She shook her head without looking back. “No point, I don't want to waste time, just turn your back if it’s modesty you’re worried about, it's not like you won't see me in a short while anyway.”
She didn't wait for a response, instead, pulling off her clothes and folding them. She slid on the shift and smoothed the wrinkles down.
Her skin was covered in gooseflesh and her nipples were taut, poking through the cloth of the medical dress. It was from the cold, and once again she told herself she didn't care.I'm going to be fixed!
Who cared that it was going to be a dangerously handsome, asshole Cyborg doctor—created to wage war—that was going to fix her? She squeezed her thighs together and told herself it was because of her lack of dress, and not because there was barely a scrap of tissue paper cloth between the two of them.
When he turned around and looked at her, she was ready for his cold indifference, not for the warmth and comfort that shone in his eyes. Eyes he kept fixed on her face.
Why does that disappoint me?Her grin didn’t budge as she scrambled to the bed. He offered his hand to help her into it. She clasped it without a thought.
The moment they touched, something shifted, something unassuming and potent as his large hand tightened around her small one. It wasn't the gentle stiffening of a helpful hand, but the tightening of a hand that wanted to feel more.
They locked eyes and a rush of heat slithered through her. So many shivers for so many different reasons, but as she stared into the depths of his dark eyes, a sense of familiarity poked her memories.
Before she could place it—and the look he gave her—he helped her maneuver into the oval pod. When she was lying down—at her most vulnerable with her heart racing and ready to burst from her chest—a twinge of nervousness returned.
He still has my hand...
“Don't be nervous. You're safe with me.” His face softened and a lock of hair fell over his face. Clara nodded and swallowed, and held back from reaching up and brushing his rebel hair away from his brow.
“I feel safe,” she mustered out. It was the truth. He gave her hand a slight squeeze. So handsome, so wrong.So wrongly handsome.She missed the asshole because she had no defenses against the kindness.
“This won't take long,” he told her. “You'll feel some discomfort when you wake up and you won't be able to lift anything heavy for a day or so, but I promise there won't be any pain.”
“I like that promise.” Clara couldn't take her eyes off his face and she didn't want him to let her go. “Will you be here when I wake up?”
“Yes, I'll be here.”
She briefly closed her eyes with relief. “Thank you, Dr. Canis.”
“Call me, Reid.”
“Reid,” she said softly.
Her body heated outward from where they were connected and she craved more of it. But Reid released her with a soft caress over her knuckles and Clara realized as he moved away that what she felt was the need to be held, comforted. Well, by the fantasy of him in her head. She was freezing and for a brief moment, he had warmed her up.
Reid had also given her a lifeline of hope that not all men out there were bad and...that was dangerous.
He’s dangerous.
She shook her head and looked at the room around her.This is neither the place nor the time to be thinking about men.
He turned back to her with a scanner in his hand and ran it over her body; the medical feed appeared on a screen beyond her view. His hand held her gaze, clasped over the device he moved up and down her body, and her toes curled, thinking, imagining, that he was doing it for an entirely different reason.
A non-medical reason.
What the fuck is wrong with me?She closed her eyes.
Reid was being entirely professional and she was on the verge of being an aggressor. Clara wanted to open up her legs and ask for a quick, blissful, non-committal climax to get whatever she was feeling out of her system.
Her eyes snapped open and back to him. His focus was on the readings, not her. His attention wasn’t on her.
Clara smiled, knowing he wasn’t looking, and imagined the scenario and shifted her hips a little without meaning to.
I'm fairly certain he'd kick me out of the facility if I did that.She bit back a laugh but couldn't stop the yawning ache between her legs and the idea of her fantasy coming to life.
“Are you ready?” His voice was rough and deeper than before. Her pulse skipped as she was thrown from her thoughts.
