Free Always in my Heart (The Subzero Series, #2) by Rebecca Elise Page B

around. “So it is.”
    “You shouldn’t be in here. I’m just gonna clean myself up and I’ll be out in a minute.” I tell her.
    She shakes her head. “No, this happened because of me so I want to take care of you. I’ll be your own personal nurse. Whatever you need...I will give you...I’m happy to do it.”
    She grabs a paper towel, wets it and presses it to my lips. She pats gently around my mouth. When she is done she tosses the paper towel into the trash can, grabs a q-tip, dips it into a bottle of antiseptic and slides it along the skin below my mouth.
    “There you go.” She says softly as she puts everything back in the first aid kit.
    Cath glances up at me, her brown eyes look so sad. She reaches a hand up and caresses my cheek with her fingertips. She bites her lower lip and my gaze falters from her eyes to her mouth. Her lips look so soft.
    I wonder what it would be like to kiss her.
    I shake my head at the thought. Why on earth am I thinking about that? It must be a side effect from the two blows to the face I just took. She looks as though she wants to kiss me and I am yelling at myself to run away...fast.
    The bathroom door swings open and Dean walks in. He looks back and forth between Cath and I and I can practically see the anger radiating off of his body.
    What is wrong with him?
    “What’s going on in here?” Dean asks.
    “I was just cleaning up the cut on his mouth. I figured it was the least I could do.” Cath says quietly.
    “Well that’s...nice of you.” Dean says, his eyes never leaving my face.
    Cath looks back and forth between me and Dean. To call this moment uncomfortable and awkward would be a major understatement.
    “Okay well...I should go,” Cath says. “I’m sorry again that you got hurt.”
    Cath grabs my arm as she walks away. I noticed Dean checking her out as she walks by him. He turns back to me shaking his head.
    “She has a nice bum.” He says.
    “Indeed.” I say.
    Dean gives me an odd look that makes me think maybe I should have kept that comment to myself. I turn towards the mirror to look at the damage that wanker did to my face. I touch my fingers up to the bruise that is already marring my eye and wince, sucking in my breath.
    “He really got you good didn’t he?” Dean asks.
    “Maybe but I wasn’t going out there to fight. If I had, it would have been his ass on the ground and not mine. I would have hit him with an elbow to his jugular, a knee to the stomach and I would have finished by grabbing his arm and flinging him over my shoulder.”
    Dean leans back against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest and frowns at me. “Since when do you know how to fight like that?”
    I shrug. “I don’t really. Saw it in a movie once. Doesn’t look like it would be that hard.”
    “What movie was it?  Was it a Chuck Norris? I would love to be him for a day.”
    “No, it was Miss. Congeniality actually.”
    Dean looks as though he doesn’t know what to say to that. Then he bends over, slaps his knees and starts laughing hysterically.
    “What?” I ask him incredulously. “Look one of these days, when you’re a big boy, you’re going to meet some poor, unsuspecting woman that clearly has low standards and she’s going to want to watch chick flicks and guess what...you watch them and you don’t say a word about it.”
    “What exactly does Abby see in you again?”
    I shake my head. “I ask myself that question all the time. I think I’ve narrowed it down to my dashing good looks and my ability to make her laugh...that and the fact that she finds me unbelievably sexy.”
    I stand in front of the mirror, put my hands on my hips and puff out my chest. Just then my cell phone rings. I pull it out of my pocket, check the display and groan.
    “Abby?” Dean asks.
    “Worse,” I say. “It’s Chloe.”
    Dean laughs. “I swear she knows things are happening as they are happening.”
    “You’re probably right,” I mutter as I accept the call.