Page 14 of Burning Truth

Severn blinked, clearly taken aback by her response. “Excuse me?”

She nodded, her smile growing more genuine. “Yeah, interesting. Those scars tell a story, Severn. And I’ve always been a sucker for a good story.”

He surveyed her for a long moment, the defiance giving way to something more vulnerable. “You don’t have to pretend. I know they’re...hard to look at.”

Addie shook her head, closing the distance between them. “I’m not pretending. They don’t bother me. Now, let me see your back.”

He continued to look at her for a long moment, as if waiting for her cringe or something, but they really didn’t bother her.

She twirled her finger in the air, trying to get him to turn around. When he did, she winced. “Damn, dude. This is bigger than I thought it was.”

Addie cringed at the words, and wondered if he’d make a suggestive joke.

He still had said nothing, and she was wondering if he was trying to come to terms with what she’d said, or what. Or maybe how shehadn’treacted.

Popping the lid open on the first aid kit she’d retrieved from the kitchen, she tried to decide what to do next. “I think a lot of this is going to have to be left open to the air. Road rash is really hard to patch up. This spot higher up, though... Can you sit in the chair?”

Saying nothing, he moved to her office chair and sank down into it, giving her access to the heavier scrape at the top of his left shoulder. “This one could almost take a few stitches. And it looks like it still has some road junk in it.”

Severn cleared his throat and turned his head toward her a little. “Can you clean it out? I stood under the shower spray hoping it would get most of it.”

Addie retrieved a pair of tiny tipped tweezers from the kit, and ripped open a piece of gauze. “This may hurt.”

He grunted, but didn’t make another sound as she cleaned the deepest wound. Addie cringed at some of the digging she had to do, but it had to be done. She pulled several pieces of gravel from his skin. If they’d been left in, they probably would have caused an infection. Severn didn’t move, though.

“I’m going to flush it with Bactine.”

He nodded, and Addie reached for the towel he’d tossed aside. Holding it against his muscled back, she squirted the Bactine across the wound, letting it flush down his back. When she thought it was as clean as it was going to get, she blotted around the wound. It would need to air dry before she could affix a bandage to that one cut.

She was distracted by the feel of his warm skin beneath her fingers. She wanted to run her fingers down through the short dark hair on the back of his head and down the nape of his neck, but that would definitely not be smart. The freshly washed scent of him swirled up, mixed with his own masculine scent, and she wanted to lean down and inhale him.

“Where did you get experience cleaning up road rash,” he asked, voice gruff.

Addie folded her hands in front of herself and laughed shortly. “Well, when you grow up with two tomboy sisters who are worse about getting into stuff than your brother, you tend to learn things. Mom and Dad didn’t always need to know what we got into, if you know what I mean, so we usually took care of our own wounds. And I had my fair share, as well.”

He turned his head toward her. “You don’t seem the type to get road rash.”

Addie snorted. “You think I’m the Barbie doll type? Because I wear dresses and makeup on TV? I’ll have you know I hate dresses, and if I could wear my blue jeans on air, I would.”

That actually made him chuckle, and Addie smiled in response. It was almost one a.m., and she should have been heading to bed by now, but there was a little bubble of intimacy building between them. Unless he was a really good actor, she no longer thought he was the arsonist. She certainly didn’t feel like she was in danger from him. At least not physically. He’d literally risked his life for her tonight.

Touching his skin, though, even with the excuse of cleaning his injury, was tantalizing. Severn had an allure to him that Addie hadn’t experienced before. She’d dated plenty of men, and gone to bed with a few, but she hadn’t been as on-edge with them as she was with Severn. At first it may have been concern about his motives, but now it was an awareness of his masculinity. Awareness of him. And there was an intensity to his expression when he looked at her.

It probably wasn’t a good idea to want him. He didn’t seem the type to be in a long-term relationship.

Or maybe that was just what he projected, the whole man-against-the-world act.

Reaching for another gauze pad, she layered it with anti-bacterial cream, then positioned it over the length of the cut. The pad was big enough that the tape wouldn’t be attached to any of the road rash around the cut. But the area below would be open to the air.

“I’m going to spread some antibacterial on the rest of the road rash, so you may get it on your t-shirt,” she warned.

“Okay,” he said, but he didn’t move as she very carefully spread the cream down the length of the scrape. Man, there was not an inch of spare flesh on this dude...

“Your tattoos are beautiful, by the way.” She brushed a finger over the wing of the stylized eagle angled across his back.

“Thank you,” he said softly.

“What branch of the military were you in? I can’t tell by your tats.”

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