my dick stirred.
Fuck.
Guilt chased off that feeling. The lust currently twisting my guts into a thousand knots was the last damned thing I should be feeling.
Thoughts crossing a boundary that was off-limits. I did my duty and it ended there.
She slowly stood from the wheelchair, saying something to the orderly before he left her there. Shifting, she warily scanned the parking lot, hugging her arms over her middle and looking anxious as fuck.
Shaking myself out of the stupor, I curled Gigi in my arm and slipped out. I started that direction.
Like instinct, she looked my way. Green eyes collided with mine. Swore to God, she heaved for a breath, and that lust was making a rebound.
Coming on stronger.
Every muscle in my body going tight.
Gigi went nuts in my hold, and there was nothing I could do but set her on the sidewalk, keeping a tight grip on her leash as she pulled and struggled to run for her, barking like mad.
Pure excitement.
Tessa’s face split with joy.
Yeah.
Tessa.
And I was ambling that way, trying to play it cool and act like I wasn’t wanting to touch her everywhere. Ensure she was whole. That she’d actually made it. Unease rumbled at the thought—the idea of what would have happened if we hadn’t gotten to her when we did. How quickly this story could have ended up with a different ending.
When we were a couple feet away, she knelt, and I let go of the leash. Gigi ran the rest of the way and jumped into Tessa’s arms.
Tessa hugged her and kissed her. “Oh, my sweet girl. I missed you. I’m so thankful you’re fine. Oh.”
Gigi licked her face, and I was rubbing at that spot in the middle of my chest. Trying not to feel awkward because I was just standing there, staring at their reunion and finding far too much joy in it.
But that’s why I did this job. It was what I could offer. Serving people. Willing to sacrifice. To pay it all if it meant someone else would be saved.
She finally stood with her dog in her arms. Her teeth clamped down on her bottom lip, and her head listed to the side as those eyes swept over me.
“Thank you so much,” she said, her words barely a breath. Filled with so much emotion I didn’t know how to process them all. “I didn’t know if I would ever see her again.”
I shook my head. “There is nothing to thank me for.”
Those eyes widened. “Are you kidding? You…you saved my life and then you took in my dog. I don’t even know how to start to repay you.”
“It’s my job.”
She blanched, like me saying it hurt her feelings.
Well, shit.
I roughed a hand through my hair, and my mouth pulled up at one side. “I mean, except for the dog thing. I have to admit that was a first.”
The smallest smile graced her mouth, and she was looking at me like I was the single thing that had been missing in her life. “I hope she wasn’t any trouble.”
“None at all. Have to admit, I’ve gotten kinda used to having her around. Think I’ll miss her.”
Tessa squeezed her dog. “She’s pretty great.”
“Yeah.”
Uneasiness billowed around us. I was just…stalling. Didn’t know how to walk away.
“So, how are you feeling?” I asked. It gave me a good excuse to let my gaze wander. Her tiny frame was eclipsed by the heavy clothes she wore, but I remembered exactly the way she’d felt in my arms. A memory I couldn’t seem to scrape from my consciousness.
She laughed, a brittle sound, sincerity rolling out on her words. “I was lucky, really lucky, thanks to you. A minute or two longer, and I don’t think I’d be here.”
A lump grew thick in my throat. “Do you have burns?”
She was back to chewing at her lip, the girl all kinds of wary and unsure. I guessed that’s what a trauma could do to you.
“Very minor. Nothing that really even needed treatment.”
“That’s good. And your lungs?”
“Clear. I’m fine. Perfectly fine.”
Okay, so this was getting awkward. Because I just kept asking her personal shit that was none of my business, and I really needed to get the hell out of there before I said something I couldn’t take back.
“What do you do now?”
You know, like that.
Because I’d learned she lived alone, and my friend working her floor said no one had come in to visit her the entire time she’d been there. It’d taken all my willpower not to