She bit her lower lip. “My shirt will get wet.”
“You can borrow a dry one.” I grabbed the shampoo and set it down by the chair. “C’mon, Siren. Nothin’ I ain’t done before.” I didn’t tell her the only other time I’d washed a woman’s hair, she’d been my wife.
She hesitated but then she gingerly sat.
Gathering her hair up, I leaned her head back. She closed her eyes and the bruising to her face looked a hundred times worse from this angle. “Gotta admit, darlin’, I’m not likin’ what I see.”
Her baby blues popped open. “What?”
“Close your eyes.” I wet her hair. “You’re too pretty to have your face lookin’ like you went three rounds.”
“It was an accident. It’ll heal.”
I picked up the shampoo. “How many excuses have you made for him?”
“I’m not a victim, Talon.”
I washed her hair, hating the reason I was doing it. “Sure as shit could’ve fooled me.”
She grabbed one of my wrists with her good hand and met my eyes. “Stop.”
I ran my fingers through the soapy length of her strands and made a decision. Lowering my voice, I held her gaze. “You know when I’m gonna stop?”
She didn’t answer me.
“When I see you bury him.” Fuck, I was pissed.
“I’m not vengeful.”
Good, because I was feeling vengeful enough for both of us. “And you’re not stupid.”
She stiffened. “I don’t want to talk about him.”
Fucking perfect, because I didn’t want to either. “That makes two of us.”
“Talon?”
The sound of my name on her lips made my lungs inhale and the bullshit in my head pause. “Yeah?” Gorgeous eyes, delicate features, quiet resilience—Jesus, she was beautiful.
“This hurts. Can you please rinse my hair?”
Shit. “On it.” I quickly finished and helped her sit up. I grabbed a towel and dried her hair as best as I could. “You got a brush?”
“I can do it.” She didn’t move.
“I know you can.” I squatted next to her. “But I need you to do me a favor.”
“What,” she asked wearily.
“Let me help you.”
She studied my face like she was making the biggest decision of her life. “My brush is in my bag.”
I smiled for real and touched her cheek, knowing a victory when I got one. “There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“No.” Nothing changed in her expression.
I stood and on impulse, kissed her forehead. “Be right back.” I grabbed her bag from the bedroom, unzipped it, then set it at her feet.
She silently reached in and I watched in fascination as she moved through her belongings with a gentle hand. Her search, unhurried and graceful, didn’t disturb a single picture or any of her hastily folded clothes. She pulled out a silver brush with antique scrollwork all over it and gave it to me.
“Hand-me-down?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said simply.
I fingered her hair into a loose ponytail and held it while I brushed through the ends. Seeing her quiet composure and dignity despite her circumstances, I was having a hard time understanding how she’d hooked up with an asshole like Carter. Then again, I was sure people said the same shit about me and my wife when we’d gotten together. She’d been all class and I wasn’t.
“This isn’t the first time you’ve done this,” she commented.
I shoved back a memory. “No, darlin’, it isn’t.”
“What was her name?”
“Who?”
“The woman you loved.”
The only other woman I’d ever done this for, her hair had been thick and dark brown. I swallowed past the lump in my throat at the thought of my wife and worked out the tangles in Siren’s blonde hair. “Leigh,” I said roughly.
“You did this for her?”
“Yeah.” Fuck.
“She taught you well.”
“It was a long time ago,” I admitted.
“And?”
I concentrated on running the brush through the fine strands. “And what?”
“It sounds like you left half of that sentence unsaid. What’s the last part?”
Who was this woman? I never spoke about my past with anyone, but her unassuming acceptance had me wanting to spill my guts within an hour. Quiet, reserved, untainted by anger, she was so fucking complicated, I had a feeling I hadn’t even begun to see her layers. “What makes you think there’s more?”
“Instinct.”
Christ. “I used to be trainable.” Before I’d had my heart ripped out. Now I wasn’t. I didn’t do love or any of the other bullshit that came with it.