Intractable Souls : Book 1 of the Bound for Ireland Series (12 page)

“You ok?”

“Yes, I’m fine.” She says embarrassed. “I
guess it’s all the poking and prodding he did today.”

“It’s bleeding again.” He motions down to
her track pants and she twists to look back at the blood that’s
starting to show through.

“Great.” Seeing the blood makes her skin
crawl and she shivers.

Making her way to the prescription counter,
with a concerned Irishman hovering close by, she hands in her
prescriptions and leans against the counter for support. “Will you
be picking these up later?” The pharmacist asks.

Before she can open her mouth Ethan answers
for her. “No, we’ll wait.”

She rolls her eyes at him and shakes her
head as she makes her way over to a courtesy chair and sits down.
When the pharmacist finally calls her name she wearily makes her
way to the counter and listens as he takes the bottles one by one,
explains the dosage and tosses them into a bag. When Ethan
approaches from behind and listens in on the instructions, Olivia’s
mood goes from annoyed to extremely grumpy. “Excuse me.” She says
to him in an aggravated voice. “Are you at all familiar with the
concept of personal space?”

He looks at her intently but doesn’t move.
“YOU are in MY personal space bubble!” She uses exaggerated hand
gestures to demonstrate the lack of space between them. When Ethan
doesn’t back away, she gives up with a heavy sigh figuring that
it’s a concept that he doesn’t grasp since he did the same thing
yesterday at the coffee shop. When the pharmacist is done, Ethan
puts a few other first-aid supplies onto the counter and hands the
cashier his credit card.

“You don’t need to do that.” She
objects.

He’s having a hard time ignoring her
abhorrent mood and retaliates with sarcasm. “What? Let you pay so
that you’ve got nothing to complain about?”

She sighs, wondering how they went so
quickly from a playful morning to this. Considering car repairs are
likely to set her savings back quite a bit and that she’s just too
exhausted for any more arguments with him, she agrees.

”Fine, go ahead and pay. I was just
surprised at your offer since you seem more like the kind of guy
that would have his ‘personal assistant’ send flowers then take a
general interest yourself.” There is a subtle hint of malice in her
tone that she immediately wishes she could take back. She looks up
at him nervously, knowing that she deserves whatever his reaction
will be.

He glances at her sideways; his mouth is set
in a grim line. “I’ll have my assistant send flowers to you another
time, today you need band-aids.“ His patience is worn thin by
today’s inquisition and the exhausting way she challenges him at
every turn. He’s not used to a woman who would question his
authority. Suddenly he wishes he had taken the advice from his
friend, but he’s drawn to this particular woman and despite her
censure he doubts he can stay away. “And since you are clearly not
feeling well, I will forgive your contentious behavior today.”

He slides his credit card back into his
wallet and stuffing it back into his pocket he establishes eye
contact, warning her with an arctic glare. “Just so we are clear,
when I say I’m paying for something… it’s not up for
discussion.”

Oh shit. He’s angry. She wilts a little with
her sudden desire to avoid any conflict with him. Before getting
back into the car, Olivia dumps her prescriptions out of the
plastic bag and puts it down on the seat underneath her to guard
the upholstery against her blood soaked pants. The onset of the
fever consumes her quickly and she closes her eyes and lays her
head back against the seat and says nothing the rest of the
drive.

When they arrive at the house, she grabs her
prescriptions and starts to get out of the car, deciding an apology
is in order. “Thank you, Ethan. I’m sorry I was in a grumpy mood
today. I really do appreciate you helping me out and not leaving me
stranded.”

He gets out of the car and as she walks
around the hood, she looks at him confused when he continues beside
her towards the house.

“You don’t honestly think I’m going to leave
until I make sure that is properly dressed.” He points down to the
blood stain on her pants.

Wow! He can’t seem to go more than half an
hour without saying something to make her angry. She can’t believe
how overbearing he is. She doesn’t want his help, she certainly
didn’t ask for it. “What makes you think that I’m letting you into
my house?”

“I saw your face the night it happened and
again when you got out of the car. I’m thinking you’re not entirely
comfortable dealing with the blood.” Confident that she’ll give in,
he follows her towards the door.

The thought makes her woozy. “Especially my
own.” She concedes, as she puts her key in the lock and scowls when
it pops open with no difficulty at all this time. “Still you can’t
just assume you’re welcome in my house and that you can bully me
into doing things your way.”

“Is that what I’m doing? Bullying you?” He’s
amused.

She shrugs, trying to gauge his mood. “Well
kind of.”

“Ok, so I’ll come in and make sure that this
is bandaged properly.” He runs his hand gently up her thigh and
then holds her hip. “And then I promise I’ll leave, if that’s what
you want.”

Oh no he doesn’t! He’s not going to distract
her with those little sensual touches and that boyish grin that
says ‘trust me I’m a good guy’. She has seen a side of him today
that proves that she was right about there being something
dangerous in those eyes. She’s not falling for dark and mysterious
ever again.

He begins to grin at her hesitation, already
knowing that she’s going to give in. She finds herself looking at
his lips and the sexy way they curl at the corners. His eyes have
softened and that controlling look that was there just a short
while ago is gone. He squeezes her hip, gently reminding her that
he’s still touching her, patiently waiting while she considers his
offer. As if she would refuse him. Ridiculous!

Olivia would like to send him on his way and
never see him again, but he’s right, there is no way that she can
look after changing the bandages herself. And she’s fairly certain
that she’s not going to ask Noah over again. She pries his hand off
her hip, giving him a defiant look and stands aside to let him in.
“Let’s get this over with.” She’s not falling for his charm today;
she just wants to get into bed and go to sleep. Alone!

Ethan lays out the things he needs on the
table and when he returns from washing his hands he kneels down
beside her. “Ok then, take your pants off.”

“What?’ She’s startled at his request and
her heartbeat kicks up a notch.

“Take your pants off.” He smiles knowing
that he’s caught her off guard. “Unless you’d like me to put the
bandages on the outside of your pants?”

She feels silly now. “Of course not.” She
ponders the events of the past few days and snickers. “This is the
second time this week I’ve taken off my pants for someone in this
living room.” She says casually, as if it was a common
occurrence.

Ethan looks up at her and raises his
eyebrows. “Really now? That’s interesting. And who else have you
taken your pants off for?”

“Noah. He came over and looked after it the
night it happened.”

Not feeling bashful at all in her fevered
state, she hooks her thumbs on the waist band of her track pants
and yanks them down off her hips, lowering them further until she
reaches the spot where dried blood has stuck them to her leg and
against the wound. Searing pain pulls at her skin. “Ow!”

Ethan reacts quickly. “Wait, wait,
wait!”

She lets go and puts her hands over her face
as he runs his finger around the pant leg and gently pries the
blood stiffened fabric off her leg. Easing them down the rest of
the way, he’s careful not to brush against the raw flesh of her
thigh. “There. Are you ok?”

She looks down to see a trail of fresh blood
running down her leg and becomes frantic. “NO! I’m not ok! Get the
blood off me, Ethan. Hurry!” Her hands start to tremble.

“It’s ok, Olivia. Relax. There was just one
little spot where the pants were stuck and it has already stopped
bleeding. Your Doctor did a horrible job of dressing this.” He
tries to comfort her as he wipes the blood off her leg as quickly
and gently as possible.

He decides she needs a little distraction.
“Nice panties.” Lingering a little longer while wiping the tender
bit of skin where her thigh meets her butt cheek, he looks up to
meet her eyes with a teasing smile. “Pink is my favorite color.
Were you thinking about me when you put these on this morning?”

She’s certain there is no blood anywhere
near where he’s currently cleaning and it stirs, deep inside her, a
different kind of tension. Her stomach muscles tighten as his hand
caresses tenderly across her inner thigh. “Odd as it seems,
Ireland, I don’t think about you when I’m putting my panties on.”
She looks away, finding the gaze of his green eyes and his Irish
charm just a little too potent in her weakened state.

“Ah, only when you take them off then.” He
smirks as he generously applies the antibiotic cream on the gauze
square, sticks it to her leg and reaches for the waterproof tape.
She stares straight ahead, strategically NOT saying aloud all the
things that she would like to say to him right now. However, the
change of direction in the conversation is extremely welcome,
considering the angry tension that’s been between them for the past
hour and a half.

He knows that a few well placed pieces of
tape are not going to hold the gauze. He’s going to have to wrap it
completely around the thigh. “Open your legs.” He demands as he
gently nudges them, prying them far enough apart to apply the
adhesive. Her heart starts to race and she shifts her weight,
giving him a little more space to work. As he wraps it around her
leg he slides his free hand against her inner thigh and smoothes
the tape down making sure it sticks. His mouth is only a few inches
away from the throbbing between her legs. Inhaling deeply, she
holds her breath and tries to deny the feelings starting to coil
tighter in her stomach. The ones that are making her want to thrust
his hips forward, against his lips and encourage him to take
action.

“Brilliant! I knew you were the kind of girl
who does what she’s told.” His licentious Irish accent is delivered
in the warmth of his breath across the skin of her inner thigh.
He’s dangerously close to being extremely intimate with her and
discovering that her pink panties are now very wet. Feeling dizzy,
she’s certain that it’s not the fever. It’s Ethan. She’s afraid to
speak for fear that he’ll sense the burning ache that he’s ignited
deep inside her. As if he would miss the way that her body reacts
to him. It’s anything but subtle.

Standing up, he takes a good long look at
her body on the way, showing his appreciation with a dirty little
smirk. “All done. You can put your pants back on. Or leave them off
if you like. I don’t mind.”

“Nice Try. You’re done?” She hides her
disappointment as his hands move away from her body leaving her
feeling almost abandoned.

“Why are you surprised?” Walking into the
washroom, he cleans his hands.

“Well, because it hurt a lot when Noah did
it.” She walks over to the laundry basket on the couch and grabs
another pair of track pants from the top of the pile.

Returning to the room drying his hand on a
small towel, he stands completely still, admiring one last look of
her pink panties. “I can guarantee that I have a much better
bedside manner than your friend Noah.” Watching her from across the
room, stepping into her pants and pulling them up over her hips, he
becomes aroused. He has to fight the urge to bound across the room,
grab her, tug them back down and get between her legs. Brilliant
idea! He’d like to get between those legs for pleasure this time,
both hers and his. He feels need start to grow deep inside him and
tightness in his groin as he thinks about his mouth on her,
exploring every inch of her pussy and imagining just how sweet
she’ll taste on his tongue. He’ll learn to recognize the little
sounds that she makes when he’s doing something she likes, and then
he’ll do those things to her until she screams his name, coming
harder than any other man has ever made her come before. His body
responds by sending all the blood in his body straight to his
dick.

“But then you’ve likely had more practice
playing doctor with all your girls.” Oh crap! She didn’t mean to
say that aloud. She turns away from him pretending to fold laundry
in an effort to avoid eye contact.

Her comment ruins his little fantasy and
makes him shake his head. Staring at her, knowing that this is her
insecurity talking again, he moves across the room towards her. It
amused him at first but now he’s offended at her continual
suggestion that he’s some kind of playboy. He’s not like that
anymore. “Olivia, there are no other girls.” He says with a stern
tone as he moves in behind her. She senses him there and her spine
straightens, unable to turn and face him. Closing any space between
them, he nuzzles his forehead against her temple and whispers in
her ear. “Do you want me to stay and play doctor with you?”

Scorching heat pumps through her veins as
she feels his hot breath in her ear and his firm chest pressed up
against her back. He senses his effect on her as he holds her hips
and squeezes them with his hands, holding her in place while he
gently sways with her, rubbing his growing erection against the
crease at the top of her buttocks. “I could give you a
very….thorough… examination.” He whispers in a low rough voice.

Betrayed by her body, once again, she is
both speechless and breathless. How is it possible to become that
aroused by somebody that you find so aggravating? The touch of his
hands set every nerve ending ablaze as they move across her body.
The ache between her legs is begging not to be ignored any
longer.