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“Kung Fu, huh?” His lower lip moved, shooting pain into his gums. Finally getting a nibble of what Lucy Davidson tasted like had been better than he hoped it would be, but then his damned lip. “You started when, in middle school?”
“Yes.” Lucy handed him a mug covered in small marshmallows floating on top before she curled up in the chair opposite him. “A friend told me about it, said it had helped her and she was about my size. It’s a smarter martial art since it uses my opponent’s momentum against them instead of brute force.”
“You let them do most of the work. Dammit.” He touched the mug to his mouth. The heat of the ceramic burned his tender skin. “Hot.”
“Oh, gosh. I’ve got some ice we can add.” She began to stand, but he motioned for her to stay seated.
“It just needs time to cool, Lucy. What were you saying about Kung Fu?”
“At least let me get you a straw.” Within seconds she’d returned with a cup of a few cubes of ice and a couple of coffee straws. “Sorry, it’s the best I’ve got for now.”
He dropped the thick cubes into the thick chocolate and stirred with the straws. “Then I’m having warm chocolate instead of hot?”
“Yes, Dr. Smartypants.”
“Okay, Dr. Badass.” And perfect ass. All those years of martial arts had kept Lucy more than in shape.
Thinking about having his hands on her body only made it more difficult for him to reposition gracefully without embarrassing himself. Good thing he wore jeans and not sweatpants because in sweatpants, there would be nowhere to hide his enthusiasm for his beautiful colleague and her company.
She took her seat again and took a long sip of her hot chocolate. “You asked about martial arts. It would have been foolish for me to try and come straight at Junior like I would have been trained to do, let’s say in American Karate or Aki-do. Scrawny or no, he certainly would have knocked me on my ass if I’d thought I could overpower him through brute force.”
“I don’t know. You’re pretty fierce. I can’t see you backing off from much of anything or anybody.”
Her eyes lit up with delight. “That’s the sweetest thing. Thank you.”
“What made you start in Kung Fu again? Bullies?”
“Something like that.” She moved her dark red hair over her shoulder as she appeared to get lost in thought. “My mom thought it would build my confidence and coordination.”
Something like that? He wondered if she’d suffered the injury because of someone’s malicious act. Fury uncomfortably twisted his insides at the idea of anyone hurting her.
Calm down, man. It was only one kiss.
One amazing, intense kiss.
If it weren’t for his busted lip, it was possible they would be on the fast track to Nakedtown.
“Did the Kung Fu help?” He repositioned in his chair, hoping to alleviate some of the pressure on his fly. “Were you able to use it?”
“Yes.” She stared at him for a few seconds before she appeared to blink her way out of her thoughts. “You mean did I use it to defend myself?”
“Yes. I’ll give you an example. Junior. When he grabbed you. How did you get out of it?”
Placing her hand on her head, she mimicked her previous movements. “I held his hand against my head when he tried controlling me by pulling my hair.”
“I wondered why you did that.”
“I’m surprised you noticed. It all happened pretty fast.”
“I notice a lot of things about you, Lucy Davidson.” He toasted her with his mug, but set it back down again.
Her eyes twinkled with excitement. “That’s either the sweetest or creepiest thing you could have said right now.”
He let out a throaty laugh. “Which one am I? Creepy or sweet?”
“I haven’t decided yet, Dr. McAvoy.” Placing her mug on the table, she rested her elbows on the armrests of her chair as her sultry voice danced over his ears.
God, how he wanted to kiss her. Kiss every inch of her, every day for a long, long time. “I really hate him right now.”
“So do I.”
Good to know she’s thinking the same thing I am.
“In three to five days, those sutures will come out.”
“I’m a quick healer.” And he’d drink three gallons of orange juice and eat a bucket of apples if he thought it would heal him faster.
“I’m glad to hear that. Maybe we could try again sometime.”
The pajamas hugged her body beautifully. In the past hour, he’d come to appreciate pink in an entirely different way. “What about tomorrow?”
“Tuesday? Your sutures won’t be out by tomorrow.”
He rested his elbows on his knees, soaking her in. “I can spend time with you with my beat-up lip.”
“I doubt you’d want to. I’m working in the office all day doing QA. Exciting stuff.”
“Who doesn’t love reviewing chart after chart? Catching mistakes and checking the minute details. Good times.” He chuckled. “Laissez les bons temps roulez.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Oui.”
“You spoke French.” Playfully sinking to his knees in front of her, he stretched out her arm as though he planned to kiss all the way up. “Do it again.”
“C’est vrai... Gomez.”
Thank God she got the reference. Thomas had tried this before only for the affectionate gesture to fall flat. Instead of kissing her arm, he brushed his cheek against her wrist, avoiding his wounded lip.
A healthy dusting of crimson colored her cheeks. “Be careful. I’d hate for you to... um... hurt yourself.”
“I won’t.” He subtly inhaled the ginger and citrus scent on her skin.
“What were we talking about?”
“Work. I’m in noon to midnight today, then come in at seven Wednesday evening and work until seven, but I would be glad to come in and help you with charts.”
“Not necessary. Thank you,” she replied breathlessly as she leaned forward. “What about Thursday?”
“Another seven P to seven A on Thursday and Friday and Saturday then off two days.” He hated swing shifts. He needed to find something far more stable, but that required working daylight hours. He could quit moving every few months., establish roots somewhere.
Here?
Until yesterday, the idea alone would raise his blood pressure, but after talking to Lucy and sitting with her today, staying in one place rapidly gained appeal.
Especially watching her react to his touch.
As he ran his thumb along the sensitive skin of her palm, her eyes remained laser-focused on him. “I-I-um...Thursday and Friday, I have to work in the office, but in the unit Saturday morning seven to seven at night.”
“Then, I’ll see you at check out.” Before sitting back in his chair, he kissed the back of her hand and flinched as pain shot into the roots of his teeth. Dammit.
But they were dull compared to the stretch in his jeans. He had to carefully sit back while his body ached for her touch.
She twisted a long red lock around her finger. “I’m off Sunday morning and until Monday midday.”
“Sunday evening?”
She ran her fingers through her hair, gathered it in a makeshift ponytail and flipped it behind her. “This Sunday? I don’t know. Timeless is on at nine.”
“The time travel show?” It took a few seconds for him to realize her playful tone. “Can I convince you to watch it on demand the next day?”
“Possibly.” The corner of her mouth curled up.
“It’s Tuesday morning now. The stitches can come out Friday morning. Swelling for sure will be gone.”
She picked up her mug. “Sunday it is.”
“Here’s to Sunday.” They clinked their glasses together and she took a long drink.
“Now, what were we talking about?”
For a moment, Thomas couldn’t remember, but seeing her long copper lock fall about her face, he blurted out, “Hair pulling.”
“Right. Right. Instinctively, people would have pulled to get away, but I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere doing that and it would only hurt like hell.” She lifted her hair off her neck and fanned it with her hand. “Again, I have to assume anybody larger than I am is going to be stronger, so I’m always thinking of another way to come out of the situation in a positive way. Sorry, I guess the hot chocolate is warmer than I thought.”
Guess I haven’t lost my touch. “Does it work for everything?”
She pressed her lips together before answering, her hair cascading about her shoulders. “It can work for a lot of things, but not everything is one hundred percent. The thing is, you have to be willing to get hurt if you need to use your techniques. You just make sure the other person is hurt worse.”
Hurting Jade’s brother ranked high on Thomas’s to-do list right now. “I think I’m liking Kung Fu more and more.”
“It’s also amazing as physical therapy.” Hopping to her feet, she extended her arm. “Grab my wrist.”
“What?”
“Grab my arm like you want me to come with you.”
I do want you to come with me, not that I have any permanent place to take you. Cautiously, he wrapped his hand around her tiny wrist. “Now what do I do?”
“Make sure you have a solid hold. Don’t let go.” She yanked her arm straight back and got nowhere. “See, if I pull straight back, not only is it what you’d expect I’d do and what I instinctively do, but it won’t get me anywhere. I’m not strong enough to force your hand off, but if I do this...”
She twisted her arm toward his thumb and he could feel his hold weakening. Within a second, she’d freed herself.
“What did you do?”
“Your thumb is your weakest point. If I apply enough pressure and twist just right, it gives away. You can’t hold on to me, but I can’t stand there like they do in horror movies. My feet need to be running as soon as I get free.”
“Interesting.” Her pure excitement about the martial art only made him want to head to the studio owned by the Scott brothers. “I’ve tried some martial arts and boxing classes. Don’t remember them teaching me any of this.”
If I had known some of this before San Diego, I might not be missing a piece of my lung right now.
“Or I can... stand up.”
He did as she asked, standing beside the table. “What do I do?”
Holding her arm out. “Grab my arm again.”
“Okay.”
When he laid his hand on her arm, she leapt forward and her elbow flew toward his gut. She stopped short of knocking the wind out of him. “Again, the obvious thing for me to do and what you’ll anticipate is I pull away, but if I slam my elbow into your solar plexus or gut, I catch you off guard.”
She moved in closer, grabbing a handful of his shirt. The sweet scent of chocolate swirled between them as his body tingled with her so near.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving myself a better shot at getting away.” Her eyes zoomed in on his lips.
He swallowed hard. “You want to get away?”
Gently she tugged at his clothes. “See, if you were distracted from that punch to the gut, I could yank your face down into my knee, ram you in the nose or hit something delicate to help me put distance between us.”
“Like his nuts.”
“And toes. I don’t care who you are, a crushed toe hurts.”
“True.”
Her hands still rested on his chest several beats after she’d completed her instructions.
Leaning down, he brushed her cheek with his. With his finger, he traced along her jaw, then her elegant neck. “You’re a badass, you know that?”
She shivered. “I don’t think I’m a badass. Just well prepared.”
“Is that what badasses do?” He breathed her in. She smelled of chocolate and ginger. “Prepare.”
Her breathing quickened when he gently licked the pulse point above her collarbone. “No, um... badasses prepare to be prepared. Oh my, that feels good.”
The jagged scar had been sutured long ago and he wondered again, if it had anything to do with the bullies she’d mentioned before. He smiled against her skin. “Tell me more about how badasses prepare.”
“O-kay. Bruce Lee worked out for hours a day. Trained, um, constantly and when he was in the movies, he made it look, um, effortless. Oh my.” She grabbed handfuls of his shirt when he brushed his lips against her ear. “Thomas.”
His opposite hand rested on the small of her back, holding her close to him. She cupped his face and pain shot through his lip, his jaw, making his teeth hurt. “Crap.”
She jerked her hand away. “You okay?”
“Not really.” Pulling back, he shook his head as his tongue pushed on the sutures to calm the wicked pulsations in his lip. “I think I might need to take some more Tylenol.”
“I’m so sorry.” Glancing at her watch, she touched her forehead to his. “It’s almost six.”
“Sorry to keep you awake.”
“It was worth it.” She nuzzled his nose. “So Sunday?”
“Sunday.”
“Thank you for the hot chocolate, Dr. Davidson.”
“You’re most welcome, Dr. McAvoy.”
As he walked back to his room, Thomas knew two things for certain.
Something traumatic happened in Lucy Davidson’s life long ago and Marietta had started to look a whole lot more interesting.
