Page 8 of Hot Chocolate & Hitmen

With gentle, determined fingers, she cleans me up and sets about bandaging and wrapping up my wound. Her perfectly innocent face twists up with worry, making me want to smooth out her features and kill anything that tries to make her frown again.

Up close, I can see her eyes are red, glassy, and slightly puffy, as if she’s been crying. My jaw locks, teeth grinding as I subconsciously lean closer to make sure.

“Why were you crying?” My deep voice startles her, her hand moving to cover her heart for a moment as she realizes how close I’ve leaned in.

“For fudge’s sake! You’re going to give me a heart attack!” She chastises, but there’s no heat behind the words. I don’t think anything about this woman could ever be scary or mean. She’s just…fuck, I didn’t know sweetness could make my dick hard.

“I’ve not been crying.”

I don’t believe her.

“What’s your name?”

“Grace.”

Grace.I mouth the name to test how it feels and then grin. It fits her perfectly.

“Atlas.” I decide to give her mine as well. I want to hear her say it. Say my name in her sweet voice, but she doesn’t.

She bites at her bottom lip as she refocuses on my arm. Tracing her features, I narrow my eyes on the side of her neck, the grin dropping from my face instantly. A tiny bruise peeks out at her neckline, and before I can stop myself, I’m pulling her shirt back. Taking in the perfect hand-sized bruises on the back of her neck, my blood boils. It’s like someone held her by the nape too hard.

“Hey! What are you doing?” She squeals, slapping my hand away. I simply let go and sit back in my seat, motioning for her to continue with what she started.

“What happened to your neck?” She hesitates for only a moment, her eyes narrowing adorably as if she’s trying to warn me silently to sit still. I fight the grin that threatens to pull at my lips, staring her down instead. Sighing, she moves closer as she gets back to treating my wounds, only this time, her eyes keep darting back up to my face as if she’s waiting for me to pounce.

"Who hurt you?" I try to keep my voice as steady as possible, but the rapid pulsing of her carotid artery tells me I failed. She finishes bandaging my arm but doesn't move away.

"That's not really your business." Her lips press into a thin line, her eyes darting toward the open archway leading back to the living room. I don't follow her gaze–Key and Teddy are more than capable of handling things in there.

The glance tells me enough, but still…

She bites her lip, clearly fighting not to answer, so I repeat myself, this time with a little more force and a rasp in my voice, my emotions breaking through.

"Who hurt you?"

Her eyes widen as they meet mine, her entire body freezing.

"Jason," she finally says. It’s clear she wouldn’t have said anything if I hadn’t pushed. Her tongue flicks out to wet her lips–a nervous tic that only confirms my suspicion.

My eyes laser in on the movement, following its path across her plump bottom lip until it retreats back into her mouth. I cock my head at her as I meet her gaze once more. Out of the corner of my eye, I clock her entire chest expanding with her shaky, uneven breaths.

“Jason?” I jerk my head towards the archway in question and she nods. “Okay.”

I surge to my feet and spin on my heels, my long, determined strides eating up the distance between me and my target.

“What are you doing?” My beautiful, sweet angel squeals as she races after me. Her far shorter stature struggling to catch up.

“Balancing the scales.”

“Balancing the…” Confused for only a moment, she catches on quickly. “No! Stop! Don’t hurt him!”

I’m almost to the man in question, his face turning as white as a ghost at the sight of me coming at him when a sudden weight crashes into my back.

“What the-” I stop and spin in a circle as Grace clambers up my back and wraps her arms around my neck like she’s going for a piggy-back ride.

“I said don’t hurt him!” Her soft voice is panicked.

“He hurt you,” I point out.

---