He picked me up like I weighed nothing. One arm under my knees, one behind my back. My body reacted before my pride did. I went soft and relaxed, and my hand fisted in the front of his shirt to steady myself.
His chest was solid under my palm. I could see the faint scar near his collarbone that I hadn’t noticed the night we met.
“This is unnecessary,” I informed him.
“You’re doing great,” he said.
That was not the reaction I had expected.
He carried me to the kitchen and set me down on a chair with the kind of care that suggested he was handling something fragile and valuable.
I hated that my throat tightened.
I also hated that I wanted to stay right there in his arms for one more second.
By early afternoon I was steadier on my crutches, and he had decided the bathroom needed to be cleaned “for infection control,” which felt suspiciously like an excuse to reorganize something.
“It’s fine,” I said from the hallway, leaning on my crutches. “It’s a bathroom. It’s seen worse.”
“It’s dusty,” he replied.
“It’s lived-in.”
“It’s dusty.”
He rolled up his sleeves and reached for the cleaning supplies, then he took off his shirt.
I gaped at him. “Is that medically required?”
He folded the shirt neatly and set it on the counter. “It seemed practical. Don’t want to get my shirt dirty.”
Practical.
“I—”
The man was built like a mythical force that had decided to settle down and pay taxes. Broad shoulders. Defined back.
I leaned harder on my crutches and told my face to behave.
“Try not to objectify me,” he said mildly, not turning around.
“I’m not?—”
“You just stopped talking mid-sentence.”
“I was considering your dusting technique.”
He glanced over his shoulder, one brow lifting. “Mm.”
Heat crept up my neck. “I thought you were a wolf,” I said. “Not a domestic cleaning service.”
He wiped down the sink with calm precision. “Wolves maintain their territory.”
“That sounds suspiciously like a justification.”
“It is.”
I watched the muscles in his back move as he reached higher along the mirror. It was deeply unfair that someone so competent could look so hot while holding a bottle of disinfectant.
