Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 46081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
“See something you like?”
His amused voice had her blinking. “What?” Oh shit, he stood a few feet away holding a huge box of first-aid supplies. When had he walked back to her? “Uh, sorry, got distracted.”
“Mm-hmm.” His lips twitched. “Okay, here’s the kit. Lemme slap a Band-Aid on it, so the ladies don’t ride my ass all night, and we can go back out there.”
Men.
She rolled her eyes. “Give me the box and go sit on that bunk. Everyone out there loves you, and I’m trying to get these people to like me. If I abandon you to bleed out, that’ll never happen.”
He snorted. “I’m the prospect. The only thing they love is torturing me,” he said, but he followed her instructions and sat on the edge of a bunk.
“Nah. Trust me, they think the world of you. Okay, let’s see what we have here.” She opened the box and sifted through to find some antiseptic cleaner and gauze. “Hopefully, this won’t sting too bad.” She poured a little of the liquid on the gauze and then inspected the cut on his head.
It was about an inch long and not very deep but bleeding more than she’d expected.
“I don’t think you need stitches or anything.”
He grunted. “Even if I do, no way in hell am I getting them. Clean and bandage. That’s it.”
She chuckled as she rolled her eyes. “Me big man. No need stitches.”
“More like me afraid of needles.” He shuddered.
“Really?” She pulled back and stared at him. “You have a whole bunch of tattoos!”
“Not the same thing.”
Laughing, she shook her head. “That makes no sense to me.”
With a wink, he smirked. “Trust me, it does. You been admiring my tats? You like looking at them?”
She sure did. And she was dying to know what the ones she couldn’t see beneath his clothing looked like. Her attraction to him baffled her. She’d had two somewhat long-term boyfriends in the past. One lasted a year and one just shy of a year. She’d had sex with both men and enjoyed it. All of it. Giving, receiving, the times it was playful or more emotional. All of it worked. But, she’d never experienced wild attraction like she felt to Frost. She’d never had the urge to rip their clothes off. Never been fighting a compulsion to run her tongue over every part of their body. Never wanted to strip down and beg to be touched.
The men she’d dated fit a type—short, slender, gentle, kind, and unassuming.
Safe men she could escape if necessary.
Frost was none of those things, and yet she wanted him like never before.
She cleared her throat. “Okay, uh… let’s just get you fixed up.”
He spread his legs wide, and she stepped between them, swallowing hard. The position felt so intimate. Too intimate for the task at hand.
Starting right below the wound, she wiped the cool gauze across his stubbled cheek, removing the blood that had run down his face. God, he smelled so damn good. The closer she got to his mouth, the more she could feel her nipples tightening. Thank God her sweater hid that telltale sign of arousal. Her trembling hand wasn’t as easy to disguise.
He had to notice. Her breathing had sped, her fingers shook, and her heart pounded so hard it nearly fluttered her shirt.
Their gazes met, and she froze, unable to look away, unable to continue her task.
“Um… I should… let me clean the actual cut now. It might hurt a bit.” Who knew why she whispered? They were the only two in the room, and holiday music filtered through the closed door. No one would hear her if she spoke louder, but her voice wouldn’t project.
“Do your worst. Pretty sure I can’t feel pain at this point.”
She shifted her gaze to the wound and then gently patted it clean with the gauze. Frost didn’t even flinch, but he did grab onto the backs of her thighs, trapping her in place. Once the cut was clean, she blew on it to dry the antiseptic.
Then he flinched. He did more than flinch. His fingers flexed against her thighs, and he whispered, “Fuck.”
Her insides tumbled and rolled around and around as she grabbed a small butterfly bandage. Two seconds later, she was smoothing the thin bandage across the cut.
“D-done,” she whispered.
“Thanks.” He didn’t let go, but he did ensnare her in his heated gaze once again.
“You, you can let go now.”
“I don’t want to. You feel too good.” He gripped her legs harder, making her eyes flutter closed.
“Yeah,” she whispered. Good was an understatement. Even over her jeans, his touch felt heavenly. She glanced down and nearly swallowed her tongue as she realized his jeans were doing an incredibly poor job of hiding a sizable bulge.
“Curly’s gonna feed my balls to his dog.”
“What?” She tore her gaze away from the tempting erection to find him staring at her with so much heat it was a miracle she didn’t burn up.