Page 32 of Seduced By the Mermen
Okay, time to go. When I look up at Sterling, my cheeks are burning. “You seem to know a lot about this.” And I want a string. A string to pull those darn words right back into my mouth. I clasp my hands over my lips, no longer feeling my age. Not at all.
“Your hand.” Sterling’s voice drops. And he carefully takes my forearm with one hand and lightly rests my palm in his other. Sparks shoot up my arm, but not from pain. “You should have told us you were injured.” Sterling’s eyes flick in the direction the male took off in.
“Yeah, that happens when you don’t close your fist properly and throw a punch.” I stretch my fingers out and back. They’re stiff and it hurts a little, but ice will help. I’ve done much worse in class before. “I’ll be fine.”
“You’re fragile,” he says with a blatant blankness that kind of makes me want to kick him in the nuts and have him see who’s fragile.
My head ricochets back. “I’m not fragile.” I don’t want him thinking of me as fragile. I don’t want anyone thinking of me as fragile. Not ever again. I’d rather be feared than thought of as breakable. I narrow my eyes at him, mimicking his stance. When I take my hand away I instantly miss the warmth of his touch. But I’m not one of those women who pretends to be weak to getfavors from men. I tried it once and bought myself twenty years of hell.
“You need a doctor.”
“I need ice. Or maybe just a bowl of ice cream.”
The three lines are back between his eyes on his forehead. I want to take my thumb and smooth them out. That is, if I could reach that high.
“You need a doctor.” He pulls out his block. “Grayson. Where are you? Good, we’ll be right there. The human female is hurt.”
“Human female?” But I’m darn sure he doesn’t hear me. He’s too busy sweeping me up into his arms. My head’s buried against his chest. It takes a second to rearrange my arms and get my bearings.
Sterling is all out running through the market. People are jumping out of the way.
“Wait, where’s Eros and Holter?” I twist and turn. My head bounces in the crook of his elbow until I find my new nephews. They’re running alongside us.
“Here, Blair.”
“Tell him I’m fine.”
Eros is laughing. “I know you are.”
“Well, tell him.”
“But we’re making better time.”
“Eros!”
“Sterling. Put my Aunt Blair down.”
“I’m taking her to receive medical aid.”
In my peripheral vision, doors swing open, and the change in humidity tells me we’re in the docking dome.
“Okay, put her down now. We’re outside,” Holter says.
“Indeed.”
My feet land gently on the dock. “Thank you. But I’m fine.”
“We will let the doctor decide that.”
I cross my arms over my chest and mistakenly apply pressure to the side of my knuckle, and I wince.
“You are not fine. Get in the vehicle.”
Chapter 14
Delmar
Istop and turn to Grayson. He’s standing calmly, ever so Grayson-like. I scan the parking dome. Still no Sterling. “All he said was Blair’s injured and he’s bringing her here?”
