“That. Right there. The way you make it clear you’re mine and I’m important to you.”
“I am yours. And you are the most important thing to me.” He traced his fingers just below the bandage on her arm covering the scar where she’d been shot.
“You’re not going to lose me, Hunt. I won’t let it happen. Because being with you is the best thing to ever happen to me.”
“Same. So can you please just do boring, normal things from now on?”
“I’m never boring, Hunt.”
He leaned down to kiss her, but stopped an inch from her lips. “No. You’re not. But I could use a few days to recover from thinking I’d lost you again.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“That’s my Cyn.” He finally kissed her, his tongue sweeping over her bottom lip, then sinking deep into her mouth. He tasted like coffee and desire, and she wanted to lose herself in his arms again and put off this day as long as possible.
But her phone rang in the other room, reminding her that there were things she needed to face and do today no matter how hard they seemed.
Hunt broke the kiss. “Get dressed. Let’s eat.”
“Shelby only brought me enough clothes for a couple days. My jeans are clean enough, but can I borrow a shirt?”
“Your jeans and everything else you wore yesterday smelled like smoke from the fire. I put all your clothes in the wash first thing this morning.”
She tilted her head. “You washed my clothes for me?”
“Except for the dress you wore home from the hospital the first time. I wasn’t sure that could go in the wash. It’s hanging in the closet. You can wear that today. But you’ll have to wait until after breakfast and the dryer to finish before you’ll have some underwear and a bra to put on.”
“Okay.” She didn’t know what else to say.
She’d had overnights at guys’ places before, but none of them had ever thought to wash her clothes for her.
“Do you need help getting up? Go slow. You don’t want to bring on a dizzy spell.”
She’d completely forgotten about her lingering side effects. “I’m fine. A bit stiff. I’ll go slow.”
“I’ll plate up the food. Meet me out there when you’re ready.” Hunt held his hand out to her.
She took it and climbed out of bed slowly, not rising too fast to overwhelm her system. Steady on her feet, she squeezed Hunt’s hand. “Thank you.”
“Happy to help.” He headed for the kitchen.
She went into the bathroom to pee, brush her teeth and hair and wash her face. Feeling refreshed, she slipped on the dress she found in his big walk-in closet, not on the wall of empty space, but right next to his uniforms, dress shirts and suits. Slacks and casual pants were hung. His jeans, sweats, sweaters and other casual clothes were stacked in the cubbies. The closet smelled like him.
She thought about what he’d said about renovating the old building into a place he’d bring the woman he wanted to make a life with here. He’d thought of that woman and made the other side of the closet much bigger, with drawers and pegs to hang things like scarves and purses, and a full-length mirror.
“Cyn.” Hunt startled her.
She turned to him. “You really did create this space with someone else in mind.”
Hunt looked past her at the empty closet space. “I’ve heard women like big closets.” He grinned at the innuendo that women liked other big things.
“What else did you do in this house for the woman you’d bring here?”
“Breakfast is ready.” He tried to change the subject.
She wasn’t having it. “Hunt. What else?”
“It’s nothing.”