Page 20

Gage is beside me before even get the words out.

"Let me see."

"It's tiny."

"Maren."

"There's that tone."

He takes my wrist. Carefully, like I'm something that shatters. His thumb settles under my palm and turns my hand toward the light, and every joke drains out of my head.

Blood beads bright along the cut.

Gage goes still.

Not startled-still. Hunting-still. His nostrils flare. A sound rolls up out of his chest, so low that I feel it more than hear it, and it's nothing a human should make.

I don't move. "Did you just growl?"

"No."

"You did."

He pulls a clean cloth from his back pocket and presses it to my hand. His fingers are enormous around mine. Rough. Unbearably gentle. His eyes stay locked on the red at the edge of the cloth like it's taking everything he has to look away.

"You okay?" I ask.

I'm not sure which of us I mean.

His gaze lifts to mine. Gray eyes, ringed darker than usual, too close. The cold air can't touch the heat coming off my own skin now. I can smell cedar and cut wood and that wild green thing underneath, and my whole body leans a degree toward him without asking permission.

His thumb strokes once over the inside of my wrist. Slow. Deliberate.

My breath snags because he's so gorgeous and I can't stop staring at him.

His eyes drop to my mouth.

The space between us pulls tight as a wire, and for one reckless second I think, finally. My pulse answers before my brain can veto it. I want him to kiss me. My eyes are on his mouth as I lean forward…

Then Sid launches off the porch rail and lands square across the back of Gage's neck.

Gage jerks. I break into helpless laughter and the tension snaps like a struck match.

Sid drapes himself over those massive shoulders and stares at me, smug and unbothered, having decided exactly when that moment was going to end.

"That cat," Gage says, low and deeply offended, "is a menace."

"He likes you."

"He has claws."

"Love hurts."

He peels Sid off and sets him on the step. Then he looks back at me and his face does something dangerous. It softens. Too much.

I stop laughing. "What?"

"Nothing." He nods at my hand. "Make sure to keep it clean."