Page 49 of Bound By Fire
I think he saw me checking him out.
I think he probably sees most things.
Note to self:Do not check him out…not ever!
I don’t want to be another woman in a long line of them who looks at him that way. I want to be as unaffected by him as he is by me. Like we never had sex.
“I need to go,” I tell them, using my thumb to point behind me.
I turn on my heel before I can embarrass myself further and walk down the hallway that leads to “the hangar.”
When I get there, I push through the doors.
The hangar is cool and quiet at this hour. The morning shift has settled into their rhythms, and the only sounds are the soft beep of monitors and the low hum of the warming plates on the big recovery pad. Onyx is in the far bay, under a soft-light panel that casts his scales in low gold. The bay is partitioned off with sliding screens for privacy. Not that he can appreciate the gesture.
Dr. Jenkins is already with him, a tablet in one hand and a stylus in the other, making notes.
“Morning, Dr. Keller.”
“Morning. How is he?”
“Better than expected. He’s strong and stubborn. His pressure is holding, and his temperature is closer to baseline. The wing repair that Dr. Patel did is clean. No oozing, no warmth, no swelling that wasn’t expected.” She taps the tablet. “I’ve charted another round of bloods for midday.”
“Good.” I step closer and rest a hand against the broad plate of his forelimb. The scales are warm under my palm. His flank rises and falls with a slow, even rhythm. “You scared the hell out of us, but it looks like you’re going to be fine,” I tell him.
His eye cracks open a sliver. Yellow, slit down the middle, watching me. Then the lid slides closed again. He’s too drugged to do more than that, which is just as well.
“He’s been doing that all morning,” Jenkins says. “I take it as a good sign.”
“It is. Keep me posted. He should manage to shift soon. Hopefully within the next day or two. I will let you know when to ease off the sedative.”
“Perfect.”
“If the midday bloods look even slightly off, I want to know before the results land in anyone else’s inbox.”
“Yes, Doctor,” she says.
I should go back to my office. I have charts to sign. Pharmacy orders that need my signature before noon, and two letters to draft for the staff meeting later. There’s a mountain of other things.
I should go back, but I don’t.
I refuse.
Not while he’s in it, or about to be in it, smelling the way he smells and taking up all the air and space. I hate that about him.
I walk the long way round instead, through the side corridor that leads past the pharmacy storeroom. On impulse, I stop in and do a walkthrough. I haven’t done one personally in weeks. I inspect the cold chain logs, check the temperature readouts on both sedation fridges, and cross-reference two of the controlled drug registers against the last shipment manifest. Everything is in order.
The pharmacy tech is surprised to see me and even more surprised when I ask him to walk me through his end-of-day reconciliation process. He does it, a little nervously, and I make notes on a pad and tell him he’s doing well.
By the time I finish, almost an hour has gone by. A small flare of satisfaction sits under my breastbone, but it quickly fades when I think about the long list of “to-dos” waiting for me at my desk, as well as him.
I really need to get back to my office now, but I don’t want to.
Ridge saw me practically naked.
I’m being prudish. He’s seen me fully naked. It’s just that, unlike me, he was completely unaffected.
I remind myself that shifters don’t think about nudity the way humans do. It’s not a big deal to them.
