He smiled a little at her surrender at calling him by his given name. At leastthatbattle had been won. On to the next he went. “When can I leave?”
She blinked at him, like she didn’t understand the question. “Leave? You’re hurt.”
He shrugged his uninjured shoulder. “And I have no doubt that I will find a way to compensate for those injuries. So what is the point of staying here?”
“And what would you do if I gave you the clearance to go?” she asked, and now her own arms folded. Of course, that only drew his attention to her breasts, but he tried to maintain focus. This was a negotiation, after all—he could not let himself be distracted.
“Yougive me clearance.” He chuckled. “I do not think you have the rank to hand out such a thing.”
Her bright green eyes snapped and narrowed. “Stalwood asked me to help you. Until I say you are ready to go, I assume he will not give you whatever it is you want.”
He frowned. She might be right about that. So it was time to try a different tactic. “And what if I said that I wanted to pursue whoever killed your father?” he asked, hating how pain flared across her face before she reined in the reaction. Hating he’d caused her such pain. “I am far more qualified than anyone else on that case.”
“No,” she repeated, softly but firmly.
His eyes went wide at the dismissive finality of that rejection. “Am I wrong to assume you want whoever did this to be brought to justice?”
“Indeed, I do,” she said, her voice getting louder. “But not if it comes at the cost of your life. Which is probably what would happen based on the fact that you can hardly walk from one chamber to the next without assistance.”
He sat up straighter and was rewarded by blinding pain that ripped through his damaged body. Pain that proved her point and made him even angrier. So he directed it at her because there was nowhere else to put it. Not unless he wanted to face truths that would change his world forever. “You have no idea what I’m capable of, my dear,” he growled. “And if you cared about your father, you would let me do my duty.”
She flinched at those words, cruelly said and immediately regretted. He waited for her to cry again or to demand that he leave, as he deserved. But instead of doing those things, she merely speared him with a long stare. “You may be accustomed to everyone doing what you say when you say it,Your Grace, but I will not. My duty is to Stalwood, to my father’s memory and to my oaths as a healer. Your wants and needs and tantrums do not come into the equation.”
He pushed to his feet out of the bed. As the covers fell around him, he remembered he was naked beneath. And yet Diana didn’t shy away at that fact. To the contrary, he watched, fascinated, as her gaze flitted up and down, settling for far too long at his cock. The one that slowly eased to attention once again under her gaze.
Desire pulsed between them, just as it had the night before. It was sudden and powerful, and in that moment Lucas wondered if he might be able to use it against her to get what he wanted. To get out into the field again before he ran mad with waiting and being useless.
She swallowed hard, and to his shock she stepped closer to him. She focused on his face as she said, “Do you want to get well? To go back into the field?”
He nodded slowly. “More than anything.”
She gritted her jaw before she said, “Then let me help you. Give me a month.”
He caught his breath. A month? That was impossible. He’d already been useless for over half a year. Another month was a waste of time, especially since he had enormous doubt that the end of it would be any different than the start. He would still be in pain. He would still be useless. His destiny would remain the same.
“To do what?”
She sighed. “To try to undo what surgeons far less skilled than my father have done to you. I won’t lie to you, Lucas—it will hurt like hell. You will curse my name a hundred times. But let me.”
Her voice was so calm and comforting and confident. She truly believed she could help him. And in that moment, he found a wild faith in the same. One he tamped down immediately for it was ridiculous.
“And if I refuse?” he asked.
She threw up her hands. “Then you fail my father. You fail yourself.”
She pivoted and left the room. He stared as she did so, taken aback not only by her parting barb and how much it stung, but by her. She was beautiful, of course. No man wouldn’t look at her and want. Need. But beneath that exterior was a strength of iron. A determination so powerful that it made him believe what he hadn’t believed in a long time.
And that made her far more dangerous than any enemy he’d ever face in the field. Because her weapon was hope.
Chapter Four
Diana tossed her basket on the ground and dove into the plants with angry gusto. She popped leaves off, tearing them far more violently than she would normally do. But she couldn’t help it. That man was a stubborn ass. Pompous and brazen and…andrude.
Despite all that, she was drawn to him. Intensely. Last night she’d wanted to kiss him. This morning she hadn’t been able to look away when he stood up, all male power and naked desire. This was a weakness in her, one she had succumbed to once before with dire consequences.
Consequences that had sent her to the country. Ones that had kept her alone. She had rejected all the advances of bumbling country fools who came sniffing around her.
But the Duke of Willowby was no bumbling country fool.