Chapter 70

He didn’t let me move first. One second I was boneless and buzzing, the next I was flat on my back again, Conner braced over me like a wall, eyes scanning me the way he scans a battlefield. Soft, and deadly serious.

“Don’t go anywhere,” he murmured, a kiss to my temple before he vanished into the bathroom.

I could have laughed. Where was I gonna go? Water ran. Cupboards opened. He came back with a basin of warm water, a stack of clean towels, fresh gauze, tape, scissors, a little brown bottle I recognized as antiseptic, and that stubborn set to his jaw that meant I wasn’t winning any arguments.

“Hey,” he said, gentler now. “Eyes on me.”

I blinked up at him, the room swimming back into place. He wrung out a cloth and touched it to my collarbone first, testing temperature like I’m something that can break. I’m not used to that. To being tested for tenderness. It does something strange to my ribs.

“We overdid it?” I asked, voice rough.

He huffed a laugh, eyes flicking to my shoulder bandage. “We did just enough. Now I fuss.”