Page 89 of Tainted Ties

What was she doing?

Multiple emotions passed across her features as she stood before me. Her throat worked in a hard swallow. “Let me help you,” she choked. Her hands gingerly touched around my injured areas. “Please.”

She gazed up at me, her brows dipped in distress upon her watering eyes.

My energy was depleting fast and I didn’t have it in me to argue with her, so I gave a brisk nod, leaning into her touch.

“Hold on to me,” she instructed, slinging my arm around her neck before I completely lost all balance.

She walked us to the living room, gently laying me on the leather couch. “I’ll be right back.”

As I waited for her, I looked down at the blood seeping through my shirt in multiple areas. In a struggle to get it off, I cursed, barely lifting an inch.

“Stop.”Aurora reappeared at my side again. “Let me help you.”

My gaze drifted to the first aid supplies she held in her hands. “What are you doing?”

She knelt at my side, her face blotchy and red, as if she’d been crying during the few short minutes she’d left me alone. “Where’s your phone?”

“In my pocket.”

Aurora made quick work, pulling it out from my sweatpants. “Here,” she said, handing it to me. “Call your doctor.”

So I did because the lightheadedness I was experiencing felt like I would be dragged into the dark abyss soon.

“He’s on his way.”

She gave me a small nod before grabbing the scissors by her side. “I’m going to cut your shirt down the middle. I need to see…” She paused, inhaling a shaky breath. “I need to see your injuries.”

I grabbed her wrist when her fingers grazed the end of my shirt. “I can’t let you do that,anima mia.”

She lifted her gaze at me, green eyes piercing and fervid. “You’re my husband, Roman. Don’t expect me to sit here and watch you writhe in anguish.”

I grinned from her words. “You admit it then?”

If it weren’t for the inconvenient condition I was in, I’d spread her legs and show her how much I enjoyed hearing those words come out of her mouth.

“What?”

“That I’m your husband.”

Aurora stared at me blankly. “You’re serious right now?”

I shrugged, wincing from the gesture. “You’ve never said it before.”

She sighed in frustration before continuing her previous action of cutting the fabric.

The beat of my heart thumped loudly the closer she got to the neckline, and it had everything to do with how Aurora would react. “All I’m saying is, I wouldn’t mind you calling me your husband every so often. Turns me on.” I tried to lighten the mood and ease the tension radiating off her in waves, but she wasn’t paying attention.

When she pulled apart the shirt, her hand flew to her mouth as her eyes brimmed with tears. “Who did this to you, baby?”

I followed her line of sight, finding open wounds surfacing the front of my body, oozing with blood. “I don’t know.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not.” But I was intent on finding out.

Aurora grabbed a cloth, pouring water on it from a bottle before slowly dabbing it around the wound to the left of my rib. “You’re firing your security team.”

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