Chapter Eighteen

Wolf

Even bruised and full of stitches, this woman is fucking magnificent. She's a goddamned hard-ass, which is probably good. Everything could have been so much worse if she was a softer woman.

"What's going on?" She stares straight into my eyes. Piercing me and seeing down into my soul.

"Can this wait until you're better?" I implore her. I have never begged anyone for anything, ever. But at this moment, I am begging this wisp of a woman.

"No." Her gaze never strays from mine and I know she won't waver. She will not let this go.

"I can't handle the thought of anyone touching you or knowing anything too personal about you. Finding you like that nearly snapped my mind. Every time I think about it, it takes everything I have not to burn down the whole goddamned town looking for him. It's driving me up the fucking walls, Blue." I end my little speech on a sigh.

This woman, she's going to think I've lost my ever-loving mind.

She takes my face in both of her hands. Her palms are warm against my face and my skin tingles. "Okay."

"Okay?" I must look confused because she smiles. Even with all the bruising on her face, that smile lights her up. She's fucking spectacular.

"Yeah, just let me know when you figure it out. You're very domineering and apparently, I need to watch what I say and who I let close to me for a while. Your hero complex will fade, and then we can just go back to avoiding each other."

She takes her hands away from my face and moves to get back on the bed. How easily she dismisses me. My feelings—whatever they may be—are legitimate and I don't appreciate her dismissing them. Instantly, my blood heats and I'm pissed off.

"Will you tell me?" She asks this so softly that I almost miss it.

Her soft voice instantly cools my temper. She looks fucking terrified and so small sitting in the middle of the bed. Moving to sit behind her again, I gently pull her to me and with her back to my front, I tell her.

"He shot you on your lower left side. Luckily, he's a shitty shot. He missed everything vital. There was a lot of bleeding but Doc put a stop to that real quick."

Her hand goes to her left side. Instinctively, I cover her hand with mine. There's a moment of silence between us before she nods and I continue.

"Cracked a couple of ribs and Doc says you have a hairline fracture in your skull from where I saw him kick you. Doc says he can't do anything about either, but he did prescribe some kick-ass pain meds. And then basically lots of bruises and some scrapes. Two or three of the cuts needed stitches. You have three stitches above your left eyebrow. But in total, after Doc went in to stop the bleeding, forty-eight stitches altogether."

I wait quietly while she digests the information.

"Did he … um…"

Her voice fades away and I know what she's asking and shake my head. "No, babe. Kaiya says he was about to, but she knocked him on the back with a chair."

Her entire body relaxes. "That's good. At least there's that."

We sit in silence for a few moments. Just being there. I wonder what she's thinking about and feel glad that I could give her that tiny amount of good news.

"So you saw me naked, again?" she asks over her shoulder.

The question catches me off guard and I don't answer her. Looking up at her, I can see the smile she's trying to hide. Clearly, she's trying to alleviate the tension of this moment.

"Hello? Are you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm here. I didn't see you naked. You were still dressed. Your shirt was just torn to shit."

"Okay. So you saw my boobs. Can I ask another favor?"

"Sure, babe. What can I do for you?"

Watching the side of her face. I see her chewing her bottom lip as if she's still deciding if she really wants to do this. I wait patiently for her to tell me what to do. She moves forward on the bed and turns to me.

"I want to see. I just need you to help me get the shirt off." She sits there staring at me, probably waiting for me to deny her. God only knows I want to deny her. I don't want to fucking see her that way. But she has gone through something traumatic and needs to deal with it in her own way. Nodding, I get off the bed. I take her hand and lead her from the room to the bathroom she used earlier. There are no words between us. We both know what's going to happen.

We walk into the bathroom and I turn to lock the door. Stepping forward, I turn her to the mirror. I take the hem on my shirt that she's been sleeping in and find her eyes in the mirror.

"Are you sure, babe? This can wait a while."

With conviction in her eyes, she nods. "Yeah, I'm sure. I need to see what you all saw so that I can understand."

Unhurriedly, she lifts her arms above her head. Gathering the shirt, I lift it gently, giving her the opportunity to stop me at any time. Her eyes are closed and her breathing speeds up. Lifting the shirt over her head, I look at her in the mirror. Rage courses through my veins at what I see. This beautiful fucking creature is black and blue all over her body. I have seconds to school my face before she opens her eyes and I pray to God she didn't see my reaction. I know the look I wore was disgust. It wasn't disgust at the way she looked but at what had been done.

She studies herself and turns from side to side, touching places and bruises and then moving on. My hands rest lightly on her hips and I feel her silky skin beneath my roughened hands that mold perfectly to her. She turns around and presses her breasts to my chest. There's nothing sexual about it. She simply wants to see her back.

As I try to control my dick, I look over her shoulder and I'm amazed. Her back is one of the few parts of her I haven't seen before this moment. It's almost a full back piece. A full color phoenix rising from the ashes.

"Goddammit. Now I'm going to have to go see James again."

She's talking to herself and living in her own head at the moment. All I want to know is who the fuck James is.

"That's a trip to Louisiana. Going to have to work three months to save for a trip like that. Fucking expensive. If I could find that prick, I would beat the money out of him." She's mumbling to herself under her breath as she turns to face the mirror again.

"Damn fine piece of art ruined by an idiot." She frowns at the mirror and her image reflected there and bursts into tears. Turning her further into me, I hold her as she cries, damn near breaking my heart.