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Steamy(2)
Author: Cat Johnson

She closed the door and laid her head on the desk. Landon had a hero complex a mile wide and thought his injury made him weak. He wasn’t the first former soldier she’d worked with. But it was the first one she’d cared for more than she should.

The riot of emotions in her heart were exactly why she didn’t do love.

 

 

3

 

 

Where Does it Hurt?

 

 

For two weeks, Landon showed up at the gym with the singular goal of being physically whole again.

Mentally? He was nowhere near whole again.

It didn’t surprise him Iris was in the profession of healing people. With a firefighter father, a nurse mother, and a law enforcement brother, she came from a long line of caretaker types. But it made for a chaotic childhood. Her parents weren’t around much, and with her brother being eight years older, he’d left home when she was ten.

Landon had been the one she told her secrets to, who comforted her broken heart, who beat up the boys wanting more than she was willing to give. He’d been her protector, her hero.

Now he could barely save himself, much less anyone else. It was brutal to be so close to her and yet be so far away. All he’d ever wanted was Iris. Thoughts of her got him through endless days in the sand pit and his recovery in an army hospital.

She’d saved him then, and she was saving him now. But she didn’t need a man to fix, which was why he’d never be more than a paying client.

“Landon, you with me?”

Her smooth voice washed over him, a balm for his battered body and soul. He blinked and shifted his gaze to hers. “Yeah.”

She pursed her lips, hands on her hips. “Okay, then. What’s the next stretch?”

Shit, busted. “Can we take a break? The leg needs a rest.”

Concern instantly lined her features. “Of course.”

She walked off, and a few moments later she came back with two bottles of water. After she handed him the water, she kneeled in front of him. “Where does it hurt?”

He grinned. “You sure you want to know?”

Iris tilted her head with a wry smile. “I walked into that one, didn’t I? But seriously, where?”

He swallowed and met her gaze. Trusting her to rehab him was one thing. Letting her see the physical scars that broke him was another.

Her eyes softened, and she laid a gentle hand on his knee. “There’s no judgment here. I promise.”

Landon held her gaze for a long moment. She stared back, solid, strong, and sure. He lifted his pant leg and revealed the ugly red scar running down the side of his leg from knee to mid-calf.

Her stare dropped to his leg. A trembling hand reached out but stopped just before touching him. “May I?”

Anxiety rioted around his body until she touched him. Under cool fingertips, his fear quieted as they brushed over the scar.

“Does it hurt?” she asked, her voice soft, eyes on the puckered skin. Of all the times he’d imagined her on her knees in front of him, it hadn’t included her studying a big-ass scar one wrong step in the desert had given him.

“Not right now.”

She raised her eyes to his. Their color reminded him of thunderheads on a hot summer day. In those stormy depths, emotions swirled, but they lacked one thing he was used to seeing—pity. She understood him.

He was so screwed.

The hum-thump of a runner on a treadmill and the piped in fast-tempo music all fell away as Landon leaned toward her, need surging in him.

“Iris, phone call!”

They froze for several seconds. She blew out a shaky breath and stood, her eyes averted. “I’m sorry. I need to go.”

“Have dinner with me.” Way to stay away, buddy.

Her eyes widened, and her lips parted. “Landon, I don’t know.”

He gave her a crooked smile. “Since when do you turn down a free dinner with a friend?”

She bit her lip to hold back a smile but failed. “I don’t think I’ve ever done it.”

He put a hand over his heart in mock hurt. “And here I thought we were friends.”

She laughed and shook her head at him. “Okay, I’ll have dinner with you. As friends.”

He stood. “Meet me at The Silver Moon, tomorrow night at seven?” If he didn’t pick her up, it wasn’t a date, right?

She nodded, biting her lip again. “Sure.”

Landon left the gym with a feeling that had become foreign to him over the last year.

Hope.

 

 

4

 

 

More than I Should Have

 

 

When Iris pulled open the door to the Silver Moon Cafe, music and the sounds of people unwinding from the day greeted her. On tiptoes, she looked around, but when she didn’t see Landon, something in her gut twisted.

“Hey, Iris!”

Her eyes focused in on where her name was being called. Wyatt, the head bartender, waved at her from behind the bar. “Landon’s in the back-corner booth.” He gestured toward a darkened corner with his head.

“Thanks.”

“You ever get tired of waiting on Gray, let me know,” he said over the din of noise with a wink and a grin. Rumor had it, that grin kept his bed warm every night.

“Not a chance, Davis.”

Wyatt chuckled, setting up shots. “I’ll send over a round.”

When she stopped at the table, Landon looked up from his phone and scooted out of the booth with a smile. “Hey, there.”

He kept it friendly, but in dark jeans and a gray Henley that displayed those broad shoulders, her thoughts were more sinner than saint. “Hey.”

As they sat, a waitress brought the round Wyatt promised. After she took their order, they chatted about the town—who’d left, who’d stayed, and how it had grown in Landon’s absence. The waitress dropped off their food, and the talk turned to more substantial topics.

“I’m sorry about your mom,” he said, his voice solemn.

“Thanks.” Her shoulders sagged a moment before she straightened them. “I lost my mom to vodka after my dad died, but it was Jason’s death that killed her. She never recovered from either of them dying in the line of duty.” She sighed. “I’m surprised she held on as long as she did.”

Compassion filled his eyes, and the urge to curl up in his lap and let him comfort her was tangible. “I’m surprised you stayed in Madison Ridge.”

Iris looked around the dimly lit bar she’d been to a thousand times, filled with people she knew, others she didn’t. She shrugged. “It’s home, you know? I don’t know any of my other family.” Her finger trailed the rim of her glass. “I’ve had offers to work at some gyms down in Atlanta. But I don’t know…” She trailed off and looked around. “I can’t imagine leaving.”

“I understand.” He nodded and took a bite of his burger. After swallowing, he continued. “I missed this place.”

“Your parents must be happy you’re here.”

“Yeah.” But the frown on his face didn’t line up with his words.

“Uh-oh. That doesn’t sound convincing.”

“Neither one of them know how to act around me anymore. They walk on eggshells all the time.”

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