Page 140 of Coerced Queen

“No,” I say quickly.“It’s nothing.”

He sounds angry.“It’s not nothing.”

“It’ll pass.”

The dark, broody look on his face says he disagrees, but he stays quiet while I pull myself together.When I’ve taken a steadying breath, he helps me to my feet and hands me a facecloth.

“Thanks,” I say, too weary to do anything other than wipe my face.

He studies me with a ticking jaw.“It’s last night.”

I swallow.

Putting a hand on my hip, he asks, “Do you want to talk about it?”

I lean on the vanity and catch my weight on my hands.“There’s nothing to say.”

Murderous intent contorts his expression.“Did he hurt you?Did he touch you?”

“There wasn’t time.He took the key with the video, and Livy and Claire left.Then he blew himself up when he typed in the password for the Cloud backups.”

A wry smile plucks at his lips.“You make that sound so simple.”

“Actually, it was that simple.”

He cups my face and brushes a thumb over my jaw.“Claire is still sleeping.”

“I know.”Concern draws my stomach tight.“When will Nicole have the results of the blood tests?”

“Soon.”His nostrils flare.“I’ll give Nicole a call later.”Fixing his attention on my bicep, he asks, “How’s your arm?”

“It’s okay.”

“Do you need a painkiller?”

I shake my head.

“You need to eat something,” he says in a resigned tone.“And we should really take you to a hospital for X-rays.”

“You know why we can’t do that.”

He lifts my pajama top and brushes his knuckles over my stomach.“You could have internal damage.”

“I took a bit of a knock when I went down, but the worst I suffered was a tarmac burn.”

“God, woman.”He closes the hairbreadth of distance between us, putting our bodies flush together.“When you’ve healed, I’m going to punish you,tesoro.Let there be no doubt about that.You put your life in danger, and I’m going to make sure you never do anything so stupidly brave again.I’m going to bend you over and tan your ass, and this time, I won’t be playing.This time, I’ll use my belt instead of my hand.”He hooks a curl behind my ear and says in a dark, low voice, “Believe me, I’ll make sure you remember the lesson I’m going to teach you for the rest of your life.”

“Are you done?”I ask, tipping up my chin.

“Go back to bed,” he orders in a clipped tone.“I’ll get you something to eat.”

“I’ll make breakfast.I need to stay busy.If you don’t mind, you can keep an eye on Claire.Make sure she doesn’t roll off the bed when she wakes up.Or if you prefer to do something else, I can put her in her crib.”

“You need to rest.I’m not telling you again.”

There’s a knock on the door.

“Dammit,” he says under his breath, stabbing his fingers through his hair.

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