When I sit down on a couch, Nina asks, “Do you have a first aid kit?”
“In the kitchen. The cupboard above the microwave.”
She hurries away, and a moment later I hear the scraping of a stool.
Fuck!
I move fast, shooting up and jogging toward the kitchen. Just as I rush in, I see Nina grabbing hold of the cupboard handle and standing up on the stool.
I don’t think, and coming up behind her, I wrap my arm around her waist and lift her off. While she gasps and twists in my hold, I open the door and grab the first aid kit.
Nina’s right hand lands on the side of my neck while her left clutches my shoulder. The position I’m holding her in puts her at eye level with me, and when our gazes lock, something explodes between us. It’s so intense that we both react. As I quickly set her down, she glances away, a very nervous expression tightening her features. We step back from each other, then stand like idiotswhile scrambling for a way to handle what just passed between us.
Nina is the first to move, and with a flash of panic in her big brown eyes, she scurries in the direction of the living room.
I take a deep breath before I follow her, and pretend nothing happened when I take a seat and hand the black bag to Nina. While she zips it open, I grab hold of the hem of my shirt and drag the fabric over my head before dropping it beside me and relaxing against the back of the couch.
Her eyes flit over my chest, and this time a blush creeps into her cheeks.
Nina steps between my thighs and braces her hand on my shoulder so she can lean in close to clean the cut across my chest.
My eyes roam over every inch of her face, noticing how the bruises on her cheek have changed color. The red is gone, and only blue marks remain.
Lifting my hand, I brush my thumb over them, and it has Nina’s eyes darting to my face. She goes very still, watching me and trying to anticipate my next move.
I keep our gazes locked as I lean forward. Nina’s breaths instantly speed up, and panic returns to her face, but I push through and press a kiss to the marks that fucker left on her skin.
Her breaths stall, and she remains frozen like a deer in oncoming headlights.
I inhale the scent that’s uniquely hers, and process how right it feels to kiss her, even if it’s just on the cheek.
It should scare me how natural it feels to show her such a level of intimacy, but it doesn’t.
Relaxing back again, I smirk at her. “I just wanted to kiss it better.”
To my surprise, Nina’s lips twitch as if she wants to smile, but then suppresses it. Tearing her eyes away from mine, she movesout from between my thighs and begins to check the wounds on my left arm.
After a while, she murmurs to herself, “It’s going to leave scars.” The sigh coming from her sounds unhappy, and it makes the corners of my mouth lift again.
Nina cares about me…more than she knows.
I’m thrown back to our time in the basement, when she was the only light in that dark room. Nina’s healing touch moves over my body while I stare at her, memorizing every inch.
She clears all the soiled gauze to the coffee table before digging around in the kit.
“Yes!” Suddenly, a smile bursts over her face, and when she holds up a tube of salve, as if she found some kind of treasure, my jaw drops.
Christ Almighty.
Nina is smiling because she found something to help relieve my pain, and the realization hits with a staggering force. It means more than I can put into words.
An emotion so powerful, it rivals anything I’ve felt before this moment, shoots through my very being, changing something fundamental inside me.
What I feel for Nina changes into deep, all-consuming love.
It’s instant and overpowering, obsessive and relentless, leaving me shocked out of my fucking mind.
The most profound moment of my life happens in mere seconds, and when Nina’s gaze lifts to my face, I see tiny sparks of happiness flickering in their depths.
