Page 11 of Accidentally Fudging the Beast
She laughs softly, running her hands over my arms to check for lingering hives. They're mostly gone, but there are a few welts still angry enough to warrant a frown.
"You're not allergic to anything else, are you?" she asks, almost too quietly.
"Not unless you're secretly in love with one of my teammates," I say, and then immediately wish I could take it back.
Too much. Reel it in, Kirk.
But Dani's lips do that thing where they almost smile, like she wants to, but it's against the rules. "You'd tell me if you were?"
"In love with one of my teammates?" I tease.
She rolls her eyes at me. "Allergic to anything else, Trent."
"Yeah, I'd tell you. I'd trust you with all my secrets," I say, meaning it all the way to my damn soul.
She's close enough I can smell her shampoo, something bright and sweet, like green apples and vanilla. I want to bury my nose in her ponytail and never come up for air. Instead, I let her finish her exam, enjoying the hell out of her hands on me, even if it's purely clinical.
When she's satisfied I'm not about to faceplant, she helps me out of the ugly non-slip hospital socks and then grabs the plastic bag they dumped all my shit into.
"You want to put your pants on here or in the bathroom?" she asks, holding the bag out with two fingers.
I shoot her the most exaggerated smirk I can manage. "You afraid of what you might see?"
She rolls her eyes. "It's nothing I haven't seen before. You guys love walking around the facility naked."
She's not wrong. My asshole teammates do wander around bare-ass naked a lot. But this is different because she's never seen me naked. I knew better than to let that happen. Hiding an erection under clothes is one thing. Hiding the motherfucker when he's standing straight up and staring her in the face is another.
I have her turn and then slip into my pants fast, if only to prove I can do it without passing out. I leave the hospital gown in place since I have no shirt, and it's freezing out.
She hovers a step away the whole time, her eyes fixed on the door like she expects the nurse to barge in at any moment and catch us in the middle of some kind of kinky scene.
I finish tying my shoes and stretch experimentally. No dizziness. No trouble breathing. A win, by all accounts…except for the fact that my skin still feels like it's on fire and my brain is approximately three steps behind my mouth.
We walk the hallway together, Dani's hand hovering at my back, not quite touching, but I can feel the heat of her anyway. She checks the discharge papers, reading every word, and I catch her lips moving as she silently recites the warnings to herself.
I don't think she realizes she does it. I do, because I've spent the last three months memorizing every single one of her quirks. Hell, I've spent them memorizing every little thing about her.
I'm not even sure obsessed is the word for it, at this point. It's whatever comes after that.
We reach the exit, and she glances at me, uncertainty flickering across her angelic face. "You okay to make it to the car?"
"I'm okay as long as you don't make me eat any more of your death fudge," I joke, but then regret it because her face falls just a little.
"Hey," I say, pausing before the glass doors. "I'm just kidding. I'm fine. You didn't do anything wrong. And if I have to choose, I'd rather die eating your fudge than live without it."
She snorts. "You are so full of shit."
"Maybe," I admit, "but you like me anyway."
That finally gets a real smile out of her, and I feel like I've just scored from center ice.
She takes a deep breath, then gestures to the parking lot. "Let's get you home before I have to carry you."
I follow her out into the frigid night, my mind spinning with plans.
Dani Frost. Alone. At my place.
This has potential.
