He was right. If I had any hopes of making it back to Breaker, I needed to prioritize first aid. “I need a shower. Do you have a bathroom around here?”
He pointed to the door he’d disappeared behind to get me water and pain pills.
I pushed myself up to stand. My vision went white and my legs buckled, depositing my ass right back on the sofa. The pain throbbed and I sucked down a couple of deep breaths trying to deal.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
The question took me by surprise. Breaker had stripped away my consent the second he drugged me and pulled me onto his lap. Nobody had asked for my permission since. Yet this sexy, half-dressed muscular stripper wanted to help me. I stared into his eyes, searching for a motive or some dark intent. His gaze met mine, intense and haunted, full of secrets and pain, and the torment in him called to the anguish in me.
He’d rescued me, stopped me from bleeding out, and brought me to his house, possibly endangering himself in the process. He’d already helped me more than any of my coworkers, and those assholes had pledged their lives to serving and protecting. “You already are.”
He looked pointedly at my leg. “I can do more. I can carry you, if it’s okay?”
His remarkably toned biceps, abs, and chest were right there in my face, making every cell in my body painfully aware of how attractive he was. I didn’t want to appear weak, but stubborn and stupid were equally unattractive qualities.
Wishing for some sort of inner strength I didn’t quite feel, I nodded. “Please do.”
He picked me up, cradling me in his arms like a child. With my cheek nestled against his heart, I breathed him in and relaxed. Something deep inside me recognized that this man had saved me, and I felt safe, protected, even from myself. I’d told him everything, and he hadn’t turned me away. In fact, he’d insisted that I stay with him until I could walk. For some reason, this sexy, distrustful man seemed determined to keep me alive. Although I didn’t understand his motivation, I found comfort in the way he seemed to care about my survival.
He carried me into a small bathroom with a full-sized shower that had a built-in seat. His body grew increasingly tense the closer we came to the stall. “How do you want to do this?” he asked.
Wanting to dispel the tension and reassure him I was okay, I replied, “I want you to hold the water above me, so I can throw back my head all sexy-like. Like that scene inFlashdance.”
He chuckled, visibly relaxing. “You really are a smartass, aren’t ya? I’ll tell you what. I’ll set you down on the seat, turn on the water, and give you the hose, and you can recreate whatever scene you want.”
I smiled at him. “Deal.” He set me down and I tossed the borrowed sweatshirt onto the bathroom floor and realized the flaw in our plan. My left shoulder felt like it was out of the socket and there was no conceivable way for me to remove my dress. “Do you have a pair of scissors I could borrow?” Between the blood and the rip down the front, the dress was ruined anyway.
“You want me to arm you?” he asked.
“Or help me cut off my dress. It’s not getting over my shoulders.”
“You should have let me take you to the hospital. I get why you didn’t, but…” His eyes darkened as his gaze took in my battered body again—avoiding my exposed boob like a gentleman—no doubt seeing me as some sort of victim.
I wanted none of his pity. I wasn’t a victim, I was an insubordinate suspended police officer who made questionable decisions in what started as the pursuit of justice but had now morphed into a raging hard-on for revenge. After everything Breaker had done to me, this case was very personal. Taking him down would be the highlight of my career to date. “Hey, I’ll be fine. You should see the other guy.”
It took a moment for him to gobble down the bait, but his gaze finally drifted back to mine. “There was another guy?”
“Yeah, and I did some serious rearranging of his face. They had to carry his ass out on a stretcher,” I lied.
Tap shook his head, chuckling as he retrieved a pair of scissors. “You’re something else, Officer Petrov.”
I didn’t know if he meant it as a compliment, but I thanked him anyway. “You’re not bad yourself, Tap of the no last name and undisclosed location.”
Since my shoulder couldn’t be bothered with doing anything helpful like moving, he helped me cut my dress off, averting his eyes the entire time. For being a stripper, he sure seemed sketched out about seeing me naked. Wondering if it was only because my injuries made him uncomfortable, I said, “I’m not breakable, you know?”
“Yeah, but you sure do bruise and bleed a lot.”
This time, it was my turn to chuckle. “Ah. You got jokes, too, huh? Good. I was beginning to worry about you.”
He dipped his head as he tossed my dress in the garbage. “Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not just a pretty face. I have feelings, too.”
Tap had a lot more going on than his looks and his feelings. The man was downright intriguing, and I’d just barely scratched the surface. Telling him my story had shifted something between us. He was still secretive and closed off as hell, but at least he was joking with me now. I could work with that. Maybe I could even get him to release me so I could go find Breaker before it was too late.
Once Tap got the water to an acceptable temperature, he took down the shower head and handed me the hose, putting shampoo, conditioner, soap, and a wash rag all within reach. “This should keep you busy for a while. I’ll be in the other room; holler if you need anything.” He hung a clean towel on the shower door. “For when you’re finished.”
I thanked him again as he slipped out the door. Then I got busy washing away the past few hours, muttering under my breath every time the soap stung a cut. Yes, Breaker was going to pay for what he’d done to me.
Tap
