Page 52 of Monster

He grunted. “Yeah. That’s it. Now, take the needle and—”

I shot him a look. “I’ve got it. I’m not stupid.”

His head crashed against the mattress as I filled the fresh syringe with numbing solution. I wasn’t sure how much I needed, so I filled it all the way to the top. Then, I started the painstaking process of sticking Teo everywhere inside and around his wound to make sure he was good and numb for the stitches. The wound was deep, and I certainly wasn’t trained to deal with this kind of shit. But, between my client’s insane testimonies sometimes and the television shows I watched at night, I had a basic idea of how this was supposed to work.

And when Teo breathed a sigh of relief, I knew I’d done good work.

I plucked some stitching string and a needle from the box. “All right. I’m going to start stitching, but it’s going to take me some time. I need you to hold as still as possible.”

His voice sounded drowsy. “Glue. The… the stitching glue.”

His finger lazily pointed back to the box and I peeked inside. I had no idea what the fuck he was talking about with glue, but I found a tube of something called ‘liquid tissue adhesive’. I skimmed the instructions on the back and realized what I was looking at, so I broke open the seal and squirted some of it into Teo’s wound.

Then, I took my time holding his wound together and stitching it up one knot at a time.

I wasn’t sure how long it took me to close him up. But, once I was finally finished, I had to wipe the sweat away from my forehead. I stood to my feet and helped Teo to his before his eyes rushed up and down my body.

“I’m going to use your shower. Clean up out here,” he said.

I folded my arms over my chest. “There a ‘please’ in there somewhere?”

He shook his head. “No.”

I smirked as he limped away from me, his arm cradling the fresh stitches. And I let my eyes linger for as long as necessary. The chiseled lines of his back muscles made me lick my lips, but it was those cute little butt dimples at the base of his spine that held my gaze the longest. My God, the man was a walking Greek statue of class and sass. And coupled with his beautiful body? I could almost convince part of myself to overlook how dangerous and disgusting he was as a human.

Almost.

He did come to you for help, though. He trusted you, like you trusted him enough to stay.

I pushed the thought away without a second to spare. But, the impact of those words lingered in my gut for a while.

Did Teo trust me? Did I trust him? Or, was this some sort of dance we were doing before he took that knife he pulled out of his side and shoved it into mine? I didn’t know the answer, but I knew one fact that hadn’t changed: Teo bought me at an auction after I was kidnapped.

Which meant that no matter what happened, he’d never be innocent in my eyes.

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