Spy Games (Tarnished Heroes #1)(13)
He sat on a rolling stool and crept forward, pushing one knee between hers, the other along her outer leg, trapping her to the desk. To get away, she’d practically have to crawl over him. It was probably intentional. His way of keeping her a prisoner while he patched her up. Instead, she felt…protected. Shielded. Probably not what he meant, but she wasn’t exactly thinking clearly.
“Take a deep breath. This’ll sting a little.” Rand leaned over her arm.
Sarah stared at the ceiling. She winced at the pinprick of pain that went hand-in-hand with each dose of the painkiller.
“When’d you get your Dr. McDreamy license?” She wiggled her fingers, already going a bit numb.
“SEALs. There’s not always a doctor around to stitch you up. Learned a thing or two from some guys I was stationed with in the CIA at the time. Funny how things work, huh? If I’d known then I would be working for guys like that I might have asked them a few questions.”
“Like speaking Korean?”
“That took effort.” He threaded the needle and dunked the whole thing in a tincture of alcohol.
“How many languages do you speak?”
“Fluently? Or badly?”
“Both.”
“Korean out of necessity, as you can see. I can get a beer and find the bathroom in Urdu, Mandarin, and French. And I can order drinks in Russian, but that’s about it.”
“You’ve been busy.”
“Can you feel this?”
“Feel what?” She stared at the ceiling a bit harder. Yup, there was that queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. Dammit, but she was hungry.
“Good. What languages do you speak?” Rand hunched over, his face dropping out of her peripheral vision.
“My English and Mandarin are decent. I can get myself into trouble in Korean, Japanese, and Thai, but I wouldn’t call it conversational.” The tug on her skin was strange, distant and yet part of her. Her nerves twisted up, anticipating pain that never came.
“Focusing on the Asian countries?”
“It’s where they needed me in the beginning. I thought I was going to spend my life in Africa. I’m a little bummed I’m not getting to see savannah cats.”
“Take a vacation.”
“With what time?”
“I hear ya.”
“How long is this going to take?” She fisted the corner of the towel and wiggled her toes. A chill set in, amplified by her wet hair and the tile floor.
“Not too long. I don’t want to skimp on the stitches. This isn’t going to be pretty. I’m sorry.”
“Good thing I’m not vain about my arms.”
“You said you’d tell me the story later.”
“Earthquake when I was in Japan at a conference. We were touring a facility there, looking at their new state-of-the-art water treatment plant when it happened. This unit hadn’t been installed yet, and it fell over, landed on me. I thought I was going to die, honestly.”
“Did you have surgery there?”
“Japan?”
“Yeah.”
“No. I was pretty out of it from the pain, but they got me stabilized and I came home for the reconstructive surgery.”
“Let me guess, your handler was involved?”
“I don’t honestly know. I want to say one of our other people was.” Charlie. He’d gotten her home, then insisted she stay with him a few days on her way back to work after she’d been cleared for work again.
“Just a few more. You’re doing good, Bitsy.”
“Shut up.” She resisted the urge to punch his shoulder.
Rand chuckled and straightened, tossing her a mischievous grin. The boys had always loved to point out her diminutive height.
“Careful. You don’t want me to get this wrong.” He waggled a gloved finger at her.
She tried to not look at it too hard. “Just finish already.”
“Sorry.” He bent back to the work at hand. “So, Matt got married.”
“Yup.”
“You haven’t?”
She snorted before she could moderate her reaction.
“What?” Rand glanced up again.
“When would I have the time to meet someone? Believe me, Mom and Dad would love it if I got married and stopped traveling, but unless I married someone in the company, it’s not happening.”
“What about one of your water people?”
“I work with mostly women, and I’ve never swung that way.”
“Well, I’m partial to women, so maybe I should keep my eye on a job opening.”
Right. Rand, working on digging wells and making nice with local officials. That was so not his thing.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“Liar.”
“You would hate doing my job.”
“I don’t know. I think I’d look good in a pair of those wader pants.”
“No one looks good in those.”
“I bet you’re pretty cute. Probably goes up to your shoulders, though.”
“You’re a jerk, know that?”
“I’m a cute one, at least. Last one. I better kiss it to make it all better.”
She swallowed, staring at his reddish-brown head of hair, wishing she could feel the brush of his lips against her skin. But the entire area was numb, so she’d have to imagine what it might be like.