No, no, noooooo, this wasn't about sex. It was about him taking care of her after she had allowed him at her vein. It was just blood - which was unsettling enough, fuck him very much.
You sure about that, the small voice shot back.
Just as he was about to fuck-off himself again, Lassiter's fakakta lecture came back to him: You are alive. She is not. And your hanging on to the past is putting you both in an In Between.
Tohr cleared his throat. "I mean it. I want to be there for you now. It's simple biology - "
Oh, really? that voice demanded.
Fuck off -
"Excuse me?" she said, shooting a stare over her shoulder, her brows to the ceiling.
Great, so he wasn't just talking to himself.
"Look," he said, "come to me after they're done patching me up. I'll be in my room right afterward. "
"You may be more injured than you know. "
"Nah, I've been here before. Lots of times. "
She lifted the hood into place. "You need your strength to recover. "
"You've given me more than enough for the two of us. Come with me - I mean - " Shit. Fuck. "Come to me. "
There was a long pause. "I'll get the healer. "
As No'One left, he let his head fall back - and as it slammed into the gurney's hard pillow, the thud reverberated through his skull. The sting felt good. So he did it again.
Manello strode into the exam room. "You two finished in here?"
The guy's tone was snark-free, something Tohr would have appreciated more if it didn't just dawn on him that he'd come all over the sheet.
"Okay, let's do this, big man. " The surgeon snapped on a pair of latex specials. "I took X-rays while you were out cold, and I'm happy to report you only have two slugs in you. Chest and shoulder. So I'm going to go in, perform a lead-ectomy, and then stitch up the other sets of entrance and exit wounds. Piece of cake. "
"I need to clean up first. "
"That's my job, and trust me, I got enough distilled water to hose all that dried blood off and still wash a car afterward. "
"Yeah. . . um. . . I'm not talking about that kind of mess. "
Cue the screeching tires. As Manello's expression went from relaxed to resolutely professional, it was obvious that the message had been received.
"Sounds good. How about I get you another sheet?"
"Yeah. Thanks. " Fucking hell. He was blushing. Either that or he'd been shot in the face, too, and was only just now noticing.
As a clean sheet awkwardly changed hands, neither one looked at the other - and then Manello got studiously busy over at a stainless-steel rolling table, checking the needles and thread and scissors and sterile packs that had been laid out.
Amazing how sex could turn two fully grown adult males into teenagers.
Tohr tidied himself up and told his hard-on to can it. Unfortunately, his cock seemed to be speaking another language, because the thing stayed hard as a crowbar. Mayb
e it was deaf?
He was kind of done throwing fists at it.
Dumping the dirty cloth on the floor, he covered himself with the fresh one. "I'm, ah, ready. "