He was looking at her. It had been the second day in the jungle when she had started to try to figure out what color his eyes were. Sometimes they were green, sometimes gray, in the right light they looked almost golden with flecks of turquoise. Today they were hazel.
“Hello.” Her voice was raspy.
“Hi, Baby. You had me worried.” His voice sounded like he chewed on gravel. It comforted her.
“I’m glad you’re here.”
“Didn’t sound like it yesterday.”
She shrugged. “I’m all over the board with this illness and being under the microscope at the safe house.”
Clint pulled his chair even closer to the bed. He stroked her cheek with the back of his knuckles. “You’re going to get better. Your father is going to testify. Life will get back to normal.”
“What’s normal?” She saw him struggle to answer. “I’m not trying to give you a trick question, I just mean I’m never going to have my old life back. I’m never going back to the woman I was before that day in the jungle.”
“Baby, I–” She saw the pain on his face and stopped him.
“That came out wrong. I don’t mean the whipping. I mean the kidnapping. I mean Papa conspiring with the cartel and then turning on them. Everything that led up to that day. I’m never going to work for the Federal Ministerial Police, even if I do return to Mexico City.”
He cupped her cheek and gave her a steady look. “First, let’s get one thing straight, you are not going back to Mexico City. You know there will always be people gunning for you. But if I met you before all of this happened, I want to be honest with you, it scared me to death you signed up for the Federal Ministerial Police.”
She saw red, but then she took a deep breath, maybe she was reading this wrong.
“Clint?”
“Lydia, ever since you told me what you did back in Mexico City, I’ve been astounded by your bravery. But you never intended to stay a low level member of the Ministry, did you? You planned to fight for justice and take on the cartels, didn’t you?” Lydia pulled away from the hand gripping her chin.
“Yes.”
“That’s why I was scared. I would have never asked you not to do something like that. How could I when my job is so dangerous, but it sure as hell scared me.”
“I understand. Both of us want to serve our country, to make them better places. Now I have to put my dream away.” And that hurt. It hurt a lot.
She took a deep breath and gave him a big smile.
“But I don’t want to talk about that. I want to talk about the fact that I’m feeling better and I have a handsome man who flew from California to visit me.”
“I’m handsome, am I?” His eyes twinkled. She noticed the lines bracketing his mouth, and the days of dark blond scruff on his face. None of it diminished from the fact he was mouth-watering.
“Yep, you’re handsome, in ‘bad boy’ sort of way. Not in a way that would appeal to a lady like me.” Lydia couldn’t maintain a straight face as she gave Clint a hard time. It felt good to be teasing and laughing. The last four months had been too stressful and depressing.
“I guess you’re beautiful in the ‘look but don’t touch’ sort of way. Not the type that would appeal to a down to earth type of guy like me.” Clint’s eyes warmed, and he picked up the hand that wasn’t tethered to the IV and brushed his lips to her palm. She shuddered at the intimate sensation.
“Okay, let’s get real a minute. You can’t keep dropping in for visits each time I get a sniffle. I know you feel a sense of responsibility-”
Clint’s palm covered her mouth before she even saw him move.
“Stop!” His palm was warm, the pressure didn’t hurt, even though the look in his eyes was wild. He took one, then a second, and then a third calming breath.
“Lydia Rose, don’t you fucking dare say I’m here because of some kind of misplaced sense of responsibility. You’re too fucking smart for that. You might try to relegate it that way, but you know it’s not. Are we clear? Are we?” Looking at those glittering eyes that were now steely gray, she had no other choice but to nod.
He lifted his hand.
“Say it. Tell me what this is.” His voice sounded like shards of rock being dragged over ice.
“I don’t know exactly what it is. I’ve run this over and over in my head. I think it is the beginning of something that has the potential of being rare and special.” Dammit, the tears were coming back. But again the hand was quicker than the eye, and he was holding hers, giving her comfort.