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“You know this shirt is Tom Ford, right?”
“Sorry,” I said unrepentantly. “The blood won’t ever have come out anyway.”
I examined his wound. It was definitely a gunshot. I could see the gunpowder residue and the burns it had left behind. I frowned, envisioning how he might have gotten it. My stomach inexplicably tied in knots.
Pursing my lips, I refrained from asking what had happened. Instead I focused on cleaning the wound with water before spraying methylated spirit on the site. He needed stitches to stop the bleeding, so I sewed him up without further ado, not failing to note his toned biceps while I did it. I did manage to refrain from squeezing them experimentally, just to see if they were as hard as they looked. I tried to touch him the least amount possible, but when my fingers skimmed and pressed in on his skin… I craved more.
“You’re really good at that,” he said, startling me out of my reverie. He’d been totally silent despite the lack of anesthesia during the stitching, but he was still watching me closely, his eyes driving into me. I had a feeling he was used to such injuries.
“Yeah well…” I shrugged, inventing on the fly, “Growing up in my house, we didn’t get to go to the hospital much.” I met his gaze. “CPS might have ignored how many times we fell out of trees and broke our limbs.”
He grunted in acknowledgement.
“Learned how to set breaks and stitch wounds by the time I was thirteen.”
“A useful skill to have.”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
He was silent as I disinfected the site and applied a bandage.
“Is that how your sister died?”
My heart stopped, and my hands trembled.How did he know about Celia?
Then I remembered, just in time, that I’d mentioned her last night.
“Nah. Er, we’d both left home by then. I actually don’t know what happened to her exactly.”
I got to my feet and patted his shoulder absently. “All done.”
“Thank you. That actually feels much better.”
“I’m glad.”
He turned, looking up at her. “Seems you could be more useful than just swinging on a pole.”
I smiled nervously, my heart rate ratcheting upwards. “I aim to please.”
CHAPTEREIGHT
ALEXEI
Iwasn’t convinced Nora was telling me the truth about why she was trying to break into my office. I don’t remember seeing a pendant around her neck when she danced for me, though I admit Iwasdistracted. But whatever she was after, I wouldn’t find out by pushing her away.
Her story about being abused as a child hit me a little hard. My dad was an abusive asshole too. I knew too well the ups and downs of that life, even though we didn’t have to learn to stitch up our own wounds. Not when we had a resident medic whose lips were sealed.
I found myself feeling a little sorry for her, especially since I could see how much her sister meant to her. Hell, I had a sister too.
And I knew how that went.
“Well, you can look for your pendant now.”
She blinked at me, as if she had no idea what I was talking about for a minute before nodding. “Thanks.”
She went down on her hands and knees, her behind in the air, peering under my table. My hand, of its own volition, reached out and cupped her ass. She jerked in startlement, turning her head to glare at me.
I grinned. “You weren’t lying. It’s good.”
