Gah! Every shifter in the room could smell her desire as it hung thick in the air. All she could smell was the rusty scent of blood and her own sweat.
A guy like him would want someone like Marigold. She was tall, athletic, and beautiful. Everything Quinn was not. Sure, people told her she was pretty or cute, she even got the occasional adorable, but it wasn’t the same as being drop dead gorgeous. Like Luke and Marigold. A ten for a ten.
Ugh. Quinn had to stop thinking like this.
In the stillness of her internal turmoil, Quinn had forgotten about the human in the room. She turned to Adam, her eyes wide.
The male nurse shook his head and smirked. “Shifters are weird.” On that note, he gave her a nod and left the room.
Quinn shrugged. “He’s not wrong.”
Brandon’s heart was beating strong now. A healthy sign. Marigold laughed, then the two men on either side of her joined in. Luke’s lips tugged up on one side in a half smile.
“I’m Luke Dashwood,” he said. “Thank you for all your help tonight, Doctor…”
“Orson,” Quinn supplied. “There’s nothing you can do for Brandon right now. I’ll have him transferred to a private room while you all go get cleaned up.”
“Good idea,” Luke said. “Ricky,” he said to the man with pitch-black hair and coal black eyes. “You stay with Brandon until he’s been moved, then I’ll relieve you to go home and get some rest.”
“I’m staying,” Marigold said.
Luke nodded to her. “Do you have some scrubs or something she can change into?”
“I’ll have Adam arrange it,” Quinn said.
Luke moved in close and took Quinn’s hand in a two-handed clasp. The heat of his palms, the warmth radiating off his skin, made Quinn’s legs feel boneless. She could smell blood and bear and something else. Something unfamiliar. But beyond the strange was something even more confounding. Desire.
Quinn’s breathing quickened as she tried to pull her hand from his.
“I don’t know how to repay you, Doc.” His voice was low and throaty.
“It’s my duty,” she said, her voice pinched and high as she swallowed the lump that had settled in her throat. She looked at Marigold with a guilty flush.
Adam poked his head in the room. “Burn victim on his way in, Doctor Orson. Two minutes out.”
“I have to go.” She jerked her hand from Luke’s grasp. She checked Brandon one last time then nodded to Marigold as she went out the door. She should have said something to his sister, something comforting, but it was taking every ounce of Quinn’s willpower to walk away from Luke Dashwood.
