“If all that didn’t happen, I wouldn’t be here now, knowing that you cared enough to save and help me, watching that beautiful expression, feeling your touch again even if it is tending my wounds.”
She bent a thumb under the rest of her fingers and ran a hand through her hair. “Anyone in my place would have done the same.”
“No. They would have called the cops or animal control, and then bolted their doors, not flown down to the rescue.”
A long sigh seeped out of her mouth as she pressed the wet towel on the blood. “You need to take off your shirt.”
My brows shot up in disbelief. “Really?”
“Not for…” she grumbled, “I must check if you have other wounds or bruises.”
“Oh.” I lifted a hand to the upper button, a little embarrassed. As I moved down to the last button, I caught her peeking. I smiled again, shrugging off one arm, looking into her eyes. “Should I take off my jeans, too? It will give you a better view.”
She looked away, lifting the wet towel, a shy smile twitching on her lips. I tried to shrug the second arm and moaned quietly. Her hand reached my shoulder and finished the job for me.
“Thank you, Belle.”
She tore her gaze away from my half naked body and cleared her throat. “Professor Ferro to you.”
“No.” I tucked her hair behind her ear. “We’re not at school, so I’ll call you by your sweet name.”
She sighed again and pushed my back forward gently. Her touch set a tingling through my whole body. “Bruising is already forming around your shoulders. Maybe we should go to a hospital to check if anything is broken.”
“No hospital. I have everything I need right here.”
“Alec…”
“Nothing is broken, Belle. Not bones anyway.”
She shook her head and pressed the wet towel to my arm a little too roughly. “What were you doing here, Alec?”
I growled in pain. “I came to talk to you.”
“I already explained to your brother—”
“My brother hasn’t tasted you, hasn’t felt you shake around his cock, hasn’t had one of the best moments of his life inside of you.”
Something flicked in her eyes, a mixture of anger, embarrassment and arousal. She took my good hand and put it on the towel. Then she got up. “Keep the pressure here. The bleeding isn’t stopping.”
“Where are you going again?”
“Coffee.”
“Do you have any bourbon instead?”
She came back with a…bag of coffee. I scratched my head. “What are you doing with that?”
The couch sank beside me as she sat. Then she exposed my wound, took a handful of ground coffee and covered my wound with it. She repeated the process until the gashes were all buried under a mountain of brown powder.
“Is that…sanitary?” I asked.
“Yes. It will stop your bleeding so I can stitch you up.”
“Thanks, but I don’t need stitches. I’m a fast healer.” I gazed at her, impressed. “But how did you know all that? That was not covered in the medical training course.”
A terrible darkness loomed over her for a second. Then she shrugged. “How do you think?”
The muscles around my heart squeezed. It had taken all my restraint, all my patience, not to go and save her from that fucker back then. But I had to stay away, mind my own fucking business, until she came here on her own.
