Page 11 of His Asset

My fucked-up genetics had their advantages.I healed fast.He’d be shocked to know just how recent my self-inflicted burn had been.Less than twenty-four hours old and it was already fading.It would probably have been little more than pink, rough skin by now if not for the forceful, abrasive grip on my ankle from one of the thugs in the alleyway.

I shuddered as Reuben probed gently at my skin with his calloused fingertips.My reaction wasn’t from pain or disgust, but from something far too close to yearning.No doubt my animal instinct as much as my human side drove this unwanted attraction, this need to find a mate and continue my lineage.

It was yet another reason I’d had to leave Adam.I refused to act on my growing feelings for him and become intimate with a man who was also my jailer.He might have been waiting until I was twenty-one and an adult, but it’d just been a number in my mind.

“What is that?”Reuben asked, peering closer.“A bit of stick is lodged in your wound.”He looked up, his gaze intense and full of questions.He seemed to know better than to ask any further.“I’ll need to take it out.”

I nodded.“Please.”

Though there couldn’t have been much to grab, he took hold of the end and, in one quick motion, he pulled the stick free.

I flinched, but otherwise I didn’t move, though warm blood flowed then slowed to a drip down my ankle and under my foot.Good.It’d help to get rid of any bacteria.

“My apologies for hurting you,” he said softly.

“Don’t be sorry,” I said with a half-smile.I’d grown tolerant to pain and his quick hands had been far less traumatic than much of what I’d experienced in the past.“You were...gentle.”

He chuckled darkly.“That is one word I’ve never heard associated with my name.”He pushed to his feet, then bent and lifted me in his arms before depositing me on his sofa.“Wait here.There are a few splinters I need to remove before I apply antiseptic and a bandage.”

I sunk back into his seat, reveling in the dented impression that was so much bigger than my own.His scent lingered, something that reminded me of leather and lime with a touch of amber and hazy smoke.I inhaled slowly, deeply, then closed my eyes as I imagined his scent wrapped around me.

“Don’t go to sleep on me yet, Bella.”

I jerked my lashes open, transfixed by the silver-haired man who towered over me.“I’m awake,” I managed to utter.Then I followed his gaze to where my bathrobe was gaping and showing a glimpse of my breasts and I exhaled harshly as I grabbed the lapels and drew the robe back together.

His mouth twisted into a smirk even as he dropped into a crouch and reassessed my burn.“Let’s focus on your ankle,” he said.Then showing me tweezers, he added, “This might hurt.”

I barely felt anything as he picked out the splinters embedded into my flesh.I was more aware of his roughened hands on my tender flesh, making it tingle.When he smeared cool antibacterial gel over the burn it was nothing short of bliss.Then he wound a bandage around my ankle with swift, economical hands.

“You’ve done this before.”

“I’ve had plenty of practice,” he said as he finished with a knot that held the bandage in place.He lifted his hands.“I wrap my hands at least a couple of times a week.”Before I had a chance to ask questions, he pushed to his feet and reached up to pull down a ladder from the small alcove above.“It’s getting late—after midnight—you can sleep in my bed tonight.I’ll sleep on the couch.”

Realization hit me at his words.It was my birthday!The irony was suffocating.Adam’s gentle hands had treated this very wound before I’d escaped, and now another man was showing me the same tender care, on the exact day Adam's long wait would have ended.

Reuben cocked a silver brow.“You look like a rabbit cornered by a wolf.”He shook his head slowly.“I have no intention of joining you, at least, not without an invitation.”

“It’s not that,” I said, rushing to reassure him.“You’re just...too big for the couch,” I said, glancing at his tall frame and imagining his legs dangling over the arm of his couch and his big feet all but touching the floor as he slept.

And though I wasn’t keen on sleeping in a bed barely bigger than a crawl space, I was so weary, even his bed in that tiny space was beginning to look welcome.

His eyes sparkled.“I’m also too big for you.”

I blinked up at him.“What?”

His voice softened.“You’ve never been with a man, have you?”

I shook my head, shocked by his openness.“No.”

“Then it’s better—safer—that I sleep down here away from temptation.”His jaw locked then, his eyes tight.“Those men might have killed you—“

“I’m tougher than I look.”

“I don’t doubt that,” he conceded.“But you’re also an innocent.They would have torn you apart.”My skin prickled with goosebumps at his words, and he reached out a hand and said softly, “Don’t worry, I won’t ever hurt you.Like I said, if anything were to happen between us, it would be with your full consent.”

“Th-that’s good to know,” I said.Then biting my bottom lip, I stuck my foot on the first rung and climbed the ladder up to his bed before I changed my mind.