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Cain gave her a doubtful look as if he couldn’t make any promises.
“Well, in that case,” I said, “we need to call in a surgeon to clean up that wound.” Aurora took a step, awkwardly, and I realized she was limping. “And Aurora’s.”
Cain’s gaze snapped to her.
“I’ll survive,” she said, raising both her hands. “No need to go nuclear.”
“Pax, you call in the surgeon,” I said, because my two friends were both idiots who wanted to vent their anger and protectiveness. I’d be the one who swept in…and got to touch her. “Make sure Stellan gets all healed up.”
I swept Aurora off her feet and into my arms. She let out a gasp of surprise, but her arms circled my neck, and I felt a surge of joy. Her weight against my chest felt like all was right with the world again.
“Let’s get you cleaned up,” I told her.
“You’re just leaving us to deal with this?” Pax asked.
“Someone has to look after Aurora and you all seemed more interested in mayhem,” I said easily. “Get the story from Stellan so we can make sure the threat’s dealt with.”
I carried Aurora upstairs. She started shaking in my arms, and from the look on her face, she felt embarrassed.
“Adrenaline letdown,” I said. “Happens to me too. No shame.”
She let her head fall onto my shoulder. “All I feel in this house is shame.”
“Then let me make you feel something else.”
She raised a blood-crusted eyebrow. “Remington…”
But she let me carry her next door into Stellan’s house, moving through the backyards because I didn’t want to risk anyone seeing her like this. I already knew the house was empty; we’d gone there first, trying to track Stellan and Aurora. We hadn’t heard the gunshots or the screams; the house was too well sound-proofed. The thought that Aurora could be in trouble and I might not know was a grating one, and anger closed around me again like a fist. I grounded myself, looking into those violet-blue eyes.
I started the tub running, then set her on the edge of the sink and knelt to examine the stab wound.
“We can’t do this here,” she said. “I don’t want to leave evidence in Stellan’s house…”
“We’re good at clean-up work,” I promised her. “Don’t miss the chance to watch Pax on his hands and knees scrubbing, all right? It’s a rare glimpse of a domestic side that I think you need to see.”
She finally gave in and smiled.
“It’s a shallow cut, although I’m sure it hurts like a bitch,” I said, holding her slender calf in my hands to examine the wound. “We’ll get you stitches to be sure. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
She looked up at me with those luminous eyes as I undressed her, and I was reminded all over again that I would do anything for her. I loved when she looked at me like that.
“You know, it’s pretty rude to save yourself when we were trying to ride in like white knights to save the day,” I said.
“Sorry.” She couldn’t resist a smile that slowly stole over those kissable pink lips. “But you don’t seem like the white knight types.”
“Dark knights, then. But yours,” I promised her, and as I leaned forward, she wrapped her arms around my neck.
No matter how dark and stained we were, I felt like a hero when she wrapped her arms around me.
I lifted her into the warm bath and washed her, caressing each limb until the water was pink and she was clean, then drained the tub and began to refill it. This time, I washed her more slowly, watching her eyes grow heavy-lidded as if she trusted me.
I wanted to know everything that happened while we were apart, but for now, this moment felt like the only thing that mattered.
My hand slid between her thighs, the washcloth tracing over her folds, and her hips lifted subtly toward me. I abandoned the washcloth, working my hand between her thighs until her hips rocked out of the water.
She was so gorgeous, with her long white-blond hair flowing around her shoulders, her skin shiny from the water, her perfect breasts with her nipples tight and sharp. She was perfect. She was more than we deserved.
But as Cain had said, we would take her anyway.
