Cordelia never dealt with the scrapes and bruises of her cheerleading squad. When an injury occurred, the school nurse was always around to handle it. Other than the inconvenience of waiting for them to be patched up, she never really thought about the pain. It was her job to make them work through it.
When it was your boyfriend who was injured, priorities were obviously different. In addition to the bruises on his jaw, chest, ribs and shoulder, there were several gross looking skin tears. One on his abdomen was almost as large as the palm of her hand. It was superficial compared to the long ugly gash down his right side. The little rip across his swollen cheekbone looked like someone with a ring on his fist had given him a good wallop.
Gasping at the number of injuries, Cordelia felt the sting of tears in her eyes. She had to take care of this. “Does it hurt?” Angel opened his mouth to deny it and she snapped a warning, “And don’t tell me that it’s fine.”
Lying on his side to give her access to the long gash across his ribs, Angel had to rethink his response. “The pain isn’t bad. They’re just flesh wounds. I’ve had worse.”
Imagining something worse made her head hurt. She felt cold all of a sudden. Angel ran a hand up her arm and she shivered, but focused on his concerned face. Noticing her pallor, “You’re not going to faint on me, are you?”
“Cordelia Chase does not faint.”
Shaking off the woozy feeling, she took a look at the first wound. As Angel said, it was not deep. No bones poking out. No big gouges or pokes. Something sharp had scraped across his shirt cutting jaggedly into the skin by the looks of it.
“Not so bad, really. Patching you up will be a piece of cake,” she lied hoping the woozy feeling would go away. She poked at the edges of the wound to see where the worst of the bleeding was located. It was congealed and gooey, the deepest parts of the wound already filling in with red flesh. “What’s a little blood between friends?”
She peeked at Angel’s face to see if he was buying it. Poker face. No fair. From the way he continued to touch her arm in that soothing way, she had to guess he could see right through her. “The good news is that I don’t think you need stitches.”
Angel told her, “It will probably close on its own. My body can handle a lot.”
“Are you kidding? Vampire mojo or not, I’m not about to let my boyfriend fester and rot.” Cordelia rolled her eyes at him. “Pfft. Now shut up so I can give you some TLC.”
“Is that what this is?” Angel plumped the pillow beneath his head. She had her hands on him. First aid was the last thing on his mind.
The oozing wound looked clean, but there was the issue of that red stuff to deal with. Opening up the First Aid Kit, she removed some 4×4” gauze and held it in place hoping that a little pressure would do the trick. If it did not, Cordelia was not sure what to do next. Maybe she should have paid more attention to technique instead of the doctors during episodes of E.R.
While she was thinking hard about her strategy, Cordelia felt Angel’s hand settle on her hip. Just touching her at first, but then his hand moved and his fingers spread out to follow the curve of her ass. He squeezed lightly and smiled wickedly when she looked up at him again.
“How about you just kiss it better?” Angel’s hand swept up to her shoulder blades where a slight pressure brought her down to his level.
Just above his mouth, muttered, “Perv,” but gave him a quick smooch anyway.
Angel’s hand slipped up to her nape holding her there. Not bothering to respond verbally or deny it, he buried his face against her throat, nuzzled her skin and then kissed his way up toward her mouth.
Indulging him, Cordelia leaned in for another teasing kiss, but lingered longer than intended. His mouth was like an addictive drug. Their lips meshed, a flash of heat burning between them, lips soft, sensual, enticing not controlling. His tongue darted out to tease her lower lip, urging her to open to him.
She almost gave in. Nearly forgot what she was doing. With a moan of regret, she pushed him back. “Behave.” A smile lingered along with the buzz of arousal. “I’m trying to stop the blood flow— though it seems like it’s headed somewhere else.”
“I noticed,” Angel groaned glancing down to his tented boxers.
Cordelia’s hands shook as she taped up the second wound with fresh gauze. The tape mangled when she tried to do it too fast. “This tape is evil.” Finally, she smoothed the last piece across his skin covering the edge of the gauze. Grinning in triumph, she saw that Angel resembled a gauze-covered patchwork quilt.
“Finished!”
With a little yank, Angel pulled her down into his arms. “No we’re not.” The pain of his injuries forgotten, he flipped her back toward the center of the bed.
His body fell against hers, heavy and male. Before he shifted away, she wrapped her arms and legs around him. “Closer,” she pleaded gruffly against his mouth before it consumed hers in a fiery kiss.
