"Please?" he asked, his pleading look more sincere than the way he'd just taunted Kody. "I don't want to get stuck again. It was so much easier when I had the bandages on." His slight pout was too freaking much, and I passed through his doorway with an indulgent smile.
"Kody will kill you, you know that, right?" I told him as he kicked the door shut and prowled toward me while I kicked my heels off beside his bed. Thankfully, the curtains were already closed. The thick material was blackout, just like the ones in my room. He reached me and threaded his fingers into my hair, tilting my head back for a long, lingering kiss.
He gave a small, satisfied noise when our kiss ended, and his smile was pure mischief. "A little competition is good for his inflated ego, gorgeous. Besides, I really do need help with this shirt."
"Mm-hmm, sure." I replied with a sarcastic nod, but weak excuses aside, I still slid my hands under his tight white T-shirt and peeled the fabric up his body. Except he still had the leather gun holster on, so I quickly unbuckled it and helped him ease it off his injured shoulder.
The groan he let out when he tossed it onto his dresser—gun and all—made me frown with concern, though. A feeling that was confirmed by the specks of blood marking his clothing.
"Dammit, Steele," I scolded him, pushing his T-shirt the rest of the way up and helping him to ease it over his still healing left side. For the most part, the road rash all down his arm and shoulder was healing well, but where the leather straps of the holster had sat, the fresh skin was red and inflamed with small splits that’d caused the spotting on his shirt.
"It's not that bad," he commented, touching his fingers to the top of his shoulder where the worst scrapes were. "They'll heal up in no time."
I huffed, looking around his room for something to clean it up with. There was a box of tissues on his nightstand, so I grabbed one of those and dabbed at the blood. He was right; it really wasn't that bad, not even needing any dressing, but still.
"Maybe refrain from playing bodyguard until this heals up properly?" I suggested, annoyed, worried, and a bit sick with guilt. If not for me, would he be getting hurt like this? I guessed I didn't know. I knew nothing about what their lives had been like before me. They were clearly mixed up in some dangerous shit, that was for sure.
Steele gently took my wrist in his hand, removing the tissue from my fingers and tossing it into his wastebasket. "Stop fussing, Hellcat. I'm fine. A few superficial scrapes are hardly the worst I've dealt with."
That only made me frown harder. "So you've said before, which only makes me want to know who hurt you in the past."
He released my hand, then stroked his fingers through my hair, following it down my back until he found the zipper of my dress... which he dragged down. "Why would you want to know, gorgeous? The past is the past. I, personally, am living for the here and now." His palms smoothed over my shoulders, pushing the straps of my dress off and causing the heavy, beaded fabric to puddle at my feet.
"So I can hunt them down and stab them in the fucking eyes for you," I replied with a ruthless smile. I was only half-joking, but Steele gave a short laugh.
He gave me a gentle push, making me sit down on his bed, and then knelt in front of me, sliding his palms up my stocking-clad thighs. "Bloodthirsty is such a sexy look on you, Hellcat," he murmured, his fingers deftly unhooking my garters and freeing Archer's folded blade from where I'd stashed it. "But what makes you think I let them live?"
I sucked in a breath, the feral, dangerous look in his gray eyes making my heart rate spike. Max Steele was the biggest fucking contradiction, and I loved every damn element of his complicated personality.
"As sexy as the stockings are," he commented, rolling the silky fabric down my leg and tossing it aside, "I need to remind myself what every damn inch of you feels like."
My suspender belt, strapless bra, and panties all quickly followed the stockings, and I found myself stretched out naked on Steele's bed with his mouth—and that tongue stud—showing me exactly what