16
“Ouch!”Audra pulled back from Diggs’ gently probingfinger.
“The swelling has gone down a lot. I’d say in a couple of days, you’ll begood.”
Audra hopped down from her perch on the bench in the small side lab, going for the small hand held mirror on the medical tray nearby. She lifted the mirror and stared in horror at her reflection. “It looks terrible.” She gingerly traced her fingers over the blue and purple swelling around hereye.
Diggs’ large fingers wrapped around hers and forced the mirror down. He took it from her grasp and laid it face down on the table. “You lookbeautiful.”
He drew her into his arms and she buried her face against his chest, thankful for his kindness. “I’m so glad no one else was here when we came down. I’d hate for your team to see me like this.” She’d never thought of herself as a vain person before, but the right side of her face looked like she’d run into atrain.
Diggs chuckled and his arms tightened around her, his strong chin resting on top of her head. “Hate to break it to you, hon, but you’re fixing to see all ofthem.”
Audra stiffened and tried to pull away just enough to look up at him. “What do youmean?”
“I mean we are going to tell them what you told me about Jeremy and show them thevideo.”
The now familiar signs of panic started to take hold. Her throat tightened and her chest burned. Her skin felt like there were a thousand spiders crawling over it. Audra pushed away, gulping in a deep breath of air. “I don’t want them to know. I don’t trustthem.”
Diggs closed the gap between them, forcing her to face him. “If you trust me, you trust them. We are ateam.”
But all the thoughts about why she shouldn’t trust them battered her mind. What if they were somehowinvolved?
“Stop what you’re thinking right now,” Diggs said gently. “They rescued both of us last night, remember? They want tohelp.”
He was right, logically she knew this. But she still felt afraid, logical or not. “But your team is soscary.”
Diggs’ expression hardened just before he leaned down and placed his face inches from hers. “Only to the badguys.”
Audra snorted and rolled her eyes, shoving playfully against his chest to expel some of her anxious energy. “That’s because you’re just as big as they are. To us normal people, you’re allgiants.”
“Maybe you’re just tiny.” Diggs caught her up in his arms and yanked her back against his chest, nuzzling her neck and nipping her skinplayfully.
An electric shock of pleasure skimmed down her skin and goosebumps raised on her arms. “You’recrazy.”
“Only about you.” And then his mouth closed over her earlobe and she forgot all about her fear as heat swept through her verycore.
“What is it with people making out in mylab?”
Audra yanked away to see Melissa standing in the doorway, arms crossed and a dark eyebrow arched. She felt the heat rush to her cheeks and buried her face against Diggs’ chest, taking the cowards wayout.
“What’s up, Doc?” Diggs said playfully, his tone showing her he was completely unconcerned being caught in a public display ofaffection.
“I was sent to fetch you. The team is assembled andwaiting.”
Audra did lean away then, watching the doctor warily. “All ofthem?”
Melissa gave her a firm nod. “All ofthem.”
She so wasn’t ready for this. “How’s Trigger? Diggs said you treated him last night and that he’s doing muchbetter.”
Surprise flickered across Melissa’s features before she resumed her typical emotionless doctor face. “He’sfine.”
Audra narrowed her gaze, then turned to face Diggs. “Where’sTrigger?”
“Like the doc said, he’s fine. I saw him myself. He was walking around and ate some leftovers from the kitchen.” His words sounded perfectly benign, but something in his tone was definitelyoff.
Audra crossed her arms and squared off against the man who had just made her toes curl. “I want to seehim.”
