Mathew glanced down to where he still held her. He cleared his throat as he released her wrist and gestured for her to lead the way.
River climbed the stairs, tripping on the steps only once. But that was all it took. His hands steadied her at her waist, the heat permeating her skin. She held her breath, letting her heart settle before he released her and they continued the rest of the way.
“Welcome to my humble home,” she said with a flash of a smile.
Mathew didn’t look impressed as he headed past her into her small studio apartment.
5
MATHEW
Mathew slipped the curved needle through River’s skin, and she hissed. When he lifted his eyes to hers, they were squeezed shut. She had her cheek buried in her shoulder, but her hand stayed steady as he worked.
Three stitches were all she needed, but he knew the location was tender. He’d applied numbing cream, though it didn’t seem to be helping.
“You okay?” he asked, gruffer than he intended.
She opened one eye and peeked at him. “Yeah. Just dandy,” she muttered through gritted teeth. Then she shut her eyes tight again as he finished the last stitch. “Are you done?”
“Almost. I just need to bandage it. You’re lucky, you know.”
River snorted. “Hardly.” Then she glanced at him. “How do you figure?”
“Well, this isn’t your dominant hand, correct?”
“Yeah…” she drawled.
“You don’t strike me as the kind of woman who’d listen if I told you to take it easy.”
She faced him fully as he wrapped gauze around her palm and followed it with a bandage. It was bulkier than she wanted, but it would protect the stitches. “You’d be right about that,” she said carefully, like she expected him to try anyway.
“Then you’re lucky it isn’t your dominant hand.” He tied the last bit off. “You’ll still be able to work.”
“I can?”
He gave her a flat look. “I think we already established you’re not going to listen to me if I tell you not to.”
One side of her mouth twitched before the brightest smile spread across her face. “Ah. I’m picking up what you’re laying down. This is your way of giving me permission.”
“No,” he said, though his voice dropped despite himself. “This is my way of admitting that if you’re anything like my sister, I know better than to ask you to take it easy.”
She arched a brow.
Just like that, heat crawled up the back of his neck, the way it always did around her. What was it about this woman that left him so off-balance? Maybe it was her eyes. Those greens had no business being that distracting. Or maybe it was how easily she smiled. Or the way she kept talking even when she felt a little nervous.
When he finished, she pulled her hand back to examine his work. “Five stars,” she said, and the tease in her voice landed softer than he expected.
He grunted, and she flashed him another one of those heart-stopping smiles.
Rose had been right about one thing. River was nothing like Victoria.
Victoria had been polished—so polished that one hair out of place would’ve been a crisis. Always made up. Her clotheswere always purchased from the high-end stores and cost more than his father earned in a month. She spent most of her time organizing charities with her wealthy family, and being the wife of a doctor had been a status symbol. Victoria’s younger sister had married a lawyer, which was why Victoria had come out of their marriage on top.
River was the opposite of that.
There was a smudge of grease on her forehead—oil, probably, from whatever she’d been wrestling with before she sliced her palm. Her hair wasn’t tucked under a cap today. Instead, it was pulled into a messy bun, loose strands framing her face like she hadn’t cared enough to fight them.
River, as her name implied, was wild. In every sense of the word.
