“I’m good.” Another hard cough. “Just went down the wrong way. Sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize for choking,” she chuckled. “Just glad it was water, and you weren’t choking on the food. I’d hate to have to driveyouto the hospital.”
Brody could practically see the thoughts her light-hearted comment brought forth. The smile he’d loved seeing again had started to fall, and she broke eye contact and looked away. Before she did, however, he’d caught sight of the renewed fire there already beginning to fade.
Fuck that.
Shoving himself to his feet, he reached out, covering the hand still wiping down the table with his own. “Stop.”
She stopped.
“Look at me.”
She looked at him.
Goddamn, she’s beautiful.
Brody shook the ill-timed thought away because this moment wasn’t about him and his rogue hormones. This was about Ro.
“You’re safe.” With him, she’d always be safe. “You know that, right?”
She responded with a tiny nod, even as a single tear drew a silver streak down one of her flawless cheeks. His heart twisted into knots at the sight, and he didn’t hesitate to pull her in for a comforting hug.
“Come here.” He was thankful as hell when she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek against his chest.
Ro’s muscles tensed, her chest unmoving with her efforts to hold back her emotions.
Ah, baby.
“It’s okay to let go, Princess.” He felt a hitch in her breath. “What happened to you is a very scary thing.”
“I’m n-not crying because I’m scared. I’m crying because I’m p-pissed.”
There she is.
Despite her tears and his own rage at what she’d been through, Brody’s lips twitched with the urge to curl into a smile. “Me, too, Princess,” he soothed. “Me, too.”
Pulling back just enough, her watery gaze lifted to his. “That’s like the third time you’ve called me that today.” A slight dip of her dark brows. “Why ‘Princess’?”
His heart kicked against his ribs, not from the question but from the way it felt to hold her this way. To have her back in his arms, her warm body pressed against his as she stared up at him with eyes he suddenly wanted to lose himself in.
“Brody?”
Shit. He still hadn’t answered her yet.
“Because you remind me of Snow White.”
A flash of heat filtered through the leftover tears. “I do?”
He nodded, his gaze falling over her features as he began listing them off. “Dark hair, flawless skin the color of snow....” His focus landed on her luscious mouth. “Ruby red lips…”
Lips that had just parted with a soft inhale.
In what appeared to be a subconscious move, the tip of her tongue peeked out, running along the narrow seam. In a flash, Brody’s mind conjured up the image of that tongue running along other parts.Hisparts.
One very specific, painfully throbbing part in particular.
“I can quit calling you that if it bothers you.”