was seriously staring.
Which was what you did when you got a gander at a man who was hung like a Louisville
Slugger.
Oh, God, did she really just think that?
«Since you've already seen what was done to me,» he said in a dry voice, «I can only guess you're
checking my navel for lint.»
Yeah. Right.
Jane got back with the program, running the cloth down his ribs. «So… how did it happen?»
When he didn't answer, she glanced at his face. His eyes were focused across the room, and they
were flat, lifeless. She'd seen that look before in patients who'd been attacked, and knew he was
remembering a horror.
«Michael,» she murmured, «who hurt you?»
He frowned. «Michael?»
«Not your name?» She took the washcloth back to the bowl. «Why am I not surprised?»
«V.»
«I'm sorry?»
«Call me V. Please.»
She brought the cloth back to his side. «V it is, then.»
She tilted her head and watched her hand rise up his torso, then slide down again. She was
stalling, not going lower. Because in spite of his distraction with the ugly past, he was still erect.
Totally erect.
Okay, time to get moving downward. Hello, she was an adult. A physician. She'd had a couple of
lovers. What she was witnessing was just a biological function that resulted in a pooling of blood
in his incredibly large-
That was so not where her thoughts needed to go.
As Jane took the cloth down over his hip, she tried to ignore the fact that he shifted as she went
along, his back arching, that heavy arousal on his belly pushing forward, then falling back into
place.
The tip of it wept a glossy, tempting tear.
She looked up at him… and froze. His eyes were on her throat, and they were burning with a lust
that wasn't just sexual.
Any attraction she might have felt for him disappeared. This was a male of another species, not a
man. And he was dangerous.
His stare dropped to her hand in the cloth. «I won't bite you.»
«Good, because I don't want you to.» This she was clear on. Hell, she was glad he'd looked at her
like that, because it had jarred her back to reality. «Listen, not that I want to know personally, but
does it hurt?»
«Don't know. Never been bitten myself.»
«I thought you said that-«
«I feed off females. But no one has ever fed off me.»
«Why?» As his mouth closed up tight, she shrugged. «You might as well tell me. I'm not going to
remember anything, right? So what will it cost you to talk?»
As silence stretched, she lost her nerve with his pelvic region and decided to try to work her way
up from his feet. Down at the end of the bed, she ran the cloth up his soles then over his toes and
he jumped a little like he was ticklish. She moved on to his ankles.
«My father didn't want me to reproduce,» the patient said abruptly.
Her eyes shot to his. «What?»
He held up the hand that was gloved, then tapped the temple that had the tattoos around it. «I'm
not right. You know, normal. So my father tried to have me fixed like a dog. Of course, there
was also the happy correlation of it being one hell of a punishment.» As her breath left her on a
compassionate sigh, he pointed his forefinger at her. «You show me any pity and I'm going to
think twice about the no-bite vow I just gave you.»
«No pity. I promise,» she lied softly. «But what does that have to do with you drinking from-«
«Just don't like to share.»
Himself, she thought. With anyone… except maybe Red Sox.
She gently eased the cloth up his shin. «What were you punished for?»
«Can I call you Jane?»
«Yes.» She redipped the cloth and eased it under his calf . As he went silent again, she let him
have his privacy. For now.
Under her hand, his knee flexed, the thigh above it contracting and releasing in a sensual flow.
Her eyes flicked over his erection and she swallowed hard.
«So do your reproductive systems work the same as ours?» she asked.
«Pretty much.»
«Have you had human lovers?»
«I'm not into humans.»
She smiled awkwardly. «I won't ask you who you're thinking of now, then.»
«Good. I don't think you'd feel comfortable with the answer.»
She thought of the way he looked at Red Sox. «Are you gay?»
His eyes narrowed. «Why do you ask?»
«You seem rather attached to your friend, the guy in the baseball hat.»
«You knew him, didn't you. From before, true?»
«Yeah, he looks familiar, but I can't quite place him.»
«Would that bother you?»
She ran the towel up his thigh to the cut juncture of his hips, then skirted