CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Travis
Ipressed the elevator button in the hospital lobby then checked my phone.
Nothing.
I was expecting to hear some news from my new attorney. Alexander had recommended her—said she was a real bulldog, which I could respect. Although I’d just retained the woman, her findings couldn’t come fast enough. But then, patience wasn’t exactly a virtue of mine.
Where was that blasted elevator anyway? I didn’t have all day. I flexed my knee.Maybe I should’ve taken the stairs.I jabbed at the button several more times.
“Do you think that’s going to help?” said a female voice behind me.
My inner wolf jolted to life, and I turned to find Daphne standing a few feet away.
She was gazing at me expectantly, a half smile on her lips. I blew out a long, slow breath, the air between us crackling with electricity. Heaven’s Moon, she was a sight.
With a pair of cheap Darkaway Island sunglasses perched on her head, a beach bag slung over her shoulder, and a colorful sarong tied around her hips—still with the price tag on—she was far too imperfectly perfect for my own good. My baser instincts didn’t see that as a problem whatsoever and gave a low growl.
Down, boy.
I was rarely at a loss for words—I was an actor, for gods’ sake, and made a living saying them. But around Daphne, it seemed I had little more than a picture-book vocabulary. “Hey.”
She jutted a chin at the elevator button. “Does the elevator say to itself, forget those people on four. There’s a guy in the lobby who’s in a real hurry.”
I chuckled. “What brings you here?”
“Just checking on Kiana,” she said. “I heard she had to have surgery.”
I pressed my lips together and gave a solemn nod. “Yeah, I heard that too.” Guilt tugged at my insides yet again for the part I played in her injury.
She glanced at my leg. “Are you here for a checkup? Is Carlisle, um, Dr. Lesauvage, looking at your knee?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m visiting Kiana too.”
Her eyes widened with surprise. “You are?” Then an expression crossed her face that I couldn’t read.
The elevator doors opened. I motioned her inside, but she hesitated.
“That’s okay…I don’t want to intrude.” She clutched the strap of her beach bag with both hands. “I’ve got other errands to run and can just come back later.”
Intrude? With Kiana? As in, she thought I had a thing for her and wanted to spend time with her? Alone? I needed to dispel that misconception before it took hold.
“Come,” I demanded. “We’ll see her together. I was planning to visit the coyote shifter boy too. Remember him?”
I held the door along with my breath, not wanting a chance meeting with Daphne to evaporate into nothing more than passing niceties.
The elevator gave an annoying buzz. In or out, it demanded.
“Okay,” Daphne said after a moment and stepped inside.
A thrill of satisfaction coursed through me, and I pressed the button for Kiana’s floor.
“He’s the boy they brought into the ER when you were there, right?” she asked, repositioning her beach bag and giving me a spectacular view of her breasts.
“Yes.” I flexed my hands as I thought about cupping those silky soft mounds and drawing first one nipple, then the other, into my mouth.
Eyebrows raised, she looked at me inquisitively. Had she said something? Fuck. Had she caught me gawking? I cleared my throat, dragging my mind out of the gutter. “What?”
