Page 21 of Imperfect Skin

Doc finished working on Mouse as I rested my hand on the nape of Mouse’s neck, hoping the contact would help him relax.

Mouse had been so quiet we both thought he’d fallen asleep, exhausted after all that had happened tonight. So I was a little startled when Mouse spoke.

“What if you don’t know what you want? Or thought you knew, but got it wrong?”

“Are you talking about what happened tonight? Or life in general?” I kept my hand resting on his neck, rubbing my thumb along the pale side of his throat.

Mouse lifted his shoulders to shrug, but let out a soft hiss when the torn skin of his back pulled. “Don’t know.” He sounded so lost and despondent, I didn’t know how to react. Doc chose that moment to clear his throat, his medical bag in hand.

“I’ve done what I can, but now I need you to rest, and do exactly what Cal tells you to do.” Doc levelled a stern look at Mouse.

“Cross my heart,” Mouse mumbled into his arms, not looking up.

“You’re going to have to sleep on your stomach for a few days, and you might want to ice your nose and cheek. Neither look to be broken but the bruises are going to be rather garish, I’m afraid.” Doc moved closer, touching Mouse’s shoulder. “Mouse, you are a dear friend, and I mean this with all the love in my heart, but please, for the love of gods, look after yourself. Seeing you like this—” Doc blinked rapidly for a few moments. “I’m a doctor. My job is to do no harm. But if I got my hands on Ziggy…”

Mouse reached out slowly, fumbling to touch Doc’s arm. He looked up for a moment, catching Doc’s eye. Doc seemed to relax at whatever he saw in Mouse’s gaze.

“Keep a close watch on him tonight, especially when he goes to the lavatory. Those bruises around his kidneys are vicious. Tomorrow when you wake up, Mouse, I want to see you at the surgery.” Doc looked at me and I nodded. I’d make sure he was there.

“I’ll walk you out, then get this one settled for the night.” Mouse had dropped his head against his arms again.

I saw Doc out to his car and dragged him into a protesting hug. He huffed and muttered like an annoyed bantam chicken but accepted my embrace, returning the hug with one of his own.

“Look after him.”

“I will.” And I didn’t just mean for now. Everything I’d tried not to think and feel about Mouse was at the forefront of my brain. I needed to show him a better way. To teach him he was worth more than he thought.

Seven

MOUSE

Iwasn’t sure how long I laid my head on the countertop for, but when I looked up again Doc had left, and Cal was walking back into the room with a worried frown.

“How bad are you feeling?” Cal set a bottle of painkillers down on the counter, before going to the fridge and pulling out a bottle of water and setting that down alongside the pills.

“Like I’ve been keelhauled under old Dan’s fishing boat, twice.” I grabbed the pills, but the lid didn’t want to open—fucking childproof lids were a bone of fucking contention for me at the best of times, but right now I had the urge to throw the uncooperative bottle and possibly burst into tears.

I jumped a little when Cal’s larger hand closed around mine. He gave me an amused look. “You and childproof lids. Here, let me do that.”

I pouted a little when Cal unscrewed the cap with ease. It almost felt like the small bottle was mocking me. Calling me out for being an idiot. It sounded crazy, but rational thought and I had parted company during the evening.

Cal dropped two pills into my hand and passed me the bottle of water, carefully watching me while I took them. I drank half the bottle down before I set it back onto the countertop. Cal pulled the stool out alongside me, its legs scraping on the river stone floor. I blinked slowly, watching him sit. He drummed his long fingers on the countertop, the silver rings he always wore glinting in the light of the overhead lamps.

“Doc says I need to keep an eye on you tonight and you’re going to need room to stretch, so that travesty you call a bed is going to be out for at least a couple of nights.”

I tilted my head trying to follow Callum’s line of thought. Why was my bed a travesty? I mean okay, I might have gone a little overboard collecting the Killstar Kreeptures, but they were too creepy and cute to resist. Besides, cuddling up to them didn’t make the bed seem so big and lonely.

“Tonight, you can kip with me. I promise your virtue will be safe.” Cal gave an adorable lopsided grin that I was helpless but to return.

“I don’t think my virtue and I have been any more than nodding acquaintances for years now.” Part of me, the part still covered in bristles and sharp teeth, wanted to tell Cal to stop babying me. To see me for the worthless piece of shit I was. But that voice was drowned out by a softer, needier part of me that craved human touch—more importantly, Cal’s.

I didn’t want to be alone.

Being alone meant thinking too closely on what happened tonight, and what could’ve happened.

But if I said yes, I’d have to admit to needing something else—a green, furry fellow who I couldn’t sleep without.

“I’ll need my pyjama pants and something from my room first,” I answered, the decision already made in my brain.

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