Body and Soul (Vanguard Towers #3) - Aiden Bates Page 0,16
just noticed he was hurt.
I leaned over him to grab a tissue from the console and he breathed deeply as my hip touched his chest. I jerked back, half from the shock of how good it felt to make any kind of contact with him, and half because I didn’t want to trigger whatever had just happened with unwanted touch.
He dabbed his lip with the tissue, but kept pressing it against the wrong spot, maybe numb from shock or from the pain itself. I searched his eyes and when I caught his gaze, I motioned that I could do it for him, if he wanted.
He nodded, wide-eyed like a deer. I had to force myself to look away from the vulnerability, and those beautiful long lashes.
The rain kept coming down on my back as I crouched by him and pressed the tissue to his cut. He hissed, but I didn’t pull back. I wanted it to clot.
“Here, take it and hold it down gently.” I guided his hand to take mine, where I pressed against his pouty bottom lip.
His fingers wrapped around mine for one thrilling moment before I slid my hand out, left him to tend to his wound, and closed the passenger door. I looked up into the night sky where the descending raindrops reflected street lights like static, and tried to untangle any of the millions of emotions I was feeling. Anger, because someone had done harm to a beautiful, vulnerable, trusting young man. Attraction, because the beautiful, vulnerable, trusting young man was exactly my idea of an ideal lover, someone who made my inner Dom twitch with excitement every time he met me with those sweet blue eyes.
And shame because, what the fuck? This was not the time to be fantasizing about him. Or busting Ian’s face in with a golf club.
I wiped the rain from my eyes and quickly made my way over to the driver’s side and slid behind the wheel. I turned up the heat to dry out my shirt and glanced at Brax, who quickly looked away. I could have sworn he was looking at my shoulders, and the definition of my arm muscles was pretty visible through the wet fabric.
“Thanks for calling me, Brax.” I spoke as though it was exactly what I’d want him to do in a tricky situation, and turned on the engine. “I’ll get you home.”
“No.” He dropped the tissue to his lap and shook his head.
I paused with my hand on the gearstick. “You don’t want to go home?”
“Seriously, please. Please don’t take me back there. My brothers are going to freak if I show up looking like this. I just need you… Um, I need somewhere to get cleaned up.” He shook out his hands like he was trying to shake off the nervousness making his voice pinch.
His chin trembled, and he scrunched his face like he was trying to stop himself from crying.
“Hey, it’s okay.” I squeezed his knee, wanting to bring him into the present. “We can go back to my house.”
He blew a breath between pursed lips and slumped against the seat with his eyes still closed.
I talked as I drove, hoping to soothe him. “The first aid kit that’s supposed to be in here is in my bathroom cabinet. My niece hurt her knee, skinned it running in the backyard, and we had to clean her up, so I grabbed it from the console there and never put it back. But there are butterfly strips, we’ll patch you up with those. It’s a long drive though… You hungry?”
Brax peeled open an eye and let out a short laugh. “Do I look hungry?”
“Yeah.” I grinned at him. “You look starving.”
I took a detour through a McDonald’s to get a cup of ice, and Brax ended up staring at the menu like I thought he would. With the ice, a cheeseburger and fries in his lap, I pulled into the parking lot and started taking off my shirt.
Brax raised his eyebrows as he drank through a straw, from the uninjured side of his lips, and I suddenly realized what it might look like.
“Uh, shit. Is it okay if I take off my shirt?” I paused on the final button. “You need something to wrap the ice in before you put it on your face.”
“My face?”
“For your…black eye.” I resisted the urge to rub my thumb lightly over his cheekbone, right where I’d touched him that very morning. I was furious Ian or whoever