The safehouse bathroom light flickered as Alyssa hissed through her teeth, pressing a bloodied gauze to her ribs. The warehouse explosion had left her with more than just bruises a bullet graze burned across her side like a brand. Three sharp knocks rattled the door.
"Alyssa." Dominic's voice was rough velvet through the wood. "You've been in there twenty minutes."
"I'm fine," she lied, watching crimson bloom through the gauze. The door clicked open anyway.
Dominic filled the doorway, his usually pristine white dress shirt streaked with soot and sweat. His gaze locked onto the bloodstain.
"Christ." He crossed the tiny bathroom in one stride, ripping the first aid kit from the wall. "Sit."
"I don't need"
His hands closed around her waist, lifting her onto the sink counter with terrifying ease. The cold porcelain bit through her jeans as he stepped between her knees, caging her in.
"Show me," he demanded.
Her pulse spiked.
Slowly, she peeled back the gauze. The wound wasn't deep, but angry red tendrils radiated from the torn flesh.
Dominic's jaw hardened. "You could've bled out."
"Would you have cared?" The words slipped out before she could stop them. His eyes snapped to hers. Something dangerous flickered in them.
Then his thumb brushed the unharmed skin just below her ribs so lightly it burned worse than the bullet.
"Try me."
The air between them turned electric.
Alyssa's breath hitched as his fingers traced higher, skirting the edge of her sports bra. Every nerve ending screamed. Then his phone buzzed.
They jerked apart like they'd been burned.
Dominic swore, yanking the device from his pocket. "Marcus. Petrov's men are two blocks out."
Reality crashed back in.
Alyssa slid off the counter, wincing as her wound pulled. "Then we move. Now."
Dominic caught her wrist. "Not until you're patched up."
He reached for the antiseptic, but she snatched it first. "I've got it."
Their fingers tangled. A spark jumped between them. Dominic didn't let go.
For one impossible second, the world narrowed to the heat of his palm against hers, the way his breathing had gone uneven. Then gunfire shattered a window downstairs.