Page 47 of Leave a Mark
Knowing he’d be shirtless, Wren schooled a bored look on her features before she turned. She met his eyes first, and it would have helped if he’d looked back at her with that smug grin. Feeling pissy was a good defense, and his grin pissed her the hell off.
But the look he gave her was far from it. He lay back, watching her with a mix of wonder and… What was it? Hope? Whatever it was, it made her cheeks burn again. Wanting to press on, Wren picked up an alcohol swab.
“Where exactly do you want it?”
Without taking his eyes off hers, he touched the space about two fingers above his left nipple. She let herself glance down, and he was just as beautiful as she remembered. Lean… muscled. The dark triangle of chest hair again a carnal surprise.
Wren tried to keep her voice even, but it came out a little too high. “Bit facing in?”
Lee nodded, his fingers still over his heart. His eyes locked on hers.
She tore open the wrapper and drew out the alcohol-soaked square, and before she could let herself think too much about it, she moved his hand aside and pressed the square to his skin. His breath hitched.
“Cold,” he whispered.
“Sorry.” She refused to look back into his midnight-blue eyes, but she didn’t miss the moment when his nipples drew taut with her touch. She swabbed well beyond the boundaries where his tattoo would fall, and his skin puckered with gooseflesh.
After tossing the square into the wastebasket at her feet, Wren reached for the spray bottle of green soap and spritzed it over his chest.
“What’s that?” he asked, his voice soft.
Wren grabbed a paper towel and wiped up the excess soap. “It’s Tincture Green, a medical-grade soap. I’ll use it throughout the process." She surprised herself at how detached she managed to sound. It was a relief, given the fact that his body stretched out before her seemed to beckon her touch.
She picked up the disposable razor, but his skin was still raised with chills. She met his eyes then.
“Are you still cold?”
Lee tucked his right hand under his head, looking at her casually, but his cheeks flushed. “No.”
She ignored the tingle in her belly at his response and watched his skin instead. When the chills disappeared, she touched the razor to his flesh and dragged it across him in a careful swipe. At once, his chills returned. Wren stopped. Tattooing on razor-burn didn’t work.
“I can put the heater on or give you a clean towel to use as a blanket,” she offered.
The color in Lee’s cheeks deepened, but he smiled. “It’s not the temperature,” he whispered. “It’s you.”
Wren’s breath caught. She couldn’t stop it. And it took her longer than she liked to think of what to say.
“Well, I guess you’ll just have to wait until Rocky is free—”
“Nuh-uh. We’re doing this.” The whisper was gone, and determination shone in his eyes. “Just gimme a sec… Talk to me about something boring.”
“Something boring?” Wren felt her eyebrows lift.
“Yeah… like what did you have for breakfast today?”
Wren blinked. “Um… Greek yogurt and granola.”
Lee flashed a smile. “That’s not boring enough.”
“It’s not?” She was losing her footing with him; she could feel it. It would be so easy to smile back.
“Nah…” He shook his head, the look he wore now full of mischief. “…because now I’m picturing you in jammies eating yogurt and granola.”
“Please tell me I didn’t just hear that,” Rocky said, giving an obvious shudder as he dressed Dallas’s tattoo.
Even though she felt her face turn bright red, Wren regained her footing at once.
“You do see that I’m holding a blade, right?” Brandishing the razor, she gave him the evil eye.
