Broken Dove(142)

Her eyes slid through him once again as she passed him and he watched her walk to the kitchen.

He walked into the room, sat and took a deep calming breath.

She returned, her eyes avoiding his, but she bent not close, but not far, to grab a glass.

He bent deep, to grab her hips.

He then sat back, taking her with him, and planted her arse in his lap.

She stiffened completely except to look at his face then drop her gaze to his throat.

“What did I say about clearing?” he asked softly.

Her teeth appeared to worry her lip a brief moment before they disappeared and she mumbled, “Sorry.”

He kept his voice soft when he queried, “Is there something amiss?”

“Amiss?” she queried back, but she asked his ear.

He gave her a gentle shake. “Maddie. Look at me.”

Her eyes, with difficulty and two damned much time, finally found his.

There was fear in them.

Bloody hell, did he frighten her last night with his lovemaking?

On this thought, he gentled his tone further and slid his hand up her spine to her neck, pulling her down to him as his other arm rounded her waist and he remarked, “You’re behaving strangely tonight.”

“Um…” she mumbled but said no more.

“Maddie,” he prompted.

Her eyes started to drift away but his hand tightened on her neck and they shot back.

But she said not a word.

“Madeleine,” he growled, his gentle tone slipping as did his patience.

“I’m not crazy,” she whispered.

He blinked at this bizarre declaration. “Pardon?”

She shook her head sharply then announced, “You’re being very cool.”

Another bizarre declaration.

When she did not explain, cautiously he asked, “How am I being very…cool?”

“Not bringing it up or flipping out about it. I mean, sure, right after, you slit his throat but you’re a dude in a parallel universe. You cut off Pol’s hand. Gutted that other dude. Then there was the neck slice you delivered to that other other dude. I’m getting that here, things are a little bit more vio—”

She was rambling, and making little sense doing it, so he gave her another gentle shake and interrupted her with, “Maddie, I don’t know what the bloody hell you’re on about.”

“I stabbed a man,” she whispered, her voice horrified. “And I would guess, I think…well, I don’t know about this world, but in my world, we’re not hot on that. So I’m thinking that’s not all that, um…attractive and that you might think me going half-cocked like that is actually, well…crazy.”

He felt the tension release in his shoulders.

She was worried what he thought of her behavior the night before.