4. Ava #2
“Left?” I balked. “Why? Because of me?”
“No, because of me,” Lycan replied. “It’s not deep enough for stitches. But we’ll want to clean this out and wrap it up. No heels for a few days, I’m afraid.”
I ignored his attention on my wound. “Because of you? That’s ridiculous. You shouldn’t be here. You should go get him. You deserve—”
He cut me off by digging his phone out of his pocket and pressing a contact.
“Locust,” he said. “Bring a first aid kit to Ava’s suite. Everything’s fine, just a cut.”
He hung up and stood, going to the sink so he could wash his hands.
“Lycan,” I protested. “I’m fine. You don’t need to—”
“I don’t need to do anything,” he said, his features tense, his jaw tight. “Now, shut up and sit still while I take care of you.”
I pursed my lips and pretended the swoop in my belly at his phrasing was just a result of the pain. Take care of you.
No one had ever taken care of me. Usually, it was my job to do the caring.
When Maeve came home scraped up and hungover, I cleaned her up and made sure she had water.
When Sol needed someone to help her find a way to screw over our older brother, I sat with her all night, digging through paperwork.
When Guin told me to go to Europe and secure the funding we’d need to save our family business, I’d done it no questions asked.
“I didn’t know you were a doctor,” I teased.
He pulled a corner of his mouth up and turned off the faucet before wiping his hands on a clean towel. “I’m not. But everyone goes through a healer rotation at the homestead. I picked up a few things.”
“Healer rotation? The homestead has its own doctor?”
Locust appeared with the first-aid kit before he could answer.
“Damn, that looks like it hurts.” Locust tilted his dark head to the side, tanned skin wrinkling around his eyes as he winced.
“Thank you. Have someone clean up the mess out there,” Lycan said, nodding toward the hallway. “Then, you can go.”
“Alright, boss.” Locust winked with encouragement before disappearing the way he’d come. “Have a good night.”
Lycan opened the white medical box and settled on the ground, gently placing my foot in his lap before pulling out the tweezers to pick at the glass in the wound. I gripped the cold porcelain while he worked, grimacing and flexing my toes when he hit a particularly sensitive area.
An awkward silence fell between us as he meticulously assessed my injury.
He held me in place with his calloused hands, much gentler than how he’d handled the man in his room.
His full, pouty lips tightened into a thin line while he concentrated, and I remembered how those lips had parted while his partner pleasured him.
I traced the line of his cheekbones down to his jaw and the muscles in his neck, dipping even farther to the hint of collarbone underneath the unbuttoned top of his shirt.
God, he was beautiful, so well put together and cleanly made.
No wonder people threw themselves at him.
More than that, he was intelligent and funny and so frustratingly charming.
And caring. He didn’t have to be here, kneeling on the tile floor, cleaning my foot.
He should have carried on with his night like he’d planned.
But he was. I didn’t know what to do with that.
Nothing to be done, in any case. He’s just being nice. I don’t have time for someone like him. I can’t give him what he needs. If I could, I’d be the one tied up and whipped.
The mental image shocked me in a delectably devious way. Did I want him to do that to me? Did I wish I could have been the man in his room?
I…I didn’t know what I wanted.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.
I shifted my gaze back to his eyes, relegating those licentious thoughts to the darkest part of my heart.
“About?”
He snorted and shot me a knowing glare. “The guy I flogged before shoving my cock down his throat?”
I gasped at his outrageous language, but Lycan laughed and shook his head. “You’re in Copenhagen, Trouble. No sense in not calling a spade a spade.”
“I…uh…” I cleared my throat and looked at the ground, wishing my cheeks would stop burning and my heart rate would slow down.
“Do you have questions?”
“No,” I immediately said. “I mean, it’s none of my business. I’m not…I shouldn’t…”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you did,” he said. “I’m sure the Seventh Earl of Loser Fuckwads wouldn’t know a slip knot from his own limp dick.”
I laughed and playfully kicked Lycan’s shoulder with my other foot. “Stop it.”
“Well?” He raised an eyebrow as he sprayed saline solution into the wound.
“No,” I said. “You’re right.”
“I usually am.”
I bit back a slice of pain as he gingerly patted my foot dry. “What’s it like?”
“For the dominant or the submissive?” He used a cotton swab to wipe antiseptic cream on the wound before reaching for a large bandage.
I sputtered over my answer, unsure of what to say. His casualness about sex and kink disoriented me, but what did I expect from someone like him?
“Are you both?” My curiosity overpowered my modesty. Naturally, I’d never seen or done anything like that, but now that I had access to someone who enjoyed it, I ached to know more.
“God, no,” he said with a laugh. “I like to be the one in charge, but honestly, it’s the submissive with all the power.”
“Really?” It didn’t look like that.
“They’re the ones who have to hand over their consent.
Without that, it’s just abuse.” He finished his work on my foot by wrapping a thin layer of medical gauze around it to secure the bandage.
“I like taking people to their edge, finding what makes them tick and using it to break them apart. It turns me on when someone hands their control to me, when they trust me enough to turn their brain off.”
“Sounds nice,” I said, muttering the first thing that came to mind. When I realized what I said, I quickly added, “The whole…turning my brain off part.”
He patted my foot before lowering it to the ground and standing. “Here. Let’s get you up.”
Lycan held his hands out and waved his fingers, and I placed my palms in his, allowing him to pull me to my feet. I whined when I put weight on it, but I would have been fine to limp to my room. Instead, Lycan bent and scooped me into his arms, one under my legs, the other under my shoulders.
“Lycan!” I squealed. “Put me down.”
“Hush,” he said and walked me down the hallway to my room, placing me in the center of my bed. “Stay. I’ll be right back.”
With nothing else to do and nowhere to go, I obeyed, listening as he rummaged around in the bathroom and headed farther down to the kitchen. When he returned, he had a bottle of acetaminophen in one hand and a glass of water in the other.
“Oh, I’m fine. I don’t need—”
He held them out to me. “I’m not asking. You’re going to be sore tomorrow, and we’ve got a big day.”
I took the two pills, mostly to end his fussing, and downed them with the glass of water. After I swallowed, I set the glass on the nightstand and gave him my most petulant stare. “Happy?”
“Open your mouth,” he said. “Let me see.”
“Oh my God, really?”
His silence was his answer, and God knew he wouldn’t repeat himself.
“Ahh!” I stuck my tongue out and waved it side to side so he could be assured I hadn’t hidden the pain relievers in my cheeks.
“Good girl,” he murmured with half a smile.
I tensed my hands in my lap, clenching my thighs together and trying to hide it by crossing my ankles. The praise rattled into my lower belly with a heavy slam, and I glanced to the floor quickly to avoid giving myself away. I’d have to investigate the strange effect that had on me later.
Lycan heaved a deep sigh and pulled the duvet down, nodding to indicate I should get under it. I did, and after he tugged it over my body, he settled into the empty spot next to me, leaning back against the headboard with his hands crossed in his lap.
“You did ruin a perfectly adequate hook-up tonight,” he said.
“Adequate?” I whistled in sarcastic shock. “You sound really broken up about it. Where should I start my apology monologue?”
“I suppose you’ll have to make it up to me.” That haughty, wicked glint returned to his eyes, silver sparkling with whatever devious thoughts echoed behind them.
“Oh?” I kept my voice level, hoping not to reveal how nervous that made me. “And how, pray tell, should I go about doing that?”
“Hmm.” He beamed, and that too hit me much lower than I anticipated. “I’ll think of something. For now”—he leaned over and turned off the light next to the bed, bathing the room in moonlight—“go to sleep.”
“Are you planning to stay here the whole night?” He’d never tucked me into bed before, much less crawled into it next to me.
“Do you want me to?”
“You don’t have to,” I said. “I’m fine. And I do feel horrible for interrupting.”
“That’s not what I asked,” he said. “Answer the question, Trouble.”
I should have told him no. I should have scolded him for breaking down this barrier and folding his giant body into my private space despite no invitation.
But my world seemed less lonely with him here.
It had the entire time we’d been on this trip together.
He’d taken care of me this evening, and maybe…
maybe I wanted to be taken care of for a little longer.
“Yes,” I finally said. “Stay. Just until I fall asleep.”
Lycan nodded and slid down next to me, resting his head on the pillow next to mine. “Okay.”
“Okay.” I closed my eyes and fought another shiver.
The sounds of Lycan’s steady breath calmed the residual jitters of my stupid decision and the ache in my foot.
I focused on him…his heady masculine scent, the brush of his exhale as it hit my cheeks, the sensation of his body heat so close to mine.
My mind cleared. My thoughts stopped. And just as unconsciousness claimed me, I could have sworn fingers traced over my forehead to brush hair out of my face.