She was curled up on the couch, her head on his lap.
Her favourite throw was thrown carelessly over her, the fire roaring and the rain beating against the windows. She was happiest like this: just the two of them together and no one else. He ran his hand through her hair and she almost purred.
She knew he wasn't aware of doing it. He was too engrossed in the Donato Carrisi book in his other hand. She wished she could reach up and stroke his face, but lately she wasn't sure what was acceptable. Instead she turned her face into his hard abdomen and inhaled his unique scent. He'd always smelled the same, since the first time they'd met when she was eleven years old. And she'd always loved it.
Whenever it stormed like it was now, he would cradle her in his arms and his smell would instantly make everything better.
Even now, twelve years later, his smell meant home and comfort to her. She frowned when she remembered what had happened only an hour before.
"Stop thinking so much," he spoke for the first time, smoothing the lines between her eyes.
"It's just that you don't seem very upset," she told him.
He just lifted his shoulder in one of his careless shrugs. I really seemed like it didn't matter to him.
"Hunt, your girlfriend just broke up with you."
He shrugged again, half a smirk on his face, eyes still on the book he was reading.
"What about what she said?"
The only response she got was the tension she suddenly felt in him. His muscled thighs tightened even further. Llano frowned. Would he pretend it hadn't happened at all?
She stayed quiet for a while, absently rubbing his tensed leg. Hunter was the most stubborn person she knew. He never said much, but what he said he stuck by no matter what.
"Do you think..." she took a deep breath. " Do you think that we're really too close, like she said?"
Still he didn't answer her, but she knew he wasn't reading anymore, even though his eyes were still on the book. His breath was too slow, too rhythmic. He was counting in his head.
"Maybe it is unhealthy how we're always..."
"Shut up." he said it calmly. No emotion in his voice at all.
"Hunt, she..."
"Shut up bear."
Llano let it go. He obviously didn't want to talk about it, and to be honest with herself, she didn't want to push it. What if he said that yes, Julia was right? That they were too close, that their relationship – friendship – was unhealthy and sick?
