Black Magic (Alpha Pack #1.5)(10)

"Ow!"

"Easy, honey," he said, his palm rubbing her back in a comforting gesture. "Let me do it."

Working carefully, he lifted the shirt and eased it over her right arm first, and then over her head. From there, it was simple enough to slide it off her left arm, where he let the material drop to the tiled floor.

"That shirt's a loss. So is the bra. The clasp is dangling by a thread back here, and the whole thing's in my way."

Face flushing, she shrugged her good shoulder. "Then take it off."

Doctors didn't embarrass easily when it came to other people baring skin in order to be examined or treated. It was quite another matter to be on the receiving end. She flinched as he flicked the clasp and the pressure of the elastic vanished. The scrap joined her top on the floor and she automatically covered her br**sts.

She didn't consider herself overly modest, but right now someone could've fried an egg on her forehead. She stared at the wall, glad he was behind her where he couldn't see how flustered she was to be standing there topless in the same room with the man she'd lusted after for weeks.

As before, he cleaned the wound as gently as possible. It hurt, though, much worse than the scrapes on her hands. At one point she gave up trying to keep herself covered and gripped the edge of the sink, tears of pain pricking her eyes.

"I'm sorry, sweet thing. Just a bit more, okay?"

Five more agonizing minutes, and he was finished. Tossing the cloth on the back of the sink, he ordered her to remain still for another few seconds. A soft stream of Latin left his lips and the slash on her back began to tingle. The sensation lasted briefly and was gone.

"There. It's not perfect. Zan could've made it vanish altogether, but it's better than having it bleed all over."

Turning around, she examined her left shoulder in the mirror. The creature's claw had raked an ugly furrow about a half-inch wide from the top of her shoulder, over the shoulder blade, and a few inches below. A few more and it might've damaged the nerves in her spine, possibly severed them.

As it was, Kalen had closed the cut enough to form a scab that made it appear the wound had been healing for a week or so. "I'm impressed. And it feels a ton better, thank you."

"You're welcome."

"How's your arm?" she asked.

"It's not as bad as I thought. I'll clean the cut later." His gaze dropped to her chest and his eyes widened, body going tense. Lust etched itself on his face for a fleeting moment, and then he gave her a sheepish smile. "Christ, where are my manners?"

Exhaling a deep breath, she watched him exit the bathroom. In the bedroom, he removed his duster and laid it over the back of an old chair, and then pull off his black T-shirt. Walking back to her, he held it out. "Wear this. It's clean, except for a little bit of blood where his claw tore my sleeve."

She took the shirt, but damned if she could take her eyes off his toned chest, sprinkled with just the right amount of curly black hair and the silver pentagram pendant resting over his heart. Washboard abs, too. He'd filled out, gained some weight since he'd been with the Pack. And those few pounds had been shaped into muscle, and gone to all the right places.

Shit, those long legs, and that bulge between his thighs-

"Mackenzie?"

"Hmm? Oh! Thanks."

Turning around, she pulled on his shirt and was immediately assailed by his wonderful, spicy scent. Assuming they had to stay the night, how the hell was she supposed to sleep wearing clothing of his that smelled so damned good? Parking her rear on the bed, she watched as he dug out his cell phone and tried again to reach someone at the compound. Nothing. She did the same, with identical results.

"Must be a service outage somewhere," he muttered. "Looks like we're stuck here for the time being."

Stuck wasn't the word she would've chosen to describe being shut in with the sexy Sorcerer all night.

"Unless you want to just leave and make a run for it," she suggested. "Maybe whatever it was is gone?"

"No, he's still out there, waiting. I can feel him."

"Then I guess we're here for the duration. Want to watch TV?"

Alone with Kalen, and that was the last pastime on her list. But she wasn't going to make a fool of herself by making a play for him.

He's a coworker, Mac! And it's never smart to sleep with one. Remember that. Strength, girlfriend. You can handle this.

Kalen flipped on the television and they settled on the bed, propped on pillows, watching a standup comedian on a cable channel. The show was funny, but her eyelids soon grew heavy. Too sleepy, worn out from their stressful ordeal, she let herself fall into oblivion.

What a freakin' waste of a delicious Sorcerer.

Jax wasn't surprised when, at two in the morning, there was a knock on the door to the quarters he and Kira shared. Nor was he surprised to find Nick standing on the threshold, frowning in concern.

His commander got right to the point. "Did you loan Kalen your keys to one of the Escalades?"

No point in lying when the man clearly knew the answer already. "I did. Isn't he back yet?"

"No, and neither is Mac. I can't reach either one of them on their cell phones. In fact, I can't even contact Sheriff Deveraux. There seems to be an outage in the area-and not a normal one."