Page 41 of Glass Rose
The way he says it… like a promise wrapped in a threat.
I duck my head, studying the radio equipment to hide whatever’s happening on my face. “Yet?”
He bridges the space between us in two fluid steps, standing close enough that his scent floods my senses—the clean bite of soap still clinging to his skin, undercut by something rawer, something unmistakably his own. His proximitytriggers my body’s fight-or-flight response, every instinct screaming retreat, but I don’t back away.
“Yet.” His voice wraps around the word like it’s a physical thing he can taste. “You think we have time for distractions, Doc?”
The shelving unit stands solid against my back. Metal, cold, and unyielding. Gavin, warm and too close.
“Is that what I’d be?” My voice emerges steadier than I feel. “A distraction?”
“Everything’s a distraction when survival’s the goal.” His hand rises, hovering near my face without touching. “But some distractions might be worth the risk.”
I swallow hard. “That’s not very tactical of you.”
“No.” His gaze drops to my mouth. “It’s not.”
His fingertips finally make contact, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear. The touch is feather-light, creating goosebumps that radiate outward like waves from an epicenter.
Do I affect him just as much?
I reach up, tracing my fingertips along the sharp edge of his jaw. The stubble there scratches against my skin, a delicious friction that sends another current straight through me. His pupils dilate instantly, but he doesn’t move.
Not a flinch, not a breath.
Just watches me with that predatory stillness as my fingers trail down to the column of his throat. His pulse hammers against my touch, fast and urgent.
“You’re staring again.” Gavin’s voice drops an octave, rumbling in his chest. “Thought you’d be bored by now, Doc. Fourteen months of poking and prodding me like a lab rat. You’ve seen it all, haven’t you?”
Heat flares across my cheeks. “I?—”
“Always watching.” He braces one hand on the shelf on the side of my head. “In the lab. In the car. Right now.”
I tilt my head to maintain eye contact. “Professional curiosity.”
“Try again.”
“Scientific observation.”
“One more try.”
I should push him away. Should duck under his arm and walk. Should remember that I’m responsible for the scars mapping his body. “I’m not worth it.” My hands find his chest, his heartbeat quickening beneath my palm. “Because whatever they turned you into… you’re still more human than I was in that lab.”
“I don’t see the problem.” His words brush against my skin, his breath warm against my ear. “We both want a monster. But if it’s pity or guilt on your side, I don’t want it.”
“It’s not pity.”
“Your redemption?”
“No.” The word comes out sharper than I intended. “You’re not a fucking symbol, Gavin.”
“Good.” His free hand slides to the nape of my neck, fingers threading through my hair and his thumb caressing the curve of my cheekbone. “Sofia?”
I melt, starved for a connection that isn’t steeped in death. “Yes?”
“May I kiss you?”
My stomach flips like I’m in high school again. But this isn’t some clumsy teenage fumble behind the bleachers. This is Gavin. Dangerous. Damaged. A man who’s survived things that would have broken anyone else. A stranger, so to speak.
