Securing His Destiny (Power Security #2)

Chapter 5

Chapter

Five

W hat the hell is happening here?

Tabitha’s about-face shocked Steve. It was as though she’d drawn into herself and didn’t want anyone to enter.

She apologized for calling him predictable .

Why? Maybe her comment had thrown him for a loop, but the more he considered, the more it rang true. In some parts of his life, he was predictable, but when it came to his job, he was anything but.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, Tabby. Not sure why you think you do.”

Tabitha glanced at the door, as if she were willing it to open.

He didn’t like that she wouldn’t meet his eyes. Didn’t like that she felt like she needed to apologize for something that wasn’t bad in the grand scheme of things.

Hell, Steve had been called worse when he had interrogated someone for information. He’d developed a thick skin over the years.

“I shouldn’t have judged you because you like the same thing. I mean, I know all my regulars’ orders. I wouldn’t call them predictable.”

She still wasn’t looking at him, and Steve needed her full attention so she understood what he was about to tell her.

He shuffled closer to the bed and laid his hand over hers.

She startled at his action, as if not expecting him to get close to her.

He’d meant what he’d said when he’d walked into the room. After what’d just happened between them, he was even more determined to get to know the woman lying on the bed in front of him. “Tabby,” he said quietly.

It took a few seconds, but eventually her attention turned away from the door and to him.

“I’m going to say it again, and this time I want you to believe it. You have nothing to be sorry about. I have no issue with you calling me predictable. I won’t lie and say I wasn’t surprised, but I wasn’t offended. Besides, you were right. In some aspects of my life, things I do, like my muffin order, are expected and even anticipated, seeing as you always have one ready for me when I get to the counter. And I’m sure I’m not the only one you do that for.”

“You’re not,” Tabitha whispered. “And that’s why it was unfair of me to call you out on it when I have so many customers who order the same thing every day. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

“Why did you think you needed to apologize? Why did you think you were wrong?” He asked what he’d been thinking, but didn’t want her to shut down again.

Remarkably, Tabitha didn’t look away like he’d anticipated she would. Instead, she kept her focus on him.

“It’s not right to call someone out on their faults. I—” She looked away, and it took everything in him not to turn her head back toward him.

Tabitha took a breath. “My mum wasn’t a nice person. She was when I was younger, but the moment I hit my teenage years, she changed and yelled at me for every little thing I did. Told me I was useless. That I didn’t know how to cook or clean or even act. When I could, I left and never looked back. I don’t know what happened to her, and I don’t care.”

“Oh, honey,” he murmured, a shaft of happiness tearing through him at her baring her soul to him. Honored that she’d trusted him enough to talk about her past. He didn’t care what the hospital said, he wanted to get close to Tabitha.

Needed to get close to her.

Steve climbed up on the bed and pulled her tight against him. When her hands closed around him, returning his tight embrace, he mentally fist pumped the air.

He didn’t know how long they clung to each other, but Steve didn’t want the embrace to end.

For so long, he’d wanted to be close to Tabitha but had denied himself the opportunity out of a misplaced sense of not wanting his past, and the job he currently did, to harm her.

In the last few minutes, when she’d shared what she’d been through, it showed him she could handle anything.

A throat clearing had them pulling apart.

Steve’s gaze landed on the doctor standing in the doorway.

Some special services solider he was. He should’ve clocked the door opening.

What if it had been whoever had harmed Tabitha coming back to try again?

Although going after her in a hospital wasn’t the smartest thing to do.

“Everything good here?” the doctor asked.

“Yes. Are you here to discharge me?” Tabitha asked, as she lay back against the pillow, putting some space between them.

Steve got the message and slipped off the bed to allow the doctor access.

Dr. Jones glanced between the two of them, but said nothing else. “I’ve checked your chart, and everything looks good. Let me give you a once over, and you can get out of here.”

Steve moved to the back wall of the room while the doctor conducted his examination.

Every now and then Tabitha looked in his direction, as if reassuring herself he wasn’t about to leave her.

What had happened to Tabitha’s mum?

Was she still alive?

What had caused her to go from being a good mum to her daughter to being a tyrant?

Tabitha had said she wanted nothing to do with her, and he could understand that, but his need to fix things wanted to find out.

Not the best idea right now. In the future, maybe, but it would be a decision made after a discussion with Tabitha. If she was adamant she wanted to leave that chapter closed, he’d respect it.

“All right. Everything looks good. You’ll need to go see your normal doctor to get the stitches removed. I’m sorry I had to shave a part of your head to dress the wound, but I did what I could to make sure that you weren’t left with a large bare patch.” The doctor chuckled, as if he’d made a good joke.

Steve didn’t miss the look of horror across Tabitha’s face.

Her hand whipped up to touch the back of her head, now that the bandage had been removed.

He wanted to reassure her she was still beautiful but kept the words to himself. It wouldn’t matter if he said them or not. At the moment, she wouldn’t believe him.

“Okay,” she eventually said. Her hand still straying to the back of her head.

“You’ll be out of here in no time.” The doctor gave one last smile and walked out the door.

The second the door closed. Tabitha’s hold on her emotions let go, and her face crumpled as the tears started rolling down her cheek.

Steve was up and on the bed again, pulling her into his arms in seconds.

“I don’t know why I’m crying. It’s not like hair can’t grow back. But…” Her voice faded out.

“I get it,” he said. “You can cry. Yell. Punch me. Do whatever you need to do to feel better.”

She sniffed and gave him a watery smile. “I don’t think I need to go that far. I’m really being overdramatic. There are people far worse off than me. I shouldn’t be getting this upset over a patch of hair I’ve lost.”

She went to look away, but Steve cupped her cheek and turned her face so she had to look at him. “You don’t have to justify how you react to me. Or anyone. You know what you’re feeling. No one else. If someone says you’re silly for reacting that way, ignore them. They have no place to judge until they’re in the same situation.”

When he’d been in service, he’d seen multiple ways his fellow servicemen reacted to certain situations. Some locked down their emotions. Some let their feelings be known. Others dealt with it in private.

However, none of the men he worked with, past or present, ever condemned a person for how they dealt with the terrible situations they’d found themselves in. They’d offered support and help if they needed it.

“I suppose so. I was tired of my hairstyle, and this gives me a chance to change things up.”

“That’s my girl.” Steve swept his thumb across the apple of her cheek, wiping away the last remains of the tears. “Whatever you decide to do, you’ll look beautiful.”

Tabitha’s gaze remained locked with his. Her breathing became a little shallower, and his did too.

What would she do if he leaned forward and kissed her?

Would she turn her face away, or would she welcome him?

“I want to kiss you,” he murmured, his attention drifting to her lips.

“I wouldn’t mind if you did.”

That was all the permission Steve needed.

He closed the distance between them and gently pressed his mouth to hers. Desire shot directly to his cock, and he slipped an arm around her to bring Tabitha closer to him.

Her hands clutched at his shirt, and he wanted nothing more than to feel them against his bare skin. To feel her soft flesh beneath his own fingertips. Find all the places that made her sigh in pleasure.

Steve traced his tongue across the seam of her lips, seeking entrance, and she granted it. What he wouldn’t give to lower her down against the mattress and kiss every inch of her body, but their location made that impossible.

Soon he hoped.

With one last brush of his lips against hers, he pulled away and rested his forehead against hers. “This is just the start of us.”

“Yes, it is.”