Page 50 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
Her stomach trembled again, with an entirely new feeling, and she flushed, remembering her brother’s words, the warning he didn’t quite offer.
He likes you.
She pinched the end of his nose. “Don’t play the romantic hero.”
“Why not?”
“It suits neither of us. Besides,” she said, turning her back to wring out the cloth, “even if you can’t see me, you know I’ll be here.”
She caught a faint hint of a smile before he sank back against the pillows.
“Let me inspect your back, first,” she said. “Then you can rest.”
“What if I don’t want to rest? What if I just want to lie here and watch you all day?”
“Then I’ll bandage your head so you can’t see me.”
“You delight in tormenting me.”
“Sometimes,” she said, applying the hot cloth to his back, making him wince again. “But not others.”
She worked her way down the shredded flesh. It looked like he’d grabbed his shoulders as if he was trying to peel himself out of his body. How could one person suffer so much damage?
“Is… is it always this bad?” she asked.
Dimitri went quiet for a moment. “I’d say this is in the upper-to-medium range,” he announced eventually.
The confession twisted inside her, making visions of what the worst must look like. “You should be scarred.”
“What was that?”
“Your skin. If this happens every month, you should be covered in scars… When I started working here, it was only a few days after the last full moon. But most of your skin was flawless—”
That being said, it had been several days before she’d seen him naked, and he’d been attached to the chaise the first few days. Was that because it hurt too much to move? Why hadn’t he said anything?
“Ah, another little benefit of the monster-sharing-my-body thing. Accelerated healing.” He grinned. “You called me flawless.”
“I called patches of your skin flawless. Don’t let it go to your head. I could as soon say the same about me.”
“You could,” he said, “and you’d be right. Could apply the word liberally, in fact—”
“Dimitri…”
“What?”
“You know what.”
He pouted. “You started it.”
And I’m finishing it.Only, she didn’t say that. She didn’t want to. Didn’t want the harshness of those words, and didn’t, really, want him to stop at all.It’s harmless, it’s harmless, let him indulge in his little crush. If it makes him happy—
But it makes you happy, too.
She shook her head. It didn’t matter. There was no harm in enjoying his company, so long as it didn’t distract her from her duties.
She cleaned and bandaged his torso diligently, checking every inch of him he was happy to let her, doctoring every slash, scratch and graze, smearing it with a fresh-smelling paste. Even his tail hadn’t escaped damage, although he buckled underneath her touch when she examined that.
“It’s very sensitive!” he said, flushing scarlet.
