Page 32 of Lose Me In The Shadows

“Kara, I need to make sure you’re okay. You’ve clearly been beaten—you’re bruised all over. Let me check you over, okay? Can you do that much for me?”

Theyou owe me that muchdidn’t have to be said out loud. The message hovered between them.

Slowly, Kara lifted Micah’s shirt over her head. Luke was staring at her, no lust, only concern on his face.

“Oh, sweetheart,” he murmured, her new, insulting nickname briefly forgotten.

“I’m fine,” she said.

He shook his head. Swallowed. “Please don’t lie to me.”

Unsure how to respond, she sat there, still and stiff, as he ran his hands gently over her body, checking her ribs, tracing her bruises.

“Does this hurt?” he asked, as he pressed carefully on her ribs and stomach.

It did, but not in the way he meant. Having him touch her, so gently, without any sexual agenda, just with concern and care—it made her heart ache and her stomach clench.

“Doesthathurt?” she asked, jutting her chin at his shoulder, the one she shot.

“Yes,” he said. “But that’s not where the real wound is.”

The ache increased.

“I’m not apologizing,” she told him.

“I didn’t expect you to.” His voice was angry, but his hands were still gentle. Returning to the task at hand, he said, “I don’t think anything’s broken, just bruised.” He took his hands off her abdomen, picking up the soapy washcloth and gently cleaning the abrasions on her feet, her thighs, her arms, ending with her hands, which he fussed over longer than necessary.

Kara grabbed his hand in hers. “Luke…”

“This is gonna sting,” he told her, pulling antiseptic pads out of the first aid kit.

“Bet you like that,” she told him, wincing as he applied it to her wounds.

“I do,” he said.

“Because it turns you on? Or you think I deserve it?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Why not both?”

She kneeled up to face him. His eyes were the green of the forest outside the Idaho cabin, making the ache in her heart worse. Could you be homesick for the home you’d been kidnapped to?

“You’re such an asshole,” she told him.

He shrugged, but he bent down so his mouth was inches from hers. “Maybe. But you think you were just a game to us, which makes you a willful fool. Which is worse, viper?”

Don’t lean in, don’t lean in,she told herself frantically.

She leaned in.

Every part of her, even the angry parts, even the guilty parts, wanted him. Wanted, needed his hand to return to her body, travel lower, trace those bruises down to her pussy. She wanted him, she was his, she—

The door slid open, Conor and Micah framed in the doorway.

“What’s going on in here?” Conor seemed pissed, meaning he was worried. Kara was beginning to figure him out.

Micah didn’t hide his own worry. “We heard yelling for a bit. Then it got quiet. Are you both okay?”

“If there’s turbulence, shouldn’t you both be seated with your seatbelts on?” Kara asked, knowing she sounded bitchy and not caring. She was too hurt, too angry.

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