Somebody
had kicked her.
He
wanted to lower his head to that dark stain and kiss it, but he
didn’t. On the outside of her right thigh was another mark, and
the skin had split. “God, Anni…I’m so sorry.”
Her eyes
moved to his for the briefest second. “It’s not your fault,
Sage.”
The hell
it wasn’t, Sage thought. He hadn’t ever felt so helpless. So
pissed. She had bruises on her—he should have saved her.
He filed
away each mark on her, swearing silently that he’d have blood
for every last bruise. “How many of them were there?”
“I lost
count. But they look worse than I do.” As she spoke she flexed
her right hand and he lifted it, staring at the bloody, torn
knuckles.
Both fury and pride moved through him and he murmured,
“I bet they do.”
Still
holding her hand, he rubbed some of the soap across it, opening
her palm and checking for any other injuries.
The
elongated tips of her nails, thicker than his own, but not quite
as dense as a true cat’s, were still showing. He saw why once he
started washing each individual one. Blood, and unless he was mistaken, a decent amount of human skin
was embedded under them. If she retracted her nails, some of
that might get inside her system. Anni had a hypersensitive
immune system and could fight off damn near every germ, virus
and bacteria known to man, but she was very fastidious.
Grabbing one of the loofah sponges that Kelly had stocked in all
the bathrooms, he used it to clean under her nails as best as he
could. “That will have to do for now,” he murmured, reaching for
her other hand and cleaning it as well.
“Thank you.”
Once he had cleaned her hands and finished washing her torso, he
turned her around, checking her back as he went. There were
small scrapes in her skin that had him seeing red.
Dermal scrapes. Somehow, they had gotten her down long enough to
get dermal skin samples.
Damn them.
They hated people like Anni and Sage, but that didn’t keep them
from trying to figure out what made them different. An odd
thought flashed through his mind.
That other teleporter—did he have scars left from the
government’s tests?
Sage clenched his jaw.
Anni…she
was what mattered right now. After slicking shampoo through her
short black cap of hair, he nudged her under one of the
showerheads, rinsing the bubbles away, then washing the dark
strands again. Once he was sure he had her hair clean as could
be, he turned her back around.
He’d put it off as long as he could. Staring at the sweet curve
of her ass was hard. He kept remembering how he had pushed
inside the snug heat, how she had screamed and begged just
before she’d climaxed around him.
But it wasn’t as hard as this. He knelt in front of her to wash
her legs, putting his mouth right on level with the core of her.
Maybe he should do it with his eyes closed, he thought briefly
as he skimmed his soapy hands over the outside of her thighs.
Shit. That wouldn’t do any good. The memory of her body wasn’t
one he’d ever forget.
Besides, Sage was anything but a saint. Glancing up, he saw her
cheeks were flushed red, but her eyes were closed. His cock
jerked, aching, demanding. Slowly, he lowered his eyes back to
her mound, his blood pounding through his veins hot and heavy.
Hell, he could practically taste her, feel her clenched around
his cock, hear her screams.
He
ran his hands up her thighs while he stared at her hungrily,
taking one foot and massaging it with his hands. One hand came
up, bracing on his shoulder and Sage slid a glance upward.
Anni still had her eyes closed, her lashes a black fan. She
sighed shakily, and as Sage released her left foot he caressed
one hand along the inside of her calf. Her breasts heaved as her
breath hitched in her lungs and Sage damn near came.
The telltale flush on her cheeks, her erratic breathing…
