Tap Out (Reaper's Den Book One) - Nikki Mays Page 0,26
ago where his tone was light and his eyes shining.
But as much as I want that, it’s a dangerous slope. It would be all too easy to go back to how things were. But that’s just not realistic. He’s still him and I’m still plain ole’ me. “Perfect. Thanks.” I croak out.
I get to work checking on his incision that is healing perfectly. Huh? “Have you been in a lot of pain?” I question. Maybe Edge just caught him at a bad time or something.
“From my arm?” He asks while searching my eyes. “No, my arm doesn’t hurt nearly as bad as other parts of me.”
I take a sharp inhale. I can feel my nose begin to sting. “Dan,” I start to say, I don’t even know what but he holds up his good arm to stop me.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.” But he did. “No, my pain level is just fine.” He says that last part like a robot.
I work double time to clean the incision and put a new bandage on. When I place the last piece of tape, I look up into his eyes that are boring down into my own and give him an awkward smile. “All finished. Everything looks great. The incision should be healed fairly quickly. I’m sure that you’re looking forward to starting physical therapy.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s gonna be a blast.” He drawls.
My eyes narrow and my lips purse. “Probably not, no. But at least it will help you to be able to use your arm again.” I chastise him like he’s a toddler. “Would you rather skip it and never have full use of your arm ever again?”
His eyes narrow in return. “That’s not what I said.” He growls. “I’m just not overly thrilled at the prospect of having to go through all that torture.”
“At least it will allow you to lift your arm again.” I say before mumbling. “And other women.” I just didn’t mumble it lowly enough considering our close proximity.
“Dammit Stace!” Danny grits out making me jump at his sharp tone. “I have tried to apologize and talk to you about, that but you’ve avoided me at every fucking turn.”
I can feel the fire shooting out of my eyes when I glare at him. “Do not take that tone with me!” My voice is stronger than it’s ever seemed to be. So much so, that he looks immediately regretful. “And you’re right, you did try to talk to me about it. But what’s there really to talk about? Your ex jumped into your arms and kissed you.” Yuck. Gross. Vomit.
His snort catches me off guard. “She is not my ex. I couldn’t even remember her name.”
My hands ball up into fists and I can feel my eye wanting to twitch. “Do you think that makes it any better?” I say through clenched teeth. “If anything it makes the whole thing a million times worse! You’ve slept with so many women that you don’t even know their names. And you expected me to what? Laugh it off because she’s just a one nighter that you don’t remember. What happens when more and more of them just randomly show up to maul you with their mouths?” I end my little rant by poking his shoulder, his good one, with my index finger.
“We could’ve talked about it and gotten through it together. Instead you chose to hightail it and run away like a spooked little rabbit.”
“I wasn’t spooked.” I hiss with more venom than I thought I was capable of. “I was bitch-slapped back into reality by a big breasted bleached blonde who looked like a better fit for you than me.”
“You don’t mean that.” He growls so lowly that it sounds inhuman. We’re nose to nose at this point growling at each other. My butt is barely perched on the coffee table and his is on the edge of the couch.
“We don’t fit.” I say sadly.
He raises an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”
Quick as lightning, his left arm snakes out and pulls me into his lap. How he does this so easily with only one arm, I’ll never know. His lips are on mine before I can even think to protest. His lips on mine feel like home, safety, excitement, and love all at once. I fight the kiss for all of a second before I’m returning his bruising kiss with one of my own. Our tongues are fighting for dominance. Well mine is since he already owns every part