No One to Trust - Iris Johansen [19]
Elena sat up quickly on the bed. “What do you want?”
“Nothing to be alarmed about. Don’t you remember? I was going to bring you something to ease the pain. You don’t have to be defensive.”
How else did he expect her to be, she thought hazily. Every minute that he was in the room she was aware of who he was, what he was. No, not what he was. She doubted if anyone knew what lay beneath the surface, but she knew he was dangerous and could be totally ruthless. Though he didn’t look dangerous. He was lean and fit and his sparkling dark eyes held both humor and intelligence. Some women would have called him handsome. It wasn’t until you studied him that you saw the threat.
He drew the curtains shut behind him. “Your cheeks are flushed. You probably have a fever. Unbutton your shirt and let me look at my handiwork.”
She didn’t move.
He came forward. “I need to change your bandage and make sure you haven’t broken any stitches.” He pulled two containers of pills out of his pocket. “Then, if you’re a good girl, I’ll give you a couple penicillin pills to fight the infection.”
She stiffened. “I don’t have to be a good girl. Neither Forbes nor Dominic would let you withhold medicine from me.”
“It was just a turn of phrase.” His gaze narrowed on her face. “What did you think I meant?”
She didn’t answer.
“You thought I was talking about sex.” His lips twisted. “You must be out of your head. I’m not that hard up.”
“Men don’t have to like a woman or even find her attractive to want to screw her. They only see us—they use us. You know that.”
“I don’t know that. And I don’t like to be lumped in with the rest of mankind. It hurts my ego. Don’t generalize.”
“Why not? You’re generalizing about me, aren’t you? Whenever you spoke to Forbes about me, you were thinking, A woman like her.” She added fiercely, “Well, I’m not like anyone but myself, and I value who I am. You can hurt me and you can fuck me and I’ll still be Elena Kyler. Not some whore or worthless piece of—”
“Shh,” Galen said. “Hey, you’re shaking so badly you’ll break my stitches.”
He was right. Her whole body was shaking. Stop it. Don’t show weakness. Not in front of Galen. “I’m not shaking.”
“Sure you are. Perfectly understandable. You’re not well.”
“I don’t need your understanding.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that I’m chock-full of it. It’s one of my finest qualities. Now that we’ve established that I’m not going to rape you, unbutton your shirt. You’re not showing me anything I didn’t see back at Dominic’s house, and considering your background, you can’t be that shy.”
“Considering what kind of woman I am?”
“That really seems to be bothering you.”
“I have value.”
“Who said you didn’t?” He studied her face. “Or who acted as if you didn’t? What happened to you in that prison?”
“Nothing that I didn’t choose to happen. They wanted to break me. They didn’t do it. They couldn’t do it.”
“You’re telling me too much. It’s the fever talking. You’ll regret it when you’re better.” He sat down beside her and unbuttoned her shirt. “Just one look and then I’ll get out.”
She sat ramrod straight, staring over his shoulder at the wall.
“Not too much blood on the bandage considering the amount of movement, and the stitches held. Not that I’d expect anything else.” He buttoned her shirt again. “You said that you’d been wounded before. How many times?”
“Badly?” She tried to think through the haze of heat and pain that was beginning to close around her. “One bullet wound in the leg when I was twelve. My father said it would never have happened if I’d been careful. Another in the left arm when I was sixteen. I’d learned by then, and that one wasn’t my fault. A bayonet graze in my left side when I was twenty. This is the fourth.”
His lips tightened. “Isn’t it convenient that you can mark the rites of passage from childhood to adulthood by the wounds of war? I’m sure not many women can do that.”
“And how did you mark your rites of passage, Galen?”
“You wouldn’t want to know. I’ll get some water for you to take the pills.”
“I can get it myself.”
“But then you wouldn’t