Page 21 of Oath

“You are tough.” Straightforward. Simple. “You’re also strong.”

I sniffled again. “You’re just saying that.”

“Well, you did kick me the balls.”

A smile twitched at the corners of my lips. “You told me too.”

Amusement seemed to stealth into his expression. “I did.”

“So do I pass?”

With care, he traced a finger down the center of my face, then gently touched my nose before he tapped it against my lips. “No.”

I blinked.

“No?”

“No.” He repeated.

Outrage struck a damp spark. “But I did it.”

“Yes, you did. But that wasn’t the lesson.”

I made a face. “Oh.” Then I sighed. “I distracted you.”

“Dollface, you’ve been doing that since you showed up.” The admission seemed like a lot. Then he cupped my cheek and leaned in to press his forehead to mine. “Grace—you are stubborn, infuriating, mercurial, and oftentimes, delightful. I will neverjudgeyou for what you did so you survived.”

Relief flooded me.

“Never,” he repeated. “Wounds have to be cleaned out, then stitched closed if we want them to heal. This wound, it’s in there, whether you want to say it is or not.”

I swallowed hard.

“It’s been in your dreams. It’s been pushing you to keep moving. Keep going—always forward. If you sit still for too long, it’s going to catch you.”

I wanted to look away.

I didn’t.

“I haven’t been moving that much.”

“No,” he said. “You’ve been entrenched so we could take care of things. That mission is done, we can move forward again.”

Blowing out a slow breath, I nodded and let my gaze dip to where I was smoothing my hand over the hard packed muscle of his shoulder. There were dips, and dimples in the skin. Scars. Some places were smoother than others.

Burns?

I didn’t want to ask.

“We have the mission specs, we can do a black bag job and scoop up the boss.” He made it sound like we could swing by the grocery store.

“Get ice cream while we’re at it?”

Another flicker of a smile. “If you want.” Then, he tucked a finger beneath my chin and lifted my gaze back up to his. “You want to take this man on. You want to confront him yourself. Your way.”

“Because—-”

“Shh.” He pressed his finger to my lips. “You don’t need to tell me why. I get it. Amorette is your sister. You’ll burn the world down if you have to in order to get her back.”