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"Cliff, let me see your hand."
"It don't hurt, darlin'. I'm good."
"Let me see it."
Lucia reached over to grab one of the hands Cliff had strewn over the steering wheel of Rick's car. While the hippie's face had been the real victim of the altercation that had occurred moments before, she didn't miss the cuts along Cliff's swollen knuckles. Her fingers ghosted across the injuries so tenderly that Cliff felt his lips curl into a smile. She shook her head and set his hand across her legs so that she could reach down to grab her purse. Cliff smoothly let his palm cup her jeaned thigh as she did so.
"You got him good, that's for sure," she mumbled.
"Hippie motherfucker deserved it. I shoulda made him apologize to you."
"He wasn't worth it, okay?" Lucia finalized as she pulled out a small pack from her purse. "We got out just in time. That goddamn Tex guy rode in as soon as we drove away."
"I woulda beat him, too. The way he was lookin' at you..." Cliff trailed, shaking his head.
"What, you don't think I'm sexy?" Lucia quipped sarcastically.
"Woah, I never said that," Cliff's lips fell into a crooked smile and Lucia was all too aware of his warm palm on her leg. "What you got there?"
Lucia's tongue poked from of the corner of her mouth as she unzipped the red pack, "First-aid kit."
A grin spread across Cliff's face, "You carry that thing with you everywhere?"
"Hell, yeah!" Lucia exclaimed as she lifted Cliff's hand into her vision. "You never know."
She soaked a cotton pad with alcohol and gently dabbed at the spots of blood across the backs of his tanned hands. Cliff smiled to himself, his eyes continuously gravitating toward her— noticing the way that her brows furrowed or the way that she bit her lower lip in concentration. Her lingering touches across his skin left traces of warmth like flicks of fire.
"Can you promise me something?" Lucia murmured.
"Anythin', baby," Cliff replied without hesitation.
"Never take me to a hot, abandoned, hippie-infested former place of employment ever again."
Cliff smirked and nodded in agreement, "I will admit it was unpleasant. But don't worry, honey, our next date will be different."
Lucia's brows raised and she lowered her head so that brown locks hid her reddening cheeks, "What did you have in mind?"
"Oh, I don't know... star-gazin', movie nights, walks on the beach, picnics, all that shit!"
"I didn't peg you as such a romantic, Mr. Booth," Lucia grinned, locking eyes with him as she finished up his hand.
