set of undergarments, she looked at the corset and thought, the hell she was putting that on. She shoved it back into a bag, unable to bear having that iron grip around her rib cage right now.
As she put her peach gown on over her naked breasts, it felt strange, but she'd had it with being uncomfortable. At least for a little while. Besides, who would know?
She folded up the pale blue Rodriguez and put it into a bio-hazard bag along with her old underwear. Then she braced herself and opened the door out into the patient room.
Butch was sprawled on the bed, the hospital gown pushed up onto his chest, the sheets down around his hips.
Vishous's glowing hand was resting about three inches above the blackened wound.
In the silence between the two males, she was an intruder. With nowhere to go.
"He's asleep," V grunted.
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She cleared her throat, but couldn't think of anything to say. After a long silence, she finally murmured, "Tell me... does his family know what's happened?"
"Yeah. The Brotherhood all know."
"No, I mean... his human family."
"They are irrelevant."
"But shouldn't they be-"
V looked up with impatience, his diamond eyes hard and a little mean. For some reason, it occurred to her now just how fully armed he was with his black daggers crossing his thick chest.
Then again, his sharp expression went with the weapons.
"Butch's 'family' doesn't want him." V's voice was strident, as if the explanation were none of her business and he was elaborating just to shut her up. "So they are irrelevant. Now come over here. He needs you to be close to him."
The contradiction between the Brother's face and his command to come closer tangled her up. So did the reality that that hand was the biggest help.
"He most certainly does not need me or want me here," she murmured. And wondered once again why the hell V had called her three nights ago.
"He's worried about you. That's why he wants you to go."
She flushed. "Wrong, warrior."
"I'm never wrong." With a quick flash, those navy-rimmed white irises flipped up to her face. They were so frigid that she stepped back, but Vishous shook his head. "Come on, touch him. Let him feel you. He needs to know you're here."
She frowned, thinking the Brother was crazy. But she walked to the far side of the bed and reached out to stroke Butch's hair. The instant she made contact, he turned his face toward her.
"See?" Vishous went back to staring at the wound. "He craves you."
I wish he did, she thought.
"Do you really?"
She stiffened. "Please don't read my mind. It's rude."
"I didn't. You spoke out loud."
Her hand faltered on Butch's hair. "Oh. Sorry."
They grew quiet, both focused on Butch. Then Vishous said in a hard tone, "Why'd you shut him down, Page 67
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Marissa? When he came to see you back in the fall, why'd you turn him away?"
She frowned. "He never came to see me."
"Yeah, he did."
"I beg your pardon?"
"You heard what I said."
As they locked eyes, it occurred to her that although Vishous was scary as all get out, he was not a liar.
"When? When did he come to me?"
"He waited for a couple weeks after Wrath was shot. Then he went to your house. When he got back, he said you wouldn't even come down in person. Man, that was a cold move, female. You knew he was feeling you, but you turned him away through a servant. Nice."
"No... I never did that... He didn't come, he... No one told me he-"
"Oh, please."
"Do not take that tone with me, warrior." As Vishous's eyes shot to her face, she was too pissed off to care who or what he was. "At the end of last summer I was flat on my back with the flu, thanks to feeding Wrath too much and then working in the clinic. When I didn't hear from Butch, I assumed he'd had second thoughts about us. As I... haven't had a lot of luck with males, it took me a while to work up the nerve to approach him.
When I did, three months ago here in the clinic, he made it clear he didn't want to see me. So do me the favor of not blaming me for something I did not do."
There was a long silence and then Vishous surprised the hell out of her.
He actually smiled at her a little. "Well, what do you know."
Flustered, she looked down at Butch