Page 112 of Blood and Fire
Bruno gestured towards the stuff heaped on the floor. Geothermal sensors. An armory, packed in black plastic cases too heavy for her to lift. “Which of this equipment do you feel comfortable using? You plan on taking turns with the shovel, with your strained tendons?”
“OK, I get it. Don’t beat a dead horse.” She mopped her nose. “What happened to your trademark charm?”
“It was a cheap trick,” he informed her. “Some evolutionary thing related to primitive mating behavior. I’m in survival mode, now, so kiss the charm goodbye. This is the real Bruno. Hello, nice to meet you.”
“Oh, great,” she muttered. “That’s just peachy.”
“Time to go,” Kev McCloud called out.
The four men materialized, and finished loading the equipment into the cargo space. They slid into their places in the SUV without looking her in the face. Lily crossed her arms over her chest. “Those bastards,” she said. “Trying to get you out of a tight spot.”
“Nice that they care,” Bruno observed. “I could use the support.”
“Yeah. And speaking of which. If you’re going to get cozy with the McClouds, make it count. It’s time you and Kev’s brothers got your ya yas out with each other.”
His brows knit. “I told you. I’ve got no problem with them.”
“That’s a big fat stinking lie,” she said. “But I wasn’t referring to that, actually. I was talking about the problem they have with you.”
He looked blank. “Lily, we don’t have time for cryptic bullshit.”
She shrugged, shivering. “Nothing cryptic about it. You’re jealous of them. They’re jealous of you. Isn’t that just a big joke? Hah hah.”
“Jealous? Of me? Horseshit. Why should they be?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know why. But it’s obvious. I’m shocked you haven’t noticed it yourself. Probably you’re just too self-absorbed right now. The new Bruno, sans charm, and all that.”
He shrugged a leather coat on over his bristling weapons load. “This is some subtle form of female mind-fuck torture? To punish me?”
She shook her head. “It’s not a male-female thing at all,” she said. “It’s a gender neutral thing. Ignore it if you like.”
He grunted his disgust. “I like,” he said. “We’ll save the group therapy for later. There’s no time for this emotional crap right now.”
She swiped tears from her eyes. “I imagine that refers to me, too?”
“Yeah, it sure does,” he said. “Grow up, Lily.”
It popped out, before she could stop it. “Fuck you, Ranieri.”
She regretted it like hell, but of course it was too late.
He’d been turning away, towards the SUV, but at that, he turned back, considering her with narrowed eyes, for a long moment.
Connor McCloud hit the horn, short but loud. Bruno ignored him, and stalked over to Lily, grabbed her and bent her over backwards, in one of those poster-worthy, soldier going off to war mega-galactic kisses.
Lily was too startled to resist. All too soon, he lifted his head, stared into her eyes. “I love you, too.”
She was speechless. He gave her a crooked smile, like he didn’t really expect an answer, and turned to the vehicle.
Blind panic surged. She lunged after him. “Bruno!”
Bruno caught her headlong rush, steadying her. “Yeah?”
Her mouth worked. She couldn’t find words for feelings that were just too big, too wide for them. Standard phrases were too small, too flat. Feelings backed up inside her, building pressure in the bottleneck. All that burst out was, “Thanks for the, uh, translation.”
The flash in his eyes made her heart thud. “I got it right?”
“Yeah.” The word squeezed out, strangled by the burning lump in her throat. “Thanks for not going off, leaving me with that as the last thing I said. It would have sucked.”If you never came back.