Ruin - By N.M. Martinez Page 0,69

is far from off putting. He takes a step towards me and I have to remind myself to swallow and blink. We're close, and I can smell the sweat on him still and feel the heat from his skin. But there's more. He smells like dirt and some outdoor plant, one of the trees I caught a whiff of on the breeze as Maria and I walked down to the meet up place.

He is close and still very shirtless. The faded green eyes of the tiger on his chest point right at me. My cheeks blaze and I have to look away from him and take a step back for good measure.

Alex lets out a chuckle and his hands reach for my cheek. With both of his hands, wide and cool against my skin, he holds my cheeks as if he can make the redness go away with his touch. His green eyes on me, I suddenly feel self-conscious in a way I never felt with Rob. Rob was attainable. He was a friend, someone just like me. But Alex isn't.

“Your face is warm.”

“You still don't have a shirt.”

I try to glance anywhere other than directly at his chest with that tiger tattoo staring right at me. He is nearly as tall as Jimmy, so his chest is at my eye level. I look straight and try to ignore the smile I see appear again on the bottom half of his face among the stubble and sharp chin. He doesn't say anything though, just removes his hands from my face and steps away.

“I'll be there,” he says with a point over towards the stairs. I give him a nod and let him go on his way.

Nineteen

Henri doesn't say much to me at all in the morning. He doesn't ever really say much to me in the morning, but I wonder if I should ask him about Aaron and what Alex told me yesterday. Is it possible there could be a group of people that work for him because they want to, not because they have to? It doesn't seem like a smart way to do things.

Henri finishes off his breakfast without looking up at me. It's as if he can just feel my eyes on him and he knows I want to talk and is doing everything in his power to hold off on it.

I savor each bite of my eggs. This was something Brandon didn't have. Another thing like butter. It's something he could only get in small quantities for fear of it going bad before he used it. He got some when we were at the village. A small treat for him and me that last morning after the trip before I came to Henri's.

Henri stands up, and I still haven't managed to ask him about Aaron. He glances at me from under bushy brows. I don't expect him to say anything to me. It's not how our mornings usually go. But then he speaks. “I want you to make dinner.”

It's a surprise to say the least. “Okay. I can do that.” I'm sure my eyes must be wide, and I blink a few times to hopefully make them stay normal sized.

Henri walks towards the door, his eyes on me as his heavy boots scuff against the warped wood on the floor. “Make a little extra. I'll be home late."

I stand up and walk with him over to the door. “Sure.”

When he shuts the door and walks away, I take a full breath, not even realizing how shallowly I was breathing. Henri is a large man who fills the room with his presence. Standing next to him I feel small and stifled.

I finish my breakfast and clean up. The sun has hardly risen yet, but I don't want to stay in the apartment. It's quiet in the hall. Henri's only been gone maybe twenty minutes, so I doubt that Alex could be there at the bottom of the stairs yet. Still I step out into the hall and over to the stairs to have a look.

He isn't there, but it's also quiet. I walk to the bottom of the stairs and have a look around. The hall downstairs is brighter than the upstairs. It's large and spacious, with some discoloration around the areas where there used to be furniture. It looks like it was once a small lobby area that has since cleared out and probably repurposed.

There are a couple of doors on this first floor. Henri hasn't