Page 85 of Hard Bargain

“Across,” Dominic said.

Knox followed the instruction and brought the needle out through the other side.

“Good. Pull it through.”

The thread slid after it, darkening where it brushed the blood.

“Now tie it.”

Knox tightened the knot carefully. Dominic’s fingers curled once against the edge of the counter before relaxing.

“You always this calm about someone learning surgery on you?” Knox muttered.

“I’ve had worse.”

Knox huffed and moved on to the next stitch. The rhythm came easier now: needle through skin, pull the thread, and tie. The loft had gone quiet except for their breathing. Knox could feel the slow rise and fall of Dominic’s chest, the warmth coming off him in a way that made focusing considerably harder. He kept his eyes on the wound.

“You didn’t panic tonight,” Dominic said after a moment.

Knox glanced up. Dominic was watching him. Knox shrugged as he tied another knot. “Didn’t really think about it.”

Knox looked back down and pushed the needle through for the next stitch. Dominic’s arm shifted under his hand. “You can admit that hurts, you know,” he said.

“I could.”

“But you won’t.”

Dominic gave the smallest shrug. “Doesn’t help anything.”

“You’re insane.”

For a while neither of them spoke. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable exactly, just… loaded. Full of everything he was actively trying not to think about. Except the memories kept surfacing anyway, unbidden and insistent.

The cell. The blood. The screams. Knox swallowed hard, his grip tightening on the needle. He tried to focus on the present, on the task at hand, but his mind kept drifting, sliding between the horror of the night and the moments that had led up to it.

Walking into the club. Looking for Dominic without admitting to himself that was exactly what he was doing. Pushing him deliberately, winding him up just to see what he’d do with it.

The kiss. That instant in the hallway, adrenaline and heat colliding in a way he still didn’t fully understand. The world had narrowed to nothing but Dominic’s mouth on his.

Knox’s breathing changed without him noticing. The thread in his fingers pulled tighter than it should have.

Dominic noticed. “Easy.”

“Sorry.”

Dominic’s eyes were on him now instead of the stitches. “You’re breathing differently.”

“Just thinking.”

“About tonight?”

Knox didn’t answer right away. He kept his head down, tying off the knot with more care than the stitch required. “Yeah,” he said after a moment.

He reached for the needle again, then realized there was nothing left to do. The stitches were done. He wrapped a clean bandage over the wound and stepped back—enough that the warmth coming off Dominic didn’t feel quite so immediate—and started packing the kit back together, giving his hands something new to do.

Beside him, Dominic shifted on the stool, testing the movement of his arm. The motion pulled a sharp inhale out of him before he caught it.

Knox noticed. “You’re not fooling anyone, you know.”