Page 29 of Flirting With Forever
A soft huff left her, drawing his attention from his task.
“I’ve got some butterfly bandages I’ll put on the worst of this. I don’t think it’ll scar, but you’ll probably have war wounds for a while.”
“And a story to tell,” she said, her thoughts once again traveling to the past. “Guess I really have earned that decal.”
Gage’s lips quirked at the corners, and she found herself staring at them, suddenly wondering what it would be like to feel them pressed against hers.
The thought should have shocked her, but it didn’t. The thing she hated most about her life on the road was her lack of roots and relationships. Of being able to stay anywhere long enough to establish more than a peripheral friendship, much less more. She missed hugs and hand holding. Cuddles. And since she wasn’t the casual type of girl, she wouldn’t allow herself to settle for crumbs and brief hookups that didn’t last long enough to even fit the term “situationship.”
Once Gage had painstakingly cleaned the cuts and bandaged them up, she cleared her throat. “There are…a few on my back as well. If you wouldn’t mind taking a look.”
He scowled at the news. “You should’ve said something earlier. How bad are they? Let me see.”
Her heart tugged at the sight and sound of his concern. He hated that she’d been hurt, and it showed in every scowl and frown and the pinched V of his eyebrows.
Where was that concern from her family? Her own flesh and blood? Why didn’t they care that their actions risked everything? Put them all in danger? Why would they chance it?
“Hey? You okay?”
She must have worn her thoughts on her face, and she fought to hide them by pasting on a weak smile. “Fine. Just tired and want this done.” She swung around on the stool and tugged up the lower half of the borrowed T-shirt, leaning forward against the countertop and resting her head against her forearm.
“Ah, Merida. You took a beating out there. I’m so sorry.”
“They’re not bad. I just can’t reach them.”
She felt his fingertips gently brush along the scrapes above her hips at the base of her spine where her T-shirt had apparently blown up and revealed her skin as she went down under the limbs.
She waited, and seconds later, felt the sting of the antiseptic and the dab of soothing ointment before the press of bandages. Thanks to her, they’d pretty much exhausted his stash of them. “I’ll have to replace your first aid supplies.”
“Don’t even think about it.”
Yeah, he was growly about her doing something like that when she’d been hurt helping him, and it warmed her heart all over again. Gage wasn’t nearly as uptight as she’d first thought. He was just…tightly locked, like he tried to hold back to keep from feeling too much?
An alert went off on both their phones, warning them to possible tornadoes and waterspouts in the upcoming hours. She swallowed hard. “It’s getting real now.”
Gage carefully tugged her T-shirt back down once he finished and turned her on the stool, his hands remaining along the edges of the seat, touching her. Warming her.
“Nearly getting taken out by a tree wasn’t real enough for you?”
A pained huff left her before she forced herself to shrug. “It was a limb,” she said, reminding herself of that fact too. “And waterspouts? Like in Sharknado?”
The smile that curled his lips also curled her toes, and she sucked in a breath. Dang, the man was far too good-looking for his own good.
“I promise I’ll protect you from any flying sharks. Tilt your head back a bit more. Let me see that chin.”
He leaned closer, and once again she was treated to the heady scent of whatever soap or cologne he preferred. A spicy, woodsy, fresh-clean scent that muddled her wits and had her wondering what the day-old scruff on his face would feel like against her cheek. Her neck.
She hissed softly as he dabbed gently at the cut, and as she lifted heavy lashes, she thought she saw something in his eyes that made her believe she wasn’t the only one wondering. The cut on her lip was next.
“Okay. You’re all done,” he said a minute later, clearing his throat as he took a step back and put some distance between them.
She flicked her tongue out and regretted it when she tasted the antiseptic. “Well…thanks for fixing me up, doc. I should…I should get out of here and leave you to it.”
“It’s going to be a long night. And while you don’t seem to have a concussion, you got knocked down hard. Why don’t you stay up here so I can keep an eye on you?”
Chapter Nine
Gage sensed Sloane’s hesitation and searched his mind for some way to combat it. He hated the thought of her spending the next day or so downstairs alone, especially when every blast of wind and crack of the storm left her flinching.
