“Yeah.”
“Count to three.” She tightened her hand around the arrow and prepared to remove it.
“One—” With one fast but careful tug, she pulled the arrow straight out. “Ow! You said—”
“I was distracting you,” she replied with a chuckle as she handed Duke the arrow. “I couldn’t have you clenching, now could I? Lift for just a second while I pull down your underwear and jeans.”
He hesitated, and that trace of unease returned to his handsome features. He seemed more bothered by her exposing his ass than the pain of the arrow removal.
To reassure him, she said, “I’m just a doctor, Gage. I see asses all the time. Young asses, old asses, tight asses, and saggy asses. I’ve seen the asses of half the people in Divine at one point or another.”
Duke chuckled softly at her attempt to put Gage at ease.
Gage looked up at her. “Maybe so, but I’m not used to showing my ass off. And you’re not just a…”
“What?”
“Never mind. Do your thing,” he muttered as he allowed her to tug his jeans and underwear down. He flinched, hissed, and cursed softly. “Stop.”
She let go and watched the muscles in his triceps ripple with strength as he lifted his upper body on one arm and carefully pulled the waistband of his underwear over his groin area. Although it was dim in the enclosure, as she observed him she realized what the problem was. His cock was standing up stiff and must’ve gotten caught by the waistband when she’d tugged.
“Sorry.” She bit her lower lip and hummed softly to herself, a habit she’d developed when she was nervous. There is no need to be anxious. You’re a doctor for crying out loud. She propped her rimless eyeglasses a bit higher on her nose with the back of her hand and assisted him as he lowered the jeans and underwear and then lay back down.
Her inner turmoil because he had an erection in her presence was replaced by professional instinct as she doctored the bleeding wound. She directed Duke to bring the light closer when he inched away from her. She caught an almost imperceptible nod from Gage as he looked at Duke, and he came closer with the light again.
Gage’s ass was firm and muscular under her hand as she held his butt cheek steady to clean the puncture wound. “Duke, you’re going to have to come closer. I can’t see what I’m—”
Scars. There were scars all over his otherwise perfectly formed ass.
Gage’s voice was rough like gravel when he said, “Sorry, Doc. Duke was trying to spare you that sight.”
From the look of them, the scars were old, pale, and shiny. They were round, about the size of a pencil eraser, some larger, some smaller. Some were darker and seemed like they went deeper. There were also several thin, faded slash marks against the outside of his left cheek.
Volunteering at the women’s shelter in Dallas while she was in medical school, she’d seen wounds like this, only fresher, on the bottom of a little toddler who had stayed there with his mother.
Finding her voice, she asked, “How old were you?”
Gage’s answer was so soft, it was impossible to determine his emotional state. “Toddler.”
“I’m sorry.” It wasn’t her business to intrude into his personal life, but she wished she could offer some kind of comfort. She pulled her hand away when she realized she was stroking his bare ass. He let out his breath in a soft whoosh. His green eyes were shuttered by his long, thick eyelashes, and she couldn’t tell if he’d reacted to her words or her touch.
“It’s okay, Doc. It’s in the past.”
“You can call me Emma.”
“Thanks, Emma, for taking care me.”
“You’re welcome, Gage. Have you had a tetanus shot recently?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. You’ll need to see your doctor about this when you get home. I’m going to clean it and bandage it. The puncture goes deep so you’ll want to watch carefully for infection. You may have some lingering pain until it heals completely.”
“Sure. Can I come see you to have it checked out?”
She caught movement in her peripheral vision. Duke frowned and shook his head. She pretended she didn’t see it, but she got the gist of what he was trying to communicate. They needn’t have bothered because she never dated patients anyway. Duke probably didn’t want her to get her hopes up that she would see them again.
Focusing on her work, Emma cleaned the wound thoroughly, wondering what it must’ve been like for Gage as a little boy, unable to defend himself against his abuser. It made her sad. She glanced up at Duke as she worked and found him watching her again. She suddenly felt like a bug under a microscope.