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He blinked as he realized she was staring at him waiting
for a response. “I’m sorry what?”
I sound like a moron.
“I said you need to take off your shirt. There is a
deep tear and I want to evaluate if you require stitches
or not.”
His eyes burned with a heat that could have burned a
hole in the hull of the ship. “Sure, just a sec.” He
began to remove his shirt and couldn’t stop the hiss of
pain that slipped out from between his teeth.
Her fingers were there, brushing his out of the way as
she searched. “Hang on, let me look.” A couple of
noncommittal murmurs left her mouth and went straight to
his ears and onto his groin. “This needs stitches.”
She turned her head and found their faces were inches
apart.
The busy room seemed to fade away into silence as their
gazes bore into each other. Alexis found herself first
and shook her head free of the cobwebs that man put
there. “Take it off.” She ordered in a brisk tone.
One eyebrow, covered with paint, arched as he said.
“What?”
“Your shirt. Take it off and I will clean the wound and
get someone to stitch you up.”
Oh hell no, I am not about to let you
weasel your way out of looking at or touching my body.
“I want you,” that damn hesitation again, “to do it.”
I want you too.
“Why me? There are plenty of corpsmen who can stitch a
wound just fine. There are other people in here hurt
worse than you.”
“I remember how well you took care of Cade, on the
carrier in the Caribbean.” His voice was such a turn-on
to listen too.
Alexis remembered. They had taken them on board after
recovering them from the mountains of Belize. Her
previous duty had been on that aircraft carrier. Now
she was in a different ocean and still facing the man
that made her tremble. “Very well,” she said
reluctantly. Only reluctant because she didn’t know how
she would respond to touching him, this was why she had
planned on having someone else do it.
“You’re not scared of touching me are you Alexis?” His
deep tone purred.
Her eyes flew open wide at his use of her first name, he
had never done that before. It was as if her name was
made to roll off his tongue. While there had always
been an attraction between them, never had he before
said anything like this. It was such a breach of
protocol. He would be in so much trouble if she were to
report it. “Why would I be scared? Did you pick
something up that I might catch?” She sassed him back
as she helped him remove his shirt. Seconds later she
tried not at all to be impressed by the massive chest
exposed to her gaze.
Copyright © Aliyah
Burke, 2008.
All Rights Reserved. |
