She turned her head to stare at him again. Almost desperately, she asked, “Then, what?”
It occurred to Hunter that despite everything that she’d learned and all the ways she’d been helped, she didn’t yet comprehend her own value. Not fully. “I heard affection—especially in the way Reyes teased you. That wasn’t the sound of a man who felt pity, but one who really cares. It’s the same way Memphis and I harass each other or the way we tease our mom because she’s the runt in the family.”
“Reyes and his brother and sister give each other crap all the time. It’s hilarious.”
“Because it’s done with love.” Her skin fascinated him. So warm and smooth—soft packaging for such a prickly personality. “With Kennedy, I heard worry, because she loves you and wants guarantees that you’ll remain in her life. My dad is the same. He’ll drop some heavy stuff on us sometimes, all quiet-like and out of the blue, and it makes us stop and think.”
She shared that sweet, quirky smile with him. “You’re nuts. No way could you get all that from a short convo through my cell.”
“You don’t think so, huh? Well, tell me, smarty. What did you hear when Memphis was giving me shit? Did he sound bossy, or like he didn’t care?”
“No. He obviously loves you and wants you back in his life, enough that he’d even thank me for doing something I hadn’t done.”
“See, there you go again.” The movie droned on in the background, completely forgotten by both of them. Because she slumped into the couch cushions, he did the same, and their shoulders sank closer. “You don’t know what I was like before you started provoking me.”
“I never—”
“Just hush and listen.” Maybe because he said it with a teasing smile, she clammed up instead of protesting.
“Everything about you puts me on high alert. You gave Worth hell that first day, and I wanted to cheer you at the same time I wanted you to go away.”
With a short laugh, she said, “Gee, thanks.”
“You set up house out here, where no one else has been in the eighteen months I’ve lived here, and I both wanted to be angry while at the same time I felt driven to find out more about you.”
“You’re the one who’s insisted on us socializing.” She said it without heat, and in fact, her tone was comically accusing.
“You make me laugh when I haven’t laughed in a very long time.”
“At me?”
“No.” Since her arms were no longer defiantly crossed, he carefully lifted her hand and carried it to his mouth, where he brushed a kiss over her knuckles. “Never that, okay?” At her confused nod, he continued. “I laugh at your quick comebacks.”
“That’s more you than me. I noticed right off how funny you are.”
“That’s the thing, though. I hadn’t been funny, not since...” Damn. In one respect, he wanted to tell her; he had a feeling it would help her to share more, too. Yet in another, he wanted this to be for her, not about him. “Can we come back to that?”
“Sure.”
Never, ever did she pressure him. “That’s another thing, Jodi. You have a big heart and a clear way of seeing things. You understand situations that others can’t begin to imagine. You’re astute, a little too brave, and as I’ve said before, you’re dangerous.”
After a few seconds where she just looked at their linked hands, she whispered, “I’ve had to be.”
“I know, and it makes my heart feel trampled.”
That got her protesting real fast. “Hey, I don’t need you or anyone else to—”
“What? Understand? Care?” The kiss he pressed to her knuckles this time was firmer, lingering. Stark, painful emotion had him closing his eyes as he thought about how easily her small frame could be hurt.
“Hunter?” she asked unsteadily.
Making himself do it, he opened his eyes and looked into hers, allowing her to see everything he felt, both tenderness and rage. “Do you think any rational, normal person with a fucking heartbeat could possibly not care?”
Pragmatic, and a little fascinated, she said, “They shouldn’t, not about me.”
“Most especially about you.” He freed her hand and instead cupped her face, drawing her slowly closer. “You don’t want to be kissed, but have you ever tried it?”
Instead of alarmed, she half smiled. “Not the way you mean.”
“How, then?”
Gaze fixed on his mouth, she shifted closer still. “Reyes has hauled me up and kissed my ear, usually after giving me crap about something. Parrish puts little pecks to my forehead after telling me something I did the right way.” Lower, she muttered, “He treats me like he would a granddaughter or something.”
More and more, Hunter was liking this crazy family that had claimed Jodi. “And Kennedy?”
“She knows I’m not big on being touched, but sometimes she’ll squeeze me tight and kiss my cheek.” Jodi licked her lips. “That’s not what you mean, though, right?”
What about the man who’d kept her captive? “Never on the mouth?”
“God, no.”
She said it as if repulsed, but she didn’t move away. In fact, their shoulders now touched, and with him cupping her face, she was practically in his embrace. “So your family—that’s the sum total of your kissing experience?”
“If you want to know about the bastard who locked me away, you should just ask.”
“I’d rather you tell me when you want to.”
“Fine.” Her breathing hitched. Lashes lowering, she turned her cheek more fully into his palm. “The only blessing to him being so twisted and sick is that he didn’t see me that way. It wasn’t what he wanted. Mostly he just wanted to be cruel.”
Very, very softly, Hunter asked, “Is he dead, Jodi?” In the deepest, darkest part of his soul, Hunter hoped someone from the elite family who cared for her had gone one step further and eliminated the bastard—for good.
If not, he’d see to it himself.
“Yeah, he’s dead.” Her lashes lifted, and her gaze bored into his. “He’s dead because I killed him.”
* * *
IT GOT SO SILENT, Jodi heard her own heartbeat pounding in her ears. It wasn’t a normal rhythm, more like each beat clanged into the other until it sounded like a riot going on.
Hunter didn’t blink, and he didn’t look away. Finally, after drawing a bracing breath, he nodded. “I’m glad.”