “I was just coming to see you.”
Her eyes flicked down then back up, and hell if he didn’t feel that, feel as though her fingers were the ones doing the tracing. “You’d cause a riot,” she murmured.
He grinned. “You saying you like my body?”
A huff, and God, he loved when she released that annoyed little puff of air. Her lips would form a perfect O and then she’d press them flat for a beat. “I’m saying that I came to see if you’d eaten since we were up so late, and I thought maybe we should go get something to eat.”
“I have to work,” he murmured, running the backs of his fingers across her cheek.
His mind tingled, filling with disappointment—from both him and her.
“Oh,” she whispered. “That’s okay. I just—”
“I missed you.”
Her lips curved, she glanced at her watch. “It’s been all of six hours. Most of which you were unconscious for.”
Which was about five hours and fifty-nine minutes too long, his body and mind were screaming at him, but since he knew that was unreasonable and ridiculous, Graham was able to chuckle self-effacingly and tug on a lock of her hair. “Feels like longer.”
She hitched a thumb over her shoulder. “I should go.”
“Dinner?” he asked.
“Well, I—”
But it was to be another statement that he’d not know the end of.
Because that was the moment he remembered his sister was two feet behind him.
“I thought you were having dinner with us.” Amelia shoved his shoulder, and he realized he was blocking the entire doorway with his body. “Move, you big lug,” she muttered. “I want—” A grunt. “To see—” Another. “Who you are—” One more. “Talking to.”
In front of him, Suz’s lips parted, no sound coming out.
She retreated a step . . . at the same moment Amelia managed to shove him to the side enough to slip by him.
“You!” she gasped, sliding to a halt. “And Graham? What? I— How—?” She grabbed Suz’s arm, practically jumping up and down. “Holy fucking shit!”
Horror flooded him.
From Suz.
“Amelia—”
“This is great,” she said, bouncing on her toes. “You and I can be sisters, and we can plan a wedding—or well, a bonding ceremony. Tell me that I get to pick out a fancy dress and that we can convince the kitchens you have to do a cake tasting, like they do on all those reality TV shows. I watched one with Dee the other day and—oh my God! Daughtry! Does Daughtry know? Does Gabby? Does—”
Slowly, oh so slowly, he lifted his hand and cut off the flow of words.
“Go, Firefly,” he whispered. “I’ll see you soon.”
White teeth pressing into a bottom lip. “When?”
But the question hadn’t been out loud.
It was in his mind.
And it felt incredible, like the most intimate thing he’d ever heard or felt. It was as though Suz were in his mind, but not just her voice. Physical and audible and also strengthening the link connecting them. It was . . . right. The single most right thing he’d ever experienced in his life.
Another brush of his knuckles over her cheek. “As soon as I can,