clear it further, I snatched up his wrist and turned his palm over. Gravel-torn and red, his knuckles were beat to hell—like his face.
“I can take care of myself.” It wasn’t quite a growl, but he hadn’t spoken gently.
“Yeah, well, apparently you can’t or you wouldn’t have come here,” I snapped. My eyebrows lowered as I studied his face. “Why are you here?”
Gingerly, he licked his lip. When he looked up at me, my heart raced. Just pounded there as hard and as fast as it ever had. Faster than when I’d first seen my high school sweetheart in Advanced Math, faster than when I kissed him for the first time, faster than when I spun into my first anxiety attack after placing a rose on the casket that had become his final resting place.
Devlin pushed off my country-blue floral-patterned sofa. I backed up, both to give him room and to position my body in the path of the front door. I wasn’t letting him leave without a coat, bleeding and freezing.
“Bathroom?” he asked, holding his body at an awkward angle.
Evidently he wasn’t going to speak to me much more on my home turf than he did at work. The blood was beginning to dry on his face, but I could see he was trying not to drip on my carpet.
I pointed down the hallway to the tiny bathroom with its matching slate-gray toilet, tub, and sink. “Are you—do you need first-aid stuff? Or did you just have to”—I gestured weirdly. I could feel it, how uncomfortable I was around him—“to go… to the bathroom?”
Smooth, Rena.
He shuffled past me, then turned. Faced with the non-beat-up side, my thoughts ceased. My head went as blank as the sketchpad I’d pulled out before his knock came. In the soft lighting of my living room, I caught a glimpse of the Devlin I saw at work. Godlike and beautiful, his back straight and strong, his expression sharp.
“I’ll need a couple of towels you don’t mind me ruining.”
Hearing his voice in the intimate quiet of my apartment made me wish he’d say more. I could listen to his raw, low timbre forever. A drove of chills raced up my forearms.
Since Joshua died, no man had caused my arms to chill, or my neck to prickle, or had tied my tongue. But now Devlin had. I was intrigued by what this meant.
I (apparently) couldn’t speak, so I pointed down the narrow hall to the tiny linen closet and then followed my finger. Rows of mismatched towels and a few sets of sheets sat neatly folded on the shelves.
“These,” I managed as I handed over two towels: one dark green and one navy blue.
His fingers brushed mine as he took them, causing gooseflesh to light on my arms.
“Bandages are over the sink, and I think there’s some Neosporin or something. Whatever you find is fine. Use whatever you need.” Oh, there was my voice. The dam had apparently broken.
He nodded once, keeping his not-swollen eye on me while he shut the door.
Devlin
I tested the inside of my mouth with my tongue as I shut the door. I thought I knew what to expect in the mirror… until I faced my reflection.
Fucking hell.
Much worse than I’d thought. One eye was swollen almost shut, bright red and turning purple with a few impressive broken capillaries. Dried blood coated the side of my face, and I’d lost skin on my palms from falling onto Paul’s driveway. How I looked was nothing in comparison with how I felt. My head pounded like I’d rammed a wall skull-first. Every time I swallowed, a bit of blood trickled down my throat and my stomach lurched. Overexposure to the cold caused my skin to ache now that I was warming up. I flexed one fist, wincing at the way my abraded knuckles burned. I didn’t remember getting a hit in, but I must have. At least some of the blood on my hands appeared not to be mine. I felt a swell of pride at landing a hit or two on Paul’s goons before they took me out.
I shook my head at my reflection. Given how I looked, I was surprised Rena Lewis let me inside. I wouldn’t have let me in. I wouldn’t have opened the damn door.
The water barely came out of the spigot, the pipes rattling something awful. I’d been in worse apartment complexes, but not by much. God only knew what issues the rest of the place had.
I cleaned