Easy Little Lick (Copperline #3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

totally took my time cleaning the cut, if for no other reason than how nice it felt to hold her delicate hand. To stand close to her and soak her in. To take care of her.
    She sort of smelled like sunshine.
    Warm and sweet. Soft. The scent tickled my senses and stirred up all sorts of thoughts, some innocent and some definitely not so much.
    As I swabbed the cut with an alcohol pad, my eyes flicked up to meet hers. She seemed fixated on my face, watching me with a slight bewilderment, as though nobody had ever really cared for her before.
    I realized as soon as I touched her that I had wanted to do this ever since we’d met. I wanted to come to her aid, in any way I could. I wanted to be her hero. To right all the wrongs done to her, even if I didn’t know what the fuck they were.
    She didn’t say a word, and I didn’t want to scare her away, so I didn’t either. I downplayed my attention, dropping it back to her hand. The knowledge that I was touching her, even so innocently, blazed through my body making me feel stronger and weaker all at once. I applied some antibiotic ointment, and placed a soft, loose bandage over the cut. Smoothing the tape down, I gave her a light, easy smile that completely belied the depth of the feeling in my chest. I then turned a bit at the waist, grabbing a clean, dry bar towel and handing it to her.
    “Now,” I said, “I’ll wash and you dry.”
    She looked at the towel for a minute before taking it from my hand with a whisper of a sweet smile and a faint nod.
    “You should drain the sink,” she said, “and get the broken glass out first. The last thing we need is for you to get cut, too.”
    “Yes, ma’am,” I grinned.
    Working side-by-side without really talking a whole lot should have been way more awkward than it was. It felt comfortable, though, for some reason. After a few minutes, she relaxed a little, and we traded smiles back and forth. One of us occasionally murmured a ‘ thank you ’ or some other polite nicety. Her voice, while subdued, was rather enticing with a slightly husky cast. We moved around each other, keeping far enough away to maintain an easy comfort, even though I would have been happy to brush up against her at any given moment.
    All too soon, the glasses were done. The night cleaning crew had made its way around the dance floor and lounge areas, heading towards the bar, our cue to move on.
    “That’s it,” Ilsa murmured, looking down the length of the bar.
    Everything was in its place, clean, organized. Nothing more to do. Just when I expected her to turn away and head back to the office, she leaned her hip up against the low sinks and gave me a sweet smile.
    “Thank you for your help.”
    She stood only inches away from me, close enough that I could have reached out and touched her. I wanted to so badly my fingers tingled. She nervously twisted her long hair over one shoulder, revealing the smooth, fair skin at her neck, and it took all the strength I had in me not to lean over her and place a tender kiss there. The desire burned hot in my mind.
    There must have been a glimmer of it in my eyes. She trembled almost imperceptibly and swallowed hard, dropping her gaze down to the clean, white bandage on her hand.
    “Thanks both for helping with the glasses and for this.”
    “Don’t mention it,” I replied. My fingers reached out before I even thought about it, stroking softly down the cotton gauze and tape.
    This time, her hand jerked back a bit, as though my touch held a static shock. She took a step back, and her tremulous breath rattled through me, making me instantly regret the sudden distance she put between us. With another quick step towards the end of the bar, she nodded.
    “Well, goodnight, Cody.”
    “‘Nite, Ilsa.”
    She met my eyes for a brief moment, just a split second, and then turned and fled down the hall to the office.
    I watched her leave, and the mystery of her swirled around in my mind. I wanted to know her, but wondered