She shrugged. “I haven’t started it yet. Apparently I’m on house arrest.”
There was a slam followed by a crunch chased by a loud “fucking hell” from the dining room.
“So, Nicky seems like he’s in a mood,” Brian said.
Riley sighed. “He’s mad at me because I didn’t follow orders.”
The topic of their discussion appeared in the doorway of Brian’s office shirtless. His T-shirt was wrapped around his left hand. “Where’s our fucking first aid kit?” he demanded.
She jumped to her feet. “It’s in the kitchen. I’ll get it.”
“Do I need to go find a finger?” Brian asked.
Riley grabbed the first aid kit next to the empty Halloween candy bowl in the kitchen. Damn it. She’d forgotten to buy more Halloween candy when she’d been out.
She felt Nick’s presence behind her and turned.
A tattooed, shirtless, pissed-off Nick Santiago was not hard on the eyes.
“How bad is it?” she asked, gesturing toward his wrapped hand.
“Everything’s still attached,” he assured her.
Carefully, she unwound the shirt from his hand. “What were you doing?”
“Fixing a broken window lock.”
Was it her imagination, or was he leaning in? She’d missed having him close like this, which she realized was silly given the fact that they’d had sex less than thirty-six hours ago. But a lot had happened in those thirty-six hours.
Riley wrinkled her nose when she found three of his knuckles had nasty wounds.
“Don’t get any blood on your sweater,” he cautioned. His tone was soft, and she could feel his breath on her hair.
“It’s new,” she said.
“I noticed.”
She hazarded a glance up and saw his gaze was fastened on her cleavage. At least he hadn’t suddenly become immune to her boobs.
“This is going to hurt,” she warned, soaking a square of gauze in rubbing alcohol.
“I’m not a baby— Jesus Christ! Fucking damn shit!”
Riley felt her lips curve as Nick’s vocabulary went nuclear.
“You definitely don’t have the vocabulary of a baby,” she noted, cleaning the wounds quickly.
“My first word was ‘shit.’ Mom was not amused.”
Smirking, she tore open the first bandage and placed it over a knuckle. Being so close to him made her want to get naked, and they had a lot to talk about before getting naked was an option. “I saw your mom at yoga this morning.”
“How mean was she to you?”
“She actually didn’t get the chance. Sesame convinced her she was your ex-lover, and I rescued you from an on-purpose accidental pregnancy scheme.”
Nick closed his eyes. “I’m not sure I want to know why.”
“She was trying to make me look good to your mom. You know, show her that I’m not the worst person you could end up with. It was actually really nice of her.”
