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I gave him an erratic nod, and he reached around me and pulled a tissue from the box, and he dabbed it all over my face.
Gently.
Tenderly.
Watching me with those stormy eyes the entire time.
God, how could this menacing man make me feel so important?
“Let’s get you out of here,” he rumbled as he tossed the tissue into the trash, and I swallowed down the emotion that still roiled, sniffling and straightening myself out as I prepared to go back out into the lobby.
I’d never allowed anyone to see me this way before, and part of me wanted to hide it, but the other knew there was no shame in it the way River had said.
This was real.
My trauma was real.
My loss was real.
And I think it was the first time since everything happened that I’d begun to allow my grief to truly come out. To process who I wanted to be on the other side.
“Okay,” I told him.
Satisfaction flashed through his expression. Heat spread through me when he weaved his fingers through mine, and he lifted my hand and brushed his lips over my knuckles.
My knees wobbled. This man was going to do me in.
He was all terrifying confidence as he led me out of the back office, down the hall, and out into the middle of the tattoo shop.
The man and woman I’d never met before who’d come running out to my aide were still there. The man appeared cautiously confused while the woman ran her hands up and down her heavily tattooed arms as she gazed across at me in worry.
But it was Otto who tossed out one of his enormous grins. “Ah, there she is. You good, darlin’? Had me worried there for a bit.”
“I’m fine,” I managed, feeling ill-at-ease as I stood there shifting beneath the weight of the attention the three of them had on me.
“Of course, you are. You just needed a little breath, and it looks like you came to the right place to get one.”
His blue eyes gleamed, the focus of them dancing back andforth between me and River as if he were trying to calculate what had transpired between us.
Why I was there all while he seemed satisfied that I had been.
River still held my hand in his big paw.
Unwilling to let go.
He grunted in response to Otto’s words. “We’re gonna split. Lielle, you closing up?”
The woman with bright turquoise hair sent him a nod. “Yeah, I’ll be here with a client until ten.”
“Good. If anything comes up, give me a call.”
“I will.”
Then River lifted his chin at Otto, and Otto did the same.
It was a negligible demonstration, but I swore the two of them had shared a secret, covert conversation in the half second it’d taken.
“Will check in, brother. You two be safe.” Otto’s gaze was fixed on me when he issued it, eyes making a quick pass over my body as if he were evaluating if I was really okay.
