Kissed Blind (Hot Pursuit #2)(13)

When we arrived at my apartment, Vance sat at the kitchen table, and I grabbed him a cold Coke from the fridge. He folded the tab back and took a few big gulps.

“I’ll go get the stuff to patch you up,” I said.

“It’s just a damn scratch. I don’t know why everyone is being so dramatic. It’s not like my guts are falling out. I barely feel it.”

“Once the adrenaline wears off, you will. Shut up and take your shirt off.”

He chuckled and shook his jacket off his shoulders and started to remove his shirt. “Oh, kinky, now that’s what I’m talking about.”

“You’re disgusting.” I shot him a death stare and walked back through my bedroom and into the bathroom. In the closet, I gathered peroxide, gauze, cotton balls, some super glue for skin I lifted from my last stay in the hospital, and medical tape into a little plastic basket.

“Okay,” I began while walking through the archway leading into the kitchen. “I hope you’re not going to be bash—” My words got lost somewhere on my tongue when I saw Vance shirtless. I looked down at the basket in my hands. I’d seen Vance in ratty gym wear a thousand times, but I hadn’t seen him half naked since the night in his bedroom when he kissed me. I wasn’t prepared, or rather, I didn’t know I needed to be prepared to see him like that.

“Not going to be what?” he asked, ducking his head and searching for my eyes.

My gaze inched over his abdomen, and I took a deep breath. “Bashful.”

“Not a chance, baby. You know you can’t get enough of this staring back at you.” He made his pectoral muscles dance.

And like a snap of the fingers, the spell was broken. “I swear, sometimes I wonder what women see in you.”

“Yeah, well,” he started, but when he shifted in the chair, he winced.

“What’s that, tough guy? Thought you barely felt it.” I grinned with a cocked brow.

“All right, that might have been a slight understatement. Just do what you gotta do. It stings like crazy.”

I placed the basket on the table next to him, grabbed a kitchen towel, and dampened it with warm water. I pulled a chair over to sit across from him, scooted to the edge of my seat, and placed my knees between his. His chest, covered in course black hairs, was broad and powerful. His rounded shoulders squared as he sat up straight, popping out each roll of his scarlet-stained abdominal muscles. I chewed on the inside of my lip.

“Okay, I’m just going to wipe off the blood so I can see the cut. Looks like your shirt absorbed most of it though.”

He nodded, and I dabbed the towel against his skin. A low moan came from deep within his throat, and his head tilted back as he closed his eyes.

“I’m not hurting you, am I?”

“No.” The tension in his chest relaxed.

I continued on, patting warm water against his skin, clearing it of all traces of blood. When I saw the wound clearly, I placed the red washcloth on the table next to him. The gash was about four inches long and was at its deepest in the center. From the looks of it, if the man had slashed him with a little more oomph, I would’ve insisted we go to the hospital to get it stitched. He’d been lucky.

I grabbed a cotton ball and doused it in peroxide. “Brace yourself. This shouldn’t sting too bad, but I can’t make any promises.”

“I’m ready.” He palmed both of his thighs and prepared himself.

I blotted the cotton across the angry red mark, and it frothed with millions of tiny bubbles. His hand shot out and grabbed the arm I was using for support, and I fell into his lap. I managed to catch myself on his inner thigh, inches from an area many women had visited. My eyes found his, and gazing into them, I was reminded of the secret kiss only I remembered.





Five





Vance put his hand up to my swelling cheek, running his thumb below my eye. “Does it hurt?”

I glanced at his lips. In retrospect a stupid place to look when trying to not think about someone kissing you. “It’s okay.”

“And your…?” His eyes dropped to the other area I’d been punched.

“I might not be able to have children anymore,” I joked but pain grabbed ahold of his gaze. “Really, it’s fine. I haven’t had enough time to think about me yet. I was too worried about you.”

He shook his head and gave me a lazy smile. “Don’t worry about me. I can’t believe that asshole punched you.” His stare threatened to scorch my skin, tingling under his touch.

I willed myself to move from my awkward position between his legs, but the most I could manage was straightening my arm, which only brought me closer to his face.

“Yeah, I know. I shouldn’t have grabbed him the way I did. I practically put my face on a silver platter.” My eye started to pulse as if it had been waiting for the reminder that damage had been done.

“You did good work out there today. Don’t belittle what you did because you got punched. That was a helluva take down you managed. You went all Karate Kid on him. Look at me all bloody.” He caressed my tender, swelling flesh and stroked down to my chin, tipping it up and forcing me to look at him.

“Thanks for having my back out there.” I swallowed the throbbing pulse in my throat. “Proving once again that we make an excellent team.”