“You’re hurt.”
“I’m fine.”
“No.” She stands next to me and takes my hand in hers. It’s a massive mitt in her tiny doll-like hands. She holds it so delicately and tenderly, I can’t bring myself to pull away. “You have cuts. They’ll get infected if we don’t treat them.”
“Treat them?” I shake my head. “No. They’re fine. I’ve been in plenty of?—”
“I’m a nurse, Briggs. Let me clean your wounds.” She looks straight into my eyes with so much determination, there’s no way I can say no. Especially when she adds, “Besides. This is all my fault.”
I can’t argue with that, so I sit at the kitchen table and watch her move around the kitchen with quick efficiency. She finds a first-aid kit I’ve never used under the sink, fills a bowl with warm water, and grabs a clean dish rag before taking the seat across from me.
It’s the first time since I’ve met Mia—was it really only just this afternoon?—that I’ve seen her composed and sure of herself. Gone is the shy and uncertain girl from earlier, replaced by a confident young woman who is very much in control of the situation at hand.
“Let me…” She gestures to my right hand. It took the brunt of most of the punches, and the knuckles are bruised and cut. Mia gently washes each finger before smoothing some kind of ointment over each cut and finally finishes by wrapping a thin layer of gauze around my hand.
“You’re really good at this.” I can’t take my eyes off her as she works. “A professional.”
“Well,” she laughs a little and looks up from her task to meet my gaze, “that’s exactly what I am. I graduated from nursing school a few months ago.”
“That’s right.” The memory of Jamie proudly telling me of his little sister’s achievements flashes through my brain. “Your brother is really proud of you.”
Her smile dips a little, but she doesn’t say anything.
“Is that a bad thing, Mia?”
“No,” she says reluctantly. “I guess it’s not. I’m lucky to have him. He’s sacrificed so much for me. Too much.”
“I don’t think he’d see it that way.”
I knew he didn’t see it that way. Providing for his little sister was a point of pride for my best friend.
“Well, I wish he wouldn’t worry about me so much.”
She moves the cloth over the top of my left hand. There’s nothing about the action that should be seductive, but my perpetually hard cock twitches at the touch.
“I just hate to let him down.”
“I don’t think you could,” I tell her. “I know how proud he is that you were accepted into medical school, too. That doesn’t sound like you’ve let him down at all.”
She blows out a breath and pats my hand with a clean towel. “Except…I don’t want to go to medical school.”
Mia
It’sthe first time I’ve said those words out loud. But now that I have, they’re not so scary, so I say them again. “I don’t want to go to med school. I never have. I just applied because…well, because I knew Jamie wanted me to.” I don’t look at Briggs as I tell him the truth. “I’ve been working so hard in school, it takes up all my time. Like,allof my time. I don’t want to do it anymore. Besides, I like being a nurse. I just want to help people, and I can do that without being a doctor.”
“Yes,” he says. “You can.”
I look at Briggs then. His eyes are blue again, the emotion from earlier drained away. He’s softer now, too. But he’s still watching me in that intense way that makes me think he can see right through me. I swallow hard and look away, focusing again on my task.
“You should tell him,” he says after a moment. “Tell him what you want. He only wants you to be happy, Mia.”
I know that’s true. Jamie loves me. But it’s not that simple.
“He’d be so upset if he knew how much I hated school,” I say. “He worked so hard to pay my tuition so I wouldn’t need to take student loans. And I’m grateful because I wouldn’t be a nurse now if he hadn’t. But if he knew that I had no friends, and no social life at all because all I did was study all the time, he’d only be upset that I missed out on the true college experience. I mean, there’s a reason I’d never been kissed.”
My hand flew to my lips. I didn’t mean to mention the kiss Briggs had given me. It was not at all what I expected. It had been so much more. I shifted in my seat, a reminder that the kiss had made my panties very wet.
“But now you have,” he says, his voice deep again. “Been kissed, I mean.”
