Page 27 of Hothead

Taking advantage of her parted lips, he stole one last kiss. It wasn’t sweet and slow or wild and urgent. This time it was claiming. His claim on her to be exact. He was done playing games. This was happening.Theywere happening. And he was no longer afraid of it. If Marco wanted her to stick around for a month, then that meant they had three more weeks together, and he wasn’t going to waste a second more of them.

Letting his thumb caress her cheek, he drew back slowly. Memorizing every inch of a face that was so beautiful, it looked like Botticelli himself had carved it out.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, angel.” Even he could hear how rough his voice sounded. It was taking everything in him to walk away. But he had to.

Three weeks. He reminded himself as he turned. He had three weeks with her. And he was going to make them count.

***

As soon as he saw Hunterwas on shift with him today, Luke knew that at some point he was going to get grilled. Apparently, that point was now.

Luke’s first mistake was slumping into the ratty old couch in the communal lounge after a call out. His second was bringing a plate of chili with him to eat. And his final one was not getting the hell out of there when Hunter bounced down next to him.

“So, Bella?” Hunter began.

Fucks sake.

“Don’t wanna talk about it, dude.”

Hunter scoffed. “I bet you don’t. Screwing your dead brother’s girlfriend is a new low even for you.”

Now Hunter was just pissing Luke off. “Friend!” Luke slammed his plate onto the coffee table in front of them, giving him room to twist to face Hunter. “Hisfriend, asshole,nothis girlfriend.”

Hunter didn’t react, just hummed. He forgot the man was the goddamn king of calm.

“And not that it’s any of your business, but I’m notscrewingher,” Luke went on, the words leaving a bad taste in his mouth. “She’s teaching me about my brother, if you must know. Seeing as I never knew him, and she did.”

“And that teaching includes sticking her tongue down your throat?”

He was totally doing this on purpose. To get a rise. “You know it doesn’t. Say what you wanna say, man, and stop fucking around.”

“Okay.” Hunter kept his dark eyes on him. “You like this girl. That’s obvious. But it has not escaped my attention, or anyone else’s for that matter, that in all the time we’ve known you, you’ve never once brought anyone around. So, what’s different about this woman? Why all of a sudden are you carrying her outta bars and laying claim to her in front of the whole town?”

Goddamn small ass towns.

He didn’t have an answer. Not a good one anyway. Bella was different. She made him feel things he’d never felt before. Ache in places he didn’t even know existed until she walked into his life. But he wasn’t about to admit that to his friend.

Besides, this conversation was irrelevant anyway. No matter his feelings, whatever was happening between Bella and him had an end date. And if he was being honest with himself, that guaranteed end date was the only reason he was allowing himself the chance to explore his feelings for her.

“She’s different, okay.” He sighed. “But that doesn’t mean I’m about to get down on one knee like the rest of you assholes. She’s leaving in a few weeks, so whatever this is, it’s already got an expiry date.”

He didn’t like the way his friend was looking at him. Assessing. Searching. What the hell was he looking for?

It was a good minute before Hunter spoke again. “You need to get out of your own way, man.”

“Okay. Sure. I’ll work on that.” Luke was ready to tap out. But his friend wasn’t done.

“This woman is the first to turn your head in thirty-five years, right?” Luke didn’t answer. He knew it was a trap. “Okay, so I’ll take that as a yes. Well, that means something. Stop pretending it doesn’t. Do me a favor and just keep an open mind over the next few weeks, yeah?”

“An open mind?”

“Yeah. And whatever you do ... don’t be one of those dumbasses who fucks up a good thing ’cause he can’t pull his head outta his own ass.”

And with that super unhelpful advice, Hunter was pushing up from the couch, his bulky six-foot-five frame swaggering back across the room.

Luke was still shaking his head as he picked up his plate.

Damn nosy ass friends.

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