Page 20 of Blood and Trouble

“Alright, boss.” Locust winked with encouragement before disappearing the way he’d come. “Have a good night.”

Lycan opened the white medical box and settled on the ground, gently placing my foot in his lap before pulling out the tweezers to pick at the glass in the wound. I gripped the cold porcelain while he worked, grimacing and flexing my toes when he hit a particularly sensitive area.

An awkward silence fell between us as he meticulously assessed my injury. He held me in place with his calloused hands, much gentler than how he’d handled the man in his room. His full, pouty lips tightened into a thin line while he concentrated, and I remembered how those lips had parted while his partner pleasured him. I traced the line of his cheekbones down to his jaw and the muscles in his neck, dipping even farther to the hint of collarbone underneath the unbuttoned top of his shirt.

God, he was beautiful, so well put together and cleanly made. No wonder people threw themselves at him. More than that, he was intelligent and funny and so frustratingly charming. And caring. He didn’t have to be here, kneeling on the tile floor, cleaning my foot. He should have carried on with his night like he’d planned. But he was. I didn’t know what to do with that.

Nothing to be done, in any case. He’s just being nice. I don’t have time for someone like him. I can’t give him what he needs. If I could, I’d be the one tied up and whipped.

The mental image shocked me in a delectably devious way. Did I want him to do that to me? Did I wish I could have been the man in his room?

I…I didn’t know what I wanted.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.

I shifted my gaze back to his eyes, relegating those licentious thoughts to the darkest part of my heart.

“About?”

He snorted and shot me a knowing glare. “The guy I flogged before shoving my cock down his throat?”

I gasped at his outrageous language, but Lycan laughed and shook his head. “You’re in Copenhagen, Trouble. No sense in not calling a spade a spade.”

“I…uh…” I cleared my throat and looked at the ground, wishing my cheeks would stop burning and my heart rate would slow down.

“Do you have questions?”

“No,” I immediately said. “I mean, it’s none of my business. I’m not…I shouldn’t…”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you did,” he said. “I’m sure the Seventh Earl of Loser Fuckwads wouldn’t know a slip knot from his own limp dick.”

I laughed and playfully kicked Lycan’s shoulder with my other foot. “Stop it.”

“Well?” He raised an eyebrow as he sprayed saline solution into the wound.

“No,” I said. “You’re right.”

“I usually am.”

I bit back a slice of pain as he gingerly patted my foot dry. “What’s it like?”

“For the dominant or the submissive?” He used a cotton swab to wipe antiseptic cream on the wound before reaching for a large bandage.

I sputtered over my answer, unsure of what to say. His casualness about sex and kink disoriented me, but what did I expect from someone like him?

“Are you both?” My curiosity overpowered my modesty. Naturally, I’d never seen or done anything like that, but now that I had access to someone who enjoyed it, I ached to know more.

“God, no,” he said with a laugh. “I like to be the one in charge, but honestly, it’s the submissive with all the power.”

“Really?” It didn’t look like that.

“They’re the ones who have to hand over their consent. Without that, it’s just abuse.” He finished his work on my foot by wrapping a thin layer of medical gauze around it to secure the bandage. “I like taking people to their edge, finding what makes them tick and using it to break them apart. It turns me on when someone hands their control to me, when they trust me enough to turn their brain off.”

“Sounds nice,” I said, muttering the first thing that came to mind. When I realized what I said, I quickly added, “The whole…turning my brain off part.”

He patted my foot before lowering it to the ground and standing. “Here. Let’s get you up.”

Lycan held his hands out and waved his fingers, and I placed my palms in his, allowing him to pull me to my feet. I whined when I put weight on it, but I would have been fine to limp to my room. Instead, Lycan bent and scooped me into his arms, one under my legs, the other under my shoulders.