Page 41 of Heart of Danger
A quick glance up at Mac’s face and Catherine froze. He wasn’t looking at Stella, he was looking ather. He didn’t look away when she caught him staring, either. His gaze wasn’t seductive but it wasn’t hostile. It was…it was something and she had no idea what. The temptation to reach out to touch him, to understand what was going on in that head of his was so strong she had to curl her hands into fists to stop herself.
And…well. The temptation to touch him just to feel those muscles was strong, too. Nearly irresistible. He was made of a substance harder than human skin. Like steel, only warm. And steady strength underneath it.
Catherine often felt the frailty of people under their skins.
Their hopes and dreams, sure. But also their fears and insecurities. What made them shrink in terror, what baffled them, what weakened them. Love slipping through their fingers, the small acts of cowardice that peppered their lives, lies and swindles and vices—all there under her fingertips.
There had been nothing like that touching Mac. He was a force of nature, a man of granite self control, with no chinks in that muscled armor and no weaknesses. There was anger there and a strong sense of betrayal, but something rocklike, too. She’d never been near anyone like him and the urge to touch him, one last time, was almost overpowering.
“Catherine.”
She swiveled her head in surprise. Stella had her flute still up and was looking straight at her.
“Listen up, everyone. I’ve got another toast, an important one. To Catherine, who helped bring the latest addition to our community into the world, even though—” And here she narrowed her eyes at Mac, Nick and Jon, each in turn, “even though she hasn’t been treated too well by us.” Stella stopped and slowly looked at every person in the room, “There is an us. We’ve come to this place by ones and twos. Found our way here because…because the outside world became too dangerous for us. Here we’ve found refuge and protection. Mac and Nick and Jon—well, who could ask for better protectors? We’ve found each other. So tonight we have two new members of our little community. Mac, a tiny baby girl, and Catherine, who found our way to us the way we all did. By the strength of her heart. So…to Catherine!”
“To Catherine!” The room echoed with the roar. Several clapped loudly, others joining in with enthusiasm. The noise level was incredible.
Glancing over at the bed, Catherine saw that baby Mac slept blissfully through it all. Maybe babies had some kind of radar that let them know which loud noises were dangerous to them and which were not. This roar was definitely benign. The roar of happy people, raising their glasses in a toast.
A toast toher!
It was dizzying. She’d never been toasted before. She’d never been at the center of so many beaming faces before. Faces beaming ather!
Someone spilled some champagne on her and laughed. “Drink up!” someone shouted and they all did. Catherine, too. The champagne was delicious, heady. It tasted like bottled moonlight, crisp and clean and probably 90 proof since it went immediately to her head.
Jon was now a supercharged sommelier, walking around with a bottle in each hand, pouring constantly. When one finished, there’d be a pop and another would appear in his hand.
The noise and laughter rose.
An arm jostled her and she stumbled, felt herself start to fall. Mac caught her, held her upright. He simply wrapped his big hand around her upper arm and straightened her. One huge hand was on the small of her back, pulling her to him, the other holding her arm. She was—she was nearly in his embrace.
Looking up, all she saw was hard, square jaw, slight five o’clock shadow and shuttered eyes. From this angle the burn scar stood out, rippled skin casting small furrowed shadows. The knife scar on the other side of his face was a keloid slash, like a tribal scar.
Their eyes met. The raucous sounds in the room faded away to nothing. His eyes were deep brown with lines of lighter brown in them. Dark and compelling and impenetrable.
Did he dislike holding her? It was impossible to tell. It was impossible to tell what he felt about her. All she really got from him was strength and power.
One thing she knew, though. He wasn’t letting go of her. He held her tightly against him, so tightly she could feel the cut muscles of his chest through the black sweatshirt he wore, down to the individual muscles. Such amazing power. What must it be like to be so powerful?
“Great job!” A laughing elderly gentlemen threw his arms around her from behind, pushing her even more tightly against Mac. “Welcome to Haven!”
Someone on her left hugged her. She couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. Someone else hugged her to her right. A woman this time, soft and smelling of lavender.
Someone tried a group hug and tripped, champagne spilling onto the floor. A laughing man and woman squeezed her shoulders. Behind them, others pressed forward until there was a tangled mass of happy people clustered around her like barnacles.
Her head swam. She was slightly claustrophobic but that wasn’t it, even though she was so tightly squeezed between a wall of flesh and the hard wall of Mac’s chest. Claustrophobia always came with a tinge of fear.
There was no fear here, none at all. Nothing to be afraid of, nothing threatening her. Just very happy people celebrating a happy event.
But…they were all touching her, as if it were a competition to see who could grab the biggest piece of her. However friendly the gestures, their emotions pulsed and swam around her.
Catherine had rarely had two people touching her at the same time, now there were twenty, more, maybe, pushing and shoving and trying to hug her and kiss her cheek, laughing. A few wiped tears from their eyes.
There’d been suffering here, there was worry, there was sadness.
There was great joy and sense of companionship.
Someone touched her neck—a runaway. He’d escaped with his life from somewhere, he was still scared. Someone else—determined to find a niece who was in the hands of a gang. Sorrow and anxiety, a burst of great affection for someone, for…Mac! For the larger Mac not the baby.
