Chapter Eight
Eight
Each time Lyric woke, drowning in nightmares and blood, Keys was wrapped around her, holding her tight.
His voice came out of the darkness, soothing and soft like velvet brushing over her skin.
She’d always loved the sound of his voice.
His breath was warm on her neck as he reassured her.
It seemed like a vague dream, but it was always reassuring.
“You’re safe, Wildfire. Nothing can get to you here. We made it home. You’re in a fortress, and you’ve got the best doctor looking after you. Do you need a pain pill?”
Did she? She felt warm but foggy, as if she couldn’t quite understand what was happening to her. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t quite surface all the way. Keys was there, and he would make certain they were safe. She would drift off again.
She had no idea how much time had passed.
Keys had wrapped her in a cocoon of safety and warmth.
He was bossy and so was his friend, Steele, the doctor.
She didn’t remember having an operation or flying in a helicopter.
She did remember all the times she’d been poked and prodded, Steele insisting she get up and walk.
He’d made her wear a ridiculous but very soft helmet as she’d done strength training. Mostly, she’d walked with Keys.
The area was beautiful. His house was tucked back into the forest. Several giant redwood trees formed a cathedral in his side yard.
The backyard was fenced in and desperately needed work.
She loved that the house was away from everyone and gave the illusion of being in the forest, a place she loved.
“You know, I’m really back to normal, Keys. You don’t have to guard me like I’m two. I’m steady on my feet. You’ve been so restless lately.”
Lyric didn’t want to get into what that meant.
They certainly weren’t having sex, and he hadn’t left her side.
Keys wasn’t a man to go days or weeks without sex.
Once, she’d seen him leave with different women three times in one night.
Men didn’t go from that kind of need to getting zero and being all right with it.
Or maybe she was the restless one. She hadn’t spent so much time in anyone’s company in her entire life. She didn’t know how to talk to Steele, so she didn’t. He didn’t seem bothered by her lack of manners, and Keys never once gave her hell. That was so unlike him.
He didn’t answer her questions, like where was her car? She needed the old junker to get around. He’d muttered something about the brothers retrieving it, but then it never showed up. At least it wasn’t in the four-car garage or parked anywhere that she could see on his property.
Keys just wasn’t a nice guy. He never had been.
It was weird being with him and not hearing him make his rude comments.
He always tried to get under her skin. He talked about sex, dirty sex, nearly all the time, yet he hadn’t mentioned anything close to that in his normal conversations.
He’d always made her laugh with his arrogant alpha bullshit.
She had no idea what to do with this stranger.
The only time she was comfortable with him was in the middle of the night.
Since that only came around once every twenty-four hours, she had a lot of time to be very uncomfortable.
More and more she found herself looking longingly toward the state forest out the back windows.
She just needed to get rid of Keys, throw her gear into her backpack and hit the trail.
She could disappear and their helicopters and trackers wouldn’t be able to find her. She’d be free.
Keys looked down at her from his superior height.
That annoyed her too. Why hadn’t she noticed he was a good foot taller than her?
Not in a cute, he’s gorgeous and adorable way like she’d viewed him before he turned all weird on her.
Keys nice was him at his most deceptive.
She didn’t want to find out what he was up to.
Because he was up to something, and he knew she wasn’t going to like it.
“I see you have your sass back,” he observed.
“I express concern for you and you accuse me of sass?”
“That was your way of expressing concern? Telling me I don’t need to look after you and I’m restless? Is that code for something you women like to throw out and we’re supposed to guess what you mean? You may have forgotten, what with your head injury, but I don’t play those fuckin’ games.”
He hadn’t sworn once in the last week. Not once. She wanted to smirk because as far as she was concerned, she’d just won the lottery. The Keys she knew was hidden behind the zombie robot. What was his game?
“So sorry you think a friend can’t express concern for your…um…problem.”
“I have a problem now.”
“You always have a problem, Keys. It hits you about eight times a day.” She narrowed her eyes and deliberately looked at his crotch.
His eyebrow shot up. “Only eight? You’re definitely lowballing here. Nice of you to notice my problem. Are you offering to help?”
She struggled not to blush. She should have seen that coming.
“I’m giving you the green light to go into town and give your famous pickup line to some woman, or maybe you need women, since it’s been so long.
I’ll be just fine.” Packing her bag and disappearing.
That’s what she’d be doing while he was doing what he always did.
“Pickup line? What the hell is my pickup line?”
Now he sounded exactly like her Keys. Indignant. Annoyed with her. Abrupt and bordering on rude. She just had to shake him up a little, and the mask slipped right off. He’d been under there, trying to pretend with her, but it was never going to work.
“I’ve seen you use it a hundred times. You do the arrogant-ass caveman grunt and jerk your chin toward the door. Works every time. I’m not sure why.”
“Let’s find out. I’m willing to show you.”
Her heart unexpectedly squeezed down hard, so hard the pain ran down her back and up through her chest. This was why she’d known she couldn’t live with him. He’d shown her sweet, for whatever reasons he had while she was recuperating. Now he was back to the real man.
She loved that man. She didn’t want to be in love with him.
She’d already grown used to sleeping in the same bed with him.
That was insane. But it had happened. Now she wasn’t certain if she ever could fall asleep without him wrapped around her.
She’d even gotten used to him pressing kisses into her hair and kissing her eyes and the tip of her nose and the corners of her mouth.
It had become a nightly ritual. She had known she should shut it down, that he was wrapping himself inside her far too tightly.
She wasn’t normal. She didn’t love normally.
Her emotions were always too much. She focused wholly on Keys and didn’t see anyone else.
She never would. She knew his every expression.
She knew when he was bored out of his mind or needed to pick up one of his instruments and go into a corner and just play, zoning out.
Keys had no idea how completely she was into him.
None of it was his fault. Keys was just being Keys.
He wasn’t responsible for her obsessive-compulsive behavior.
Or that she focused so utterly and completely on the things she loved.
Like her hairdressing. She was better than good at all things relating to her business because she was so utterly focused.
She was that way about Keys. She knew absolutely she would never feel the same way about another man.
And what she felt wasn’t good. It was too much.
No man wanted the kind of attention she would give, especially a man like Keys, who despised clingy women.
“Well, I’m fairly certain I couldn’t keep up, Keys,” she said, managing to avoid looking him in the eyes by pacing over to the window and staring longingly out at the forest. “Since I am confident enough to know I’m right, we can put that one to rest.”
“Why are you avoiding me?”
“I’m not.” She didn’t turn around. Instead, she gripped the windowsill.
“Then get your ass over here so we can talk. I want your full attention, not your back.”
That voice. He never raised it, but every time he threw out his macho crap commands, she wanted to throw something at him…or burst out laughing. Mostly, she laughed. She didn’t right then. Things were just too much between them and she didn’t know how to handle it.
She swung around to glare at him. “Now you want to talk. As I recall, I brought up several subjects over the last couple of weeks and you refused to talk about them.”
“I didn’t say stay there and talk to me, I said get your ass over here and talk.” He had dropped into a chair and his legs were sprawled out. A typical Keys pose. He pointed to the spot right in front of him, between his thighs.
Okay, that did make her laugh. She couldn’t help it. That was pure Keys, no zombie in sight. She shook her head and crossed the room to stand to one side of his chair.
“Sheesh, you’re back in form, Keys. Are we going to actually talk about the man I know you took prisoner? The one that came to kill us? What about him? I asked about him at least twice. Can we start there?” She tilted her head, a deliberate challenge.
“We can start with you putting your ass exactly where I told you to. Just so you don’t feel you’re protected against my earlier promises, Steele cut you loose, as in your checkups aren’t daily or even weekly.
We’ll continue to do the rehab and build your strength, but there aren’t any restrictions. I asked specifically.”
Her heart skipped a beat. She knew Keys’ every mood.
He meant what he said. He wanted her standing between his thighs.
That was a red flag. Her mind kept screaming, Danger.
That weird reaction she only got when he was being a scary, badass biker.
He was scaring her just a little. He was serious, and he was never serious with her. Not really.